KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) aims to reduce 20 per cent of carbon emissions on its own activities through Carbon Management Plan by the year 2022.

DBKL Executive Director (Planning) Datuk Mohd Najib Mohd said the plan, which would be implemented by this year, would see financial savings of RM10.6 million in energy cost per annum by 2022.

"According to a study by Carbon Trust, Kuala Lumpur is part of the world’s leading cities which produce at least 75 per cent of carbon dioxide emission from activities in the buildings, transport and outdoor lighting.

"This plan contains the action and projects by DBKL to reduce these emission and associated costs, including upgrading buildings, street lighting to LED and upgrading carbon-free cooling systems in its buildings.

"The cost of implementing the projects in this plan has been estimated at RM64 million, with anticipated financial savings of RM10.6 million per annum by 2022,” he told reporters after the launch of Carbon Management Plan 2017-2022 here, today.

He said if all the projects in the plan were fully implemented, the overall payback period on the capital investment has been calculated as six years and would yield savings well beyond the lifetime of the plan.

"We will embed carbon management into our organisational structures and processes by setting up a Task Force that will oversee the management of Carbon Management Plan,” he said.

Mohd Najib said the five-year plan would be the reference in creating Kuala Lumpur Low Carbon Society Blueprint 2030, which sets out how the city would reduce its carbon emission by 70 per cent by 2030.

"For the beginning, we aim to become a carbon management leader in Malaysia to overcome the climate change, by motivating and inspiring our staff to reduce carbon emission before going to the bigger plan for Kuala Lumpur city by 2030,” he said. — Bernama