Dhaka must lead climate protocol signing effort
Bangladesh has to play a proactive role to make the global leaders understand the significance of signing a legally binding protocol on climate change in the Paris summit in December 2015, speakers told a discussion on the recently concluded Lima conference yesterday.
The inability to sign the protocol would make the Paris summit a total failure like the one in Copenhagen in 2009, said climate expert Dr Saleemul Haque. He emphasised building a global solidarity of peoples for the cause, which would work as a pressure on the global leaders to act.
“Though we hoped, no major decision was taken in the Lima conference because all major components were left unresolved, to be settled in the Paris talks. It means we still have opportunities to achieve them,” said the director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD).
ICCCAD, ActionAid, and the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) jointly organised the programme at The Daily Star Centre in the capital. The 20th session of the conference of parties (COP) took place on December 1-14 in Lima, Peru.
Dr Atiq Rahman, executive director of BCAS, said since the signing of Kyoto Protocol in 1997, no progress was made in the last 17 years though scientists conducted many researches and warned the world leaders against the climate change fallout.
“Bangladesh showed its leadership capability in different sectors in the past. We have to develop our capacity and take the leadership in this sector, too,” he said.
BCAS fellow Golam Rabbani said Bangladesh needed to institute a mechanism to win access to the international climate fund.
Farah Kabir, the country representative of ActionAid Bangladesh, said the impacts of climate change would not spare anyone or nation, rich or poor.
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