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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has reaffirmed her government’s commitment to low carbon and climate resilient development path and urged the large carbon emitting countries to reciprocate by robust voluntary pledges from nations like Bangladesh to face the adverse impact of climate change. |
She reassured that Bangladesh would never exceed the average per capita carbon emissions of the developing world.
The Bangladesh prime minister made the call while making a statement at the intervention of the Retreat Session on the concluding day of the 10th ASEM Summit at Milano Congressi in Italy yesterday, the foreign ministry in Dhaka said.
Hasina also expressed Dhaka’s concern over the huge gap between the commitments of the developed world and their initiatives to fulfil the pledges, saying the global action of sharing the burden is absent.
Referring to the Rio+20, she said the countries had agreed on a share dream to have the “Future we want
for all”.
“Despite being a climate vulnerable least developed country (LDC), Bangladesh was forced to divert the country’s development budget for adaptation and mitigation of climate change,” she said,adding: “Yet, climate change continues to affect the lives and livelihoods of
millions of our people.”
According the PM, besides, increasing intensity and frequency of flooding, storm surge, salinity intrusion and the slow onset changes as a result of climate change are badly affecting our coastal habitat.
She mentioned that if the world community is not ambitious about climate mitigation, adaptation costs will be much higher than it is
estimated today.
Hasina said: “Adaptation” is crucial for sustainable development but critical balance between adaptation and mitigation will have to be maintained.
She said Bangladesh has learned much on adaptation front and is ready to share its modest experience on
climate-resilience.
The Bangladesh Premier put emphasis on the respective “Intended Nationally Determined Contributions”, saying it must be clear,
measurable and verifiable.
Sheikh Hasina said there should be greater “fast-track finance” for adaptation, technology development and transfer; capacity building; transparency of action and support particularly for the climate-vulnerable countries.
“Green Climate Fund would need to take those into account,” she said.
Describing various measures undertaken on the climate change issue, the Prime Minister said her government has been implementing Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan.
Besides, she said, her government has installed 3.2mn “Solar Home Systems”, provided over 1.5mn improved cook stoves across Bangladesh as well as developed stress-tolerant crop varieties.
The prime minister during her speech at the UN Climate Summit in September in New York also urged the developed countries to come forward to match robust commitments and efforts from countries like Bangladesh to face the adverse impact of climate change.
