PM for putting world on track of Paris deal

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for putting the world on the track of Paris Agreement to meet the long term goals of addressing the climate disasters.

She hoped that UN members would utilise the opportunity in COP 24, slated for December this year in Poland, to have a more focused discussion on climate finance to meet pre-2020 ambition and long term goals of Paris Agreement.

The PM was addressing a high level dialogue of the leaders on Climate Change Implementation of the Paris Agreement-towards COP24 and beyond at UN Headquarters here on Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres convened the dialogue ahead of COP 24.

Hasina said Bangladesh needed support for climate change adaptation and wider “capacity building” and also for developing technology and transfer in areas like agriculture, public health, disaster management.

Bangladesh is one of the most climate vulnerable countries as life and livelihood of its 160 million people is under threat of extreme climate events, she added.

The PM highlighted the low-carbon programmes taken by her government saying Bangladesh installed around six million Solar Home Systems and provided two million Improved Cook Stoves to low-income people.

The government has mainstreamed the climate actions and disaster risks reduction in the national development plan and over one percent of the GDP has been invested to address the climate change impacts, she said.

Hasina said the government allocated fund equivalent to $450 million from own resources for adaptation and mitigation purposes and was striving for transformation of agriculture to make the counry more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Despite many limitations, stress-tolerant varieties of crops were developed to cope with the situation, she added.

She said she was born in a riverine delta in Bangladesh and grew up watching the ups and downs of life in the riverside. In spite of the natural disasters, people of Bangladesh have resilience, adaptation and innovative capacity to battle climate change.

Hasina said Bangladesh was a self-reliant country in food production and wanted to build a shared future for all by protecting and nurturing the country's environment along with the economy.

She reiterated her government's commitment that Bangladesh as a responsible member of the international community would never exceed the average per capita emission of the developing world.

“Our commitment to low-carbon, climate-resilient development is firm. We plan to move to 'Carbon budgeting', resilient industrialisation. We wish to 'de-carbonise' our 'manufacturing pathways.”