Ministers from eight Saarc countries yesterday declared they will work together to build regional capacity for mitigating the impacts of climate change, and consult each other before international negotiations.

In the Dhaka declaration that came after a ministerial level meeting yesterday, they also observed that climate change is substantively the result of greenhouse gas emissions by the developed countries for over two centuries.

It now poses a direct threat to sustainable development and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in the developing nations that have little or no responsibility for the current process of climate change.

Earlier, during daylong discussions, the ministers reached a consensus on an action plan for the South Asian nations.

Acknowledging that every member state has the right to food, energy and water security, they agreed to meet before taking national positions in any international negotiations on environment.

Yesterday's Saarc ministerial meeting on climate change followed a two-day experts' meeting.

Held at a city hotel, it was opened by Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed and presided over by Raja Debashish Roy, special assistant to CA for forest and environment ministry.

Later in the evening, Raja Debashish announced the declaration at a press briefing.

The Saarc action plan approved by the ministers was based on seven thematic areas to make sure those were consistent with the national action plans.

It includes capacity building for Clean Development Mechanism projects, exchange of information on disaster preparedness and extreme events, exchange of meteorological data, capacity building and exchange of information on climate change impacts including sea level rise, glacial melting and threats to biodiversity, mutual consultation in international negotiation process and media briefing as and when required.

Replying to a query at the press conference, Raja Debashish said the member states have agreed in principle to form a regional climate change fund to combat the climate change impacts.

Opening the session, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed said Saarc nations must press the developed world for a unilateral and unconditional commitment to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases to save the vulnerable regions of the world from the perils of climate change.

At the ministerial meet, Secretary of environment ministry AHM Rezaul Kabir presented a report on the discussions of Saarc experts' group.

Sri Lankan minister Patali Champika Ranawaka MP, Indian minister Namo Narain Meena, deputy minister of the Maldives Abdullahi Majeed, deputy ministers of Bhutan Dasho Nado Richhen, Afghanistan representative Abdul Karim Nawabi, Bangladesh's M Asaduzzaman and Pakistan's Jawed Ali Khan spoke at the meeting.

They were unanimous in identifying climate change as a serious threat to the region in the form of frequent floods, cyclones, droughts, rise in sea level, glacier melting and loss of agriculture productivity.