Deliver climate deal pledges

Deputy Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad Advocate Fazle Rabbi Miah yesterday called upon the industrially developed countries to fulfil their pledges mentioned in the Paris climate agreement to ensure climate justice.

"The developed countries are mostly responsible for global warming as they emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. They must take responsibility for their emissions and contribute to the climate funds to fulfil their commitments," he said.

The deputy speaker was addressing the inaugural session of the two-day 4th sub-regional workshop titled, "Community Resilience to Climate Change in the Bay of Bengal Conference 2017", at a Gulshan convention centre in the capital.

Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (BUP) and Concern Worldwide organised the workshop with economist Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, coordinator of Bangladesh Climate Change Negotiation Team, in the chair.

The 2015 Paris agreement's central aim is to keep a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius, according to the United Nations.

The deal also reaffirms the obligations of developed countries to support the efforts of developing countries to build clean, climate-resilient futures. In addition to reporting on finance already provided, developed countries commit to submit indicative information on future support every two years, including projected levels of public finance.

Fazle Rabbi said the developing countries like Bangladesh were not responsible for global warming but "Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to the impact of climate change".

The deputy speaker said Bangladesh was already facing the adverse effects of climate change, with northern districts and haor region seeing several floods this year.

Addressing the programme, Qazi Kholiquzzaman underscored the need for taking up integrated national, sub-regional and regional initiatives to minimise the effect of global warming. He said greenhouse gas emissions were having harmful impacts on the environment, which led to frequent natural disasters across the globe.