Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has said Bangladesh firmly believes that strict implementation of the Paris Agreement is the only way forward for a sustainable future.
“We suggest that CVF-COP prosperity partnership may be a way forward,” he said adding that they need political commitment to build back better for a sustainable, prosperous and resilient future through shared responsibility and concerted actions.
The Foreign Minister made the remarks while addressing the “Climate and Development Ministerial” organised by the UK as the Presidency of COP26
Dr Momen said Bangladesh has adopted excellent adaptation and mitigation activities to enhance its climate resilience.
As the first LDC, he said, Bangladesh established a Climate Change Trust Fund where the government has allocated nearly $443 million from her own resources.
This year, as part of the celebration of birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh is planting 11.2 million trees across the nation.
“We’re going to implement the ‘Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan’ to achieve low carbon economic growth for optimised prosperity and partnership,” he said.
Dr Momen mentioned that 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, he said.
However, Dr Momen said, adaptation without significant mitigation is not enough. “Our parliament has adopted a “Planetary Emergency Resolution” to save this planet earth.”
As Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Chair, he said, they 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,” Dr Momen said.
He emphasized 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, Dr Momen added.
He said major economies, multilateral development banks (MDBs) and international financial institutions (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,” Dr Momen said.
