Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday emphasised that ‘loss and damage’ provision should be mainstreamed as extreme weather events have already displaced many more people than violent conflicts.
“Likewise, relocation and protection of displaced persons due to global warming and river erosion need due focus in global discourses to ensure their protection and rehabilitation,” he said while speaking at the climate and development ministerial organised by the UK as the Presidency of COP26.
Bangladesh has adopted “excellent adaptation and mitigation activities” to enhance its climate resilience.
As the first LDC, Bangladesh established a Climate Change Trust Fund where the government has allocated nearly $443 million from her own resources, he said.
“This year, as part of the celebration of birth centenary of our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, we are planting 11.2 million trees across the nation and are going to implement the ‘Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan’ to achieve low carbon economic growth for optimised prosperity and partnership.
“Green growth, resilient infrastructure and renewable energy are key pillars of this prosperity plan, which is a paradigm shift from vulnerability to resilience and now from resilience to prosperity.
“Bangladesh also has established a Regional Global Adaptation Centre in Dhaka with a view to disseminate local based innovative adaptation strategies.
“However, it may be mentioned that adaptation without significant mitigation is not enough. Our parliament has adopted a “Planetary Emergency Resolution” to save this planet earth,” the foreign minister said.
“As CVF Chair, we have created a CVF/V20 Joint Multi-Donor Fund to scale up climate actions of the member countries.We invite the developed economies to participate in this multi-donor fund.
“Global financing mechanism to address the challenges of climate change is severely under resourced. We are nowhere near the Paris Agreement’s annual target of the 100 billion dollars. The complicated architecture of international climate finance is also a barrier,” he said.
“Major economies, MDBs, IFIs should come forward for climate financing, and to ensure transparency and flexibility of finance. Such funding must be balanced towards a 50:50 division between adaptation and mitigation. The Green Climate Fund can play an important role here,” said the foreign minister.
“We firmly believe that strict implementation of the Paris Agreement is the only way forward for a sustainable future. In this regard, we suggest that CVF-COP prosperity partnership may be a way forward. We need political commitment to build back better for a sustainable, prosperous and resilient future through shared responsibility and concerted actions.”
