Bangladesh

The Government and the UNDP in Bangladesh has signed three agreements under which the country would receive 3.33m US dollar to implement three environment–related projects.

UNDP Bangladesh Country Director Stefan Priesner and Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan signed the three separate projects on behalf of their respective sides.

The projects, to be coordinated by UNDP, are preparation of Second National Communication (SNC), phase-out of chloro-fluoro carbon (CFC) consumption in the manufacture of Aerosol Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs) in Bangladesh and Institutional Strengthening for the Phase-out of Ozone Depleting Substance (Phase-V).

The fund for the projects would be provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Multilateral fund under Montreal Protocol.

Of the projects, one relates to the preparation of and submitting the Second National Communication (SNC) to the conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The enabling activities and the envisaged processes under the SNC formulation project are essential parts of a continuum with an overarching goal of reducing overall vulnerability of the country to climate change related adverse impacts and to ensure a climate resilient development in all spheres of life in the country.

The objective of the second project titled ‘Phase-out of chloro-fluoro carbon (CFC) consumption in the Manufacture of Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs) in Bangladesh is to phase-out the consumption of 76.3 ODP Tonnes of CFC 11 and CFC 12 used in manufacture of MDIs in Bangladesh by 2011. To be able to achieve this goal, the Multilateral Fund is providing assistance to the three local manufacturers of MDIs in Bangladesh to convert the production from using CFC to using HFA 134a.

The other project would allow the National Ozone Unit to continue to plan, organise, direct and coordinate all activities required for the implementation of the country’s strategy in all areas related to the phase-out of the Ozone Depleting substance under Montreal Protocol.