One Planet Summit: PM to leave for Paris on Monday

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will travel to France on December 11 to attend the One Planet Summit, an event for discussing funding of the fight against climate change.

She is going there at the joint invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.

The PM, who will attend the summit on December 12 in Paris, will return home on December 14, official sources said.

The French government has upped the momentum by announcing concrete plans for its own One Planet Summit, which will have more than 100 countries' representatives and will focus on funding the fight against climate change.

Foreign ministry officials in Dhaka said during her speech at the summit, the PM would reiterate Bangladesh's support for the Paris Agreement and positive attitude towards participating in international cooperation to address climate change.

According to a recent report of German think tank Germanwatch, Bangladesh remains among the countries most affected by climate change in the last two decades.

In the latest Global Climate Risk Index-2018, Bangladesh was sixth among countries most affected during the period, 1997-2016. In 2016 alone, Bangladesh stood 13th among other countries in the world.

Over 50 heads of state and government are expected to take part in the One Planet Summit.