Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has underscored the need for unlocking the carbon markets to ensure climate justice alongside finding solution to the losses and damages caused by natural calamities.\u00a0 She came up with the importance in her article headlined \u201cForging Dhaka- Glasgow CVF-COP26 Solidarity\u201d written in famous Diplomat magazine.\u00a0 The magazine in its April, 2021 issue carried the article where Sheikh Hasina also urged all to take a united stand to effectively fight the war against nature.\u00a0 In the article she wrote, \u201cWe want to see international carbon markets unlocked for transnational climate cooperation and solutions found to our profound loss, damage and climate injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheikh Hasina, also the incumbent president of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), said that like Bangladesh, every CVF nation has an irreversible climate loss and damage story to tell.\u00a0 \u201cBut they contributed little to global emissions. It is time to address this climate injustice,\u201d she continued.\u00a0 Calling upon all to remain united in the war against nature, the prime minister said, \u201cIn our war against nature, we\u2019ll lose unless we unite.\u201d\u00a0 She said that humans are consciously destroying the very support systems that are keeping us alive.\u00a0 \u201cWhat planet shall we leave for the Greta Thunbergs or those at the Bangladesh Coastal Youth Action Hubs? At COP26 we must not fail them,\u201d she said.\u00a0 She went on saying, \u201cWe want to see climate financing unleashed, not only towards a low-carbon economy, but also for the promised $100 billion, and 50% dedicated to climate resilience building.\u201d<\/p>\n
To this end, she added that the CVF represents over one billion of the world\u2019s most vulnerable communities, whose very survival is threatened by the slightest sea level rise, frequent hurricanes or rapid desertification.\u00a0 She mentioned that for Bangladesh, often referred to as the \u2018ground zero\u2019 of natural disasters, climate change is a survival battle braved by millions of our resilient people whose homes, lands and crops are lost to the recurring wrath of nature.\u00a0 The premier in her write up also said every year, 2% of a country\u2019s GDP is lost to extreme climate events, adding that by the turn of the century, it will be 9%.\u00a0 By 2050, more than 17% of its coastlines will go underwater displacing 30 million, she continued.\u00a0 She said six million Bangladeshis have already become climate displaced and yet the country continues to bear the 1.1 million Rohingyas from Myanmar at the cost of environmental havoc in Cox\u2019s Bazar.\u00a0 \u201cWho will pay for this loss and damage?\u201d she questioned<\/p>\n
The prime minister opined that international cooperation on climate had been de-prioritised by the US for several years and international climate finance was falling far short of the $100 billion pledged at Paris.\u00a0 \u201cThe G-20, accounting for nearly 80% of global emissions, lacked the political will to finance transactional carbon markets to support low-carbon projects in vulnerable countries. Loss and damage remained a far cry,\u201d she continued.\u00a0 And then, she said Covid-19 hit us like a bolt from the blue, triggering the triple perils of climate, health and nature.\u00a0 A rude awakening finally forced the world to heed to my warning that the climate crisis is indeed an emergency, she also said.\u00a0 Mentioning that any recovery had to be green, nature-based and resilient, the premier said therefore, my first act as CVF President was to declare climate change a \u201cplanetary emergency\u201d and call upon all to be on a \u2018war footing\u2019 to arrest global temperature rise at 1.5oC.\u00a0 The prime minister said, \u201cBy Autumn 2020, I\u2019d seen very few NDCs [Nationally Determined Contributions], and COP26 was postponed, so I launched the \u201cMidnight Survival Deadline for the Climate\u201d initiative at the CVF Leaders\u2019 Summit.\u201d<\/p>\n
She opined that US President Joe Biden\u2019s returning to the Paris treaty was also inspiring.\u00a0 \u201cBut those who failed to meet CVF\u2019s midnight deadline, I urge them to submit ambitious NDCs ahead of COP26. CVF\u2019s most vulnerable members pledged no less than a net-zero by 2030, including Barbados, Costa Rica and the Maldives,\u201d she wrote.\u00a0 About Bangladesh, she said that Bangladesh, the CVF member with the largest population, also submitted interim NDC updates with additional pledges over and above Paris to reduce methane emissions.\u00a0 For Bangladesh and the CVF, climate adaptation and financing is a prime \u2018survival\u2019 priority as we relentlessly struggle to protect our populations from recurrent extreme climate events, she further said.\u00a0 Sheikh Hasina also wrote, \u201cRealistically, my climate survival philosophy has been a common sense one. \u2018Help thyself\u2019 and wait for no one to rescue. Because climate change is not going to spare us for our inactions.\u201d\u00a0 The premier said that she had long championed locally led adaptation and resilience building at the heart of which are local actors, especially women and youth.\u00a0 Referring to cyclone Amphan, she wrote that in 2020, when the Category-5 Cyclone mercilessly hit Bangladesh and India, Bangladesh demonstrated its capability to evacuate 2.4 million people and half a million livestock to safety in less than five days.<\/p>\n
That same year, two-thirds of Bangladesh went under water in flash floods during the pandemic, she continued.\u00a0 She mentioned that even though this double jeopardy cost $3.5 billion in GDP losses, disaster preparedness of Bangladesh saved millions of lives.\u00a0 She further added that Bangladesh has also learnt to self-finance its climate projects.\u00a0 The government has thus created a $450 million Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund that supports nearly 800 adaptation and resilience projects in its vulnerable coasts, the premier went on saying.\u00a0 \u201cWe are spending on an average 2.5% of our GDP $5 billion each year on climate adaptation and resilience building,\u201d she informed.\u00a0 Briefly spelling out the government measures to take preparation to face natural calamities, she said that Bangladesh built 16.4km of sea dykes, 12,000 cyclone shelters and 200,000 hectares of coastal plantation.\u00a0 The scientists invented nature-based solutions for the country\u2019s coastal communities, such as salinity and stress tolerant crops, rain reservoirs and pond-sand-filters, floating agriculture technology and mobile water treatment plants, she continued.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said, \u201cIn Bangladesh, we are now championing climate prosperity. By pioneering the \u2018Mujib Climate Prosperity Decade 2030,\u2019 named after Bangladesh\u2019s Founding Father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during his birth centenary, I have called CVF nations to initiate \u2018climate prosperity plans.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cBut the CVF can only do so much on its own. There is a limit to adaptation too!\u201d she said.\u00a0 Sheikh Hasina said we have already planted 11.5 million trees under the climate prosperity plan.\u00a0 The prime minister said, \u201cIt is vital to build strong CVF-COP solidarity. We want to see a Dhaka-Glasgow-CVF-COP26 Declaration emerge from November\u2019s meeting. We, the climate-vulnerable nations, want to see G20 submit ambitious NDCs before COP26.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has underscored the need for unlocking the carbon markets to ensure climate justice alongside finding solution to the losses and damages caused by natural calamities.\u00a0 She came up with the importance in her article headlined \u201cForging Dhaka- Glasgow CVF-COP26 Solidarity\u201d written in famous Diplomat magazine.\u00a0 The magazine in its April, 2021 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1230,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions\/1230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}