Dhaka North City Corporation will plant two lakh trees in the next two years in an effort to reduce the city's temperature.

This was announced yesterday by DNCC mayor Md Atiqul Islam at the launching ceremony of an international collaboration between DNCC and Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre at Dhaka University.

This initiative is part of a wider plan to help cities around the world tackle extreme urban heat, with DNCC becoming the seventh city to appoint a Chief Heat Officer (CHO)as part of the City Champions for Heat Action initiative.

Under this joint initiative, Bushra Afreen has been appointed DNCC's first-ever CHO. Her role is to lead efforts to make the city safer in the face of extreme heat and to unify the city's planning and responses to extreme heat, particularly for the most vulnerable neighborhoods and people.

This appointment is the first of its kind in Asia.

Previously, Afreen served as the Executive of Social Welfare at her family's export oriented garments business, where she took various steps to support working mothers, established a task force to reduce heat on production floors and developed sustainable fashion options for clients, said a press release.

"As a native of Dhaka, I know firsthand the urgent need for action to address extreme heat in our city where temperature is rising at an alarming rate and informal communities, migrants and women and girls are disproportionately affected," said Afreen.

The mayor stated that community members will be involved in the tree plantation project and will be led by ward councillors.

Kathy Baughman McLeod, senior vice president and director of Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre, stressed the importance of appointing CHO to protect communities in cities.

 Mauricio Rodas, senior advisor, heat and city diplomacy at Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre, Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University Prof Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman, Sohani Huq Elias, director of the Climate Change Department at Shakti Foundation, also spoke at the event.