Khondaker Abdul Motin, Editor From UN HQ, New York, Sept 26, 2018 :- Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today called for putting the world on the track of Paris Agreement to meet the long term goals of addressing the climate disasters.
She hoped that UN members will utilize the opportunity in COP 24 scheduled for end of this year in Poland to have a more focused discussion on climate finance to meet pre-2020 ambition and long term goals of Paris Agreement.
The prime minister was addressing a high level dialogue of the leaders on Climate Change Implementation of the Paris Agreement-towards COP24 and beyond at UN Headquarters here today.
Secretary General Mr. Antonio Guterres convened the dialogue ahead of COP 24 in Poland in December this year.
“We need support for climate change adaptation and wider ‘capacity building’ and, also for ‘technology’ development and transfer in areas like agriculture, public health, disaster management,” the prime minister said.
Bangladesh is one of the most climate vulnerable countries as life and livelihood of our 160 million people is under threat of extreme climate events, she said.
Sheikh Hasina highlighted the low-carbon programs taken by of her government saying Bangladesh has installed around six million Solar Home Systems, providing two million Improved Cook Stoves among poor.
The government has mainstreamed the climate actions and disaster risks reduction in the national development plan and over one percent of the GDP has been invested to address the climate change impacts, she said.
Sheikh Hasina said the government has allocated fund equivalent to US$ 450 million from own resources for adaptation and mitigation purposes and is striving for transformation of agriculture to make it more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
In spite of many limitations, stress-tolerant varieties crops were developed to cope with the situation, she said.
Sheikh Hasina said she was born in a riverine delta in Bangladesh and grew up watching the ups and downs of life in the riverside. In spite of the natural disasters, people of Bangladesh have resilience, adaptation and innovative capacity in battling climate change, she said.
The prime minister said Bangladesh is a self-reliant country in food production and wants to build a shared future for all by protecting and nurturing the country’s environment along with the economy.
Sheikh Hasina reiterated her government’s commitment that as a responsible member of the international community, Bangladesh will never exceed the average per capita emission of the developing world.
“Our commitment to low-carbon, climate-resilient development is firm. We plan to move to ‘Carbon budgeting’, resilient industrialization. We wish to ‘de-carbonize’ our ‘manufacturing pathways,” she said.