Climate Vulnerable Countries: PM seeks strong global support

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday sought strong support from the international community and G20 to increase adaptation finance for the climate vulnerable countries.

While delivering the keynote speech virtually at a high-level event on the occasion of the F20 Climate Solutions Week that began on September 14, the PM also placed three priority issues, including a greater collaboration from the international community for a unified, stronger and green mechanism to tackle the negative impacts of climate change and uphold sustainability.

The F20 and King Khaled Foundation are jointly organising the event. The title of the event is "Resilience and Recovery: Highlighting Solutions for the G20 on Climate and Sustainability".

The PM said G20 have a greater responsibility to come forward with a stronger commitment to mobilise the global support to address the issue of displacement or climate refugees.

"Peace and security of all will largely depend on how we will be able to manage this forced displacement of innocent people," she said.

The PM said nobody knows it better than Bangladesh as it has 1.1 million forcibly evicted Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and they are causing extensive damage to the environment and nature.

"I will urge G20 countries to mainstream the issue of loss and damage as in many parts of the world, the environmental loss has become permanent and irreparable," she said.

The Prime Minister said G20 must announce accelerated actions to reinvigorate the global economy to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"We are still off track to achieve the SDGs by 2030. The Covid-19 pandemic has further slowed us. Under these circumstances, G20 must announce accelerated actions to reinvigorate the global economy," she said.

In this connection, she placed three issues of priority.

Firstly, for successful implementation of 2030 agenda, addressing climate change is fundamental as both have symbiotic relationships with each other.

Secondly, it needs a greater collaboration from the international community for a unified, stronger and green mechanism to tackle the negative impacts of climate change and uphold sustainability. G20 countries have specific roles to play here.

And thirdly, global financing mechanism must be replenished as promised in a true spirit of responsibility sharing and partnership.

Hasina added that it is disturbing that the global financing mechanism like the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) are severely under-resourced.

She said climate and sustainability are mutually dependent and the G20 economies account for around 90 percent of the gross world product, almost 80 percent of world trade, two-thirds of the world population and approximately half of the world land area.

"So, anything to do with the global climate and sustainability must go through G20 for any satisfactory outcome. G20 has previously shown that jointly they can take many beneficial measures for the benefit of the global community."

Mentioning that climate change is a global problem with cross border adverse impacts, the PM said it is the responsibility of the international community to take drastic measures to stop the activities that cause climate change.

She said Bangladesh is always prone to natural disasters.

The PM mentioned that Bangladesh is now the host of the Global Centre on Adaptation's South Asian regional office, which will promote adaptation measures.

She urged the international community, including G20, to come forward to invest in adaptation efforts.