PM for UN body to monitor impacts

Jean-Louis Borloo, French minister for Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Land Planning, holds talk with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office yesterday.Photo: PIDUnb, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called for forming an international committee through United Nations to oversee the impacts of climate change on different countries and expedite the efforts for rehabilitating the victims of global warming.

She made the proposal while talking to visiting French Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Planning Jean-Louis Borloo at her office yesterday.

The minister during the meeting conveyed French President Nicolas Sarkozy's “special greetings and respects” to Sheikh Hasina, her press secretary Abul Kalam Azad said after the meeting.

In reply, the Bangladesh prime minister also conveyed her respects to the French president.

Sheikh Hasina, who is also vocal in various global forums for a coordinated global combat against the hazards of climate change, emphasised united global effort to tackle the challenges from the climate change caused by excessive greenhouse gas emissions.

Hasina told the French minister though her government planned a climate-change fund worth US$ 100 million, it would not be sufficient to face its impacts.

She sought financial assistance from the international community for Bangladesh to face the wrath of natural calamities.

The French minister invited the prime minister to visit France on the eve of attending the Copenhagen climate conference.

The two sides discussed various other bilateral, regional and international issues of concern.

French Ambassador in Dhaka Charley Causeret, Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office Mollah Waheeduzzaman and Ambassador Ziauddin were present.