UK lends hand to fight climate fallout

Bangladesh has signed a communiqué with the UK at the International Conference on Climate Change in Bangladesh, triggering a possibility of being alienated from its allies on the same issue, sources say.
Many believe the communiqué the Bangladesh delegation has signed is a compromise with the position of G-77, a platform of the developing and least developed countries.
However, the communiqué provides Bangladesh with a 75 million pound sterling British grant to frame climate change strategy and action plan over the next five years.
Finance Adviser AB Mirza Md Azizul Islam and Secretary of State of the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK government Douglas Alexander signed the communiqué.
The foreign ministry opposed signing of the communiqué, sources from London say. "Communiqués are never signed in international practice. But the Economic Relations Division (ERD) had different opinions," says a source over phone.
At the conference, Douglas Alexander said the grant will support Bangladesh's efforts to protect its people further from impacts such as rising sea levels, waterlogging and increased salinity. "Climate change is today's crisis, not tomorrow's risk and is already affecting millions of people in Bangladesh," he said.
According to a DFID press release, Mirza Aziz said, "Least Developed Countries (LDCs) including Bangladesh need immediate international support to build their resilience to global warning and climate change."
Aziz added the effects of climate change will severely constrain Bangladesh's ability to attain the high rates of economic growth needed to sustain development gains.
"This is why today, we are presenting our Climate Change Action Plan and calling upon the international community to assist Bangladesh by providing predicable, long-term financing for this plan and also by pushing for a meaningful agreement at Copenhagen."
A conference in Copenhagen will be held in December 2009 seeking agreements between all countries over emission standards. There is a tension between the developed and developing countries over the emission levels, as high emission of fossil fuels in the developed countries has triggered the global warming.
Global warming might increase the sea level by 1 meter by the end of the century causing Bangladesh to lose one-fifth of its land, many predict.
The London conference was participated by around 120 people, half of them from Dhaka and another 20 Bangladeshi expatriates. The rest are from DFID, the Danish Minister for International Development, and the World Bank Managing Director.
The DFID funded 39 members of the official delegation comprising representatives from the government and non-government organisations and the media.
A participant of the conference told The Daily Star over phone that Bangladesh should not have hastily jumped to sign the communiqué with the UK without consulting its international allies on climate change.
Bangladesh belongs to G-77 that includes China and India in the climate negotiations. This communiqué can create a divide within G-77 and China and also to line-up more developing countries, especially LDCs, to take a position against the stance of the larger developing countries such as China, India and Brazil.
These three countries have been demanding that the developed countries must make unconditional and meaningful cuts in their emission levels. Developed countries, on the other hand, want China, India and Brazil to make deeper cuts in their emission levels.
But without consulting them, Bangladesh signed the communiqué what endorses the G-8 position that the developed countries would need to cut their emission by 25-40 percent from the 1990 level by 2020, says a participants over telephone.
"The G-77 wants the cuts to be deeper and faster and Bangladesh should not have endorsed the position without consulting fellow G-77 countries," quips a participant of the conference.
The communiqué creates the provision of a Multi Donor Trust Fund for climate change with 75 million pound grant.
"This is also a compromise from the G-77 position that all new and additional funds should be under a multilateral process such as the United Nations Forum on Climate Change (UNFCC).
The government position is also criticised as the ERD has agreed to employ the World Bank as the trustee of the Fund against the view of the Ministry of Environment and Forest.
Most of the countries in G-77 are strongly opposing the World Bank involvement in managing climate change funds.
The communiqué puts undue emphasis on adaptation issues, without putting equal emphasis on mitigation. This implies a developing country like Bangladesh will take full responsibility for adaptation measures, pending a firm commitment from the developed countries on mitigation issues, one of the participants observes.
This is a compromise on the G-77 position that adaptation is voluntary for the developing countries but mitigation must be mandatory for the developed countries," says the source.