The Vice-President, Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal, said rolling out natural gas use to households will help wean the society from fossil fuel such as firewood and charcoal dependence which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

 

In a speech read on his behalf by the Minister of State in the Vice-President's Office responsible for Environment, Dr Bilnith Mahenge, during the opening of a two-day national conference on climate change, Dr Bilal said the government is taking action to combat climate change which is already affecting the country through temperature increases and rising of sea level.

 

"The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) show that emissions grew on average by 2.2 per cent per year with fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes contributing 80 per cent of the recent greenhouse gas emission growth," the vice-president said.

 

He told over 100 delegates comprising international organisations, diplomats, climate change experts and activists that Tanzania has huge reserves of natural gas which is not sufficiently being exploited by the domestic market.

 

"To date, we are suing 90 million cubic feet of natural gas to produce 451 megawatts of electricity, this has to be increased. The discovered reserve is 50.1 trillion cubic feet. With financial and technological support, this can be utilised to produce 25,000 MW with a potential to reduce about 700 billion tons of carbon dioxide," Dr Bilal noted.

 

The country sequesters an estimate 76 million metric tons of CO2 while emitting less than 50 million tons, hence affording a serving which is utilised by industrialised countries, most of which led by the United States have failed to contribute to Green Climate Fund.

 

"If the developed world honoured their contribution to the Green Climate Fund, countries like Tanzania would have been able to receive funding for mitigating projects such as supplying households with natural gas as energy source," he noted saying such projects are very expensive.

 

Only 50 million US dollars has so far been committed by the developed world against pledges totalling 2.8 billion US dollars, according to GCF secretariat.

 

Green Climate Fund was adopted as a financial mechanism of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the end of 2011.

 

It aims to make an ambitious contribution to attaining the mitigation and adaptation goals of the international community Dar es Salaam, which consumes as estimated 5,000 metric tons of fossil fuels including firewood and charcoal, per annum can significantly reduce its CO2 emissions if natural gas and hydroelectric power potential can fully be exploited.

 

World Bank Country Director Philippe Dongier and United Kingdom's Department for International Development Head of Office Vel Gnanendran paid tribute to the government for making major progress in terms of policy and strategy to mitigate impacts of climate change.

 

Mr Dongier pointed out that the Bretton-woods institution will continue supporting the country to tap full potential of hydroelectric power generation as it is a climate friendly source of energy

Source : ALL AFRICA