‘3,400 tonnes of carbon emission for IPU meet’

Approximately 3,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide have been emitted by the delegates of IPU when they traveled to Bangladesh to join its 136th assembly, IPU President Saber Hossain Chowdhury told The Daily Star today.

“So far, we have calculated only the footprint of air travelling. What amount of carbon footprint was emitted during their stay in Dhaka will take some more times to assess,” said the President of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Saber Hossain Chowdhury.

Read More: It's a green gathering

Some 1,400 delegates across the world have joined the assembly that begun on Saturday.

Saber said they have vowed to make the annual assembly a carbon neutral one by giving some people in Bangladesh better cooking stoves.

The IPU, the world's largest parliamentary platform, has decided to neutralise the carbon footprint to turn the gathering into a “green assembly”.

“We are planning to distribute improved cooking stoves to the people who use traditional stoves. We will give a better technology to those who are using improved stoves,” he added.

The objective was basically to keep harmony between consumption and conservation, Saber said.

Founded in 1889, the IPU, a global organisation of parliaments, works to establish democracy, peace and cooperation among people.