Forty international civil society organisations, think tanks, and climate movement platforms on Monday urged prime minister Sheikh Hasina to withdraw the approval of all coal-fired and other fossil fuel-based power plant projects.

In a petition sent to the prime minister, the organisations requested Hasina to take steps to generate all power in the country from renewable energy by 2050, according a press release.

Friends of the Earth, 350.org, Bank Information Centre, Oxfam Bangladesh among the signatories of the petition, said the release issued by NGO Forum on ADB—a Philippines-based international network of civil society organisations.

The 29 coal-fired power plants, if built, would emit 5.3 billion tons of carbon-di-oxide in their lifetime of 40 years, and would make the climate impact worse for Bangladesh, according to the petition.

The petitioners raised high concern on the duty exemption of coal power plants. Bangladesh compensated at least $ 4.45 billion in past 6 years and $ 1 billion in fiscal year 2018–19 as capacity charge for stranded assets of the independent power producers as much of generated power by them remained unused, they said.

They said that SS Power Limited, a coal-fired plant owned by the S Alam Group, had alone got a duty exemption of Tk 3100.71 crore.

In the Paris Agreement of 2016, Bangladesh pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to increase renewable energy use at 10 per cent by 2021, but so far met only 4 per cent of that target as of November 2019, said the petitioners.

The petitioners also lauded Bangladesh for being the first country to adopt a resolution in parliament declaring climate change a ‘planetary emergency.’ But, they said, the decision to increase coal-based power plants is contradictory to Hasina’s remark on the climate action and also against the nations’ climate commitments.

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