Shawdesh DEsk:

Environment, forest and climate change affairs Minister Shahab Uddin has urged the developed countries to at least double their collective provision of adaptation finance by 2025, as agreed upon during COP26 in Glasgow, and to provide support for the implementation of National Adaptation Plan.

The environment minister made the call while speaking at the two-day high-level segment of COP27 conference in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh on Tuesday.

‘The countries that are most responsible for greenhouse gas emission should share responsibility for protecting the people vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. We want to see the developed countries keep their commitments, providing 100 billion US dollars each year – major portion of which should come from public funds dedicated to climate change adaptation,’ he said.

‘At COP27, it’s essential that we make progress in addressing the gap that exists between nationally determined contributions and emission reductions required by science to keep 1.5-degree Celsius target alive, including finalising the mitigation work programme as necessary to reduce global carbon emission by 45 per cent by 2030,’ he said.

‘Bangladesh is an innocent victim of climate change as it contributes less than 0.48 per cent of global emissions,’ he added.

Bangladesh has always been highly susceptible to climate change and climate-induced disasters due to its unique geographical setting, said the minister. ‘Studies show that about 12-17 per cent of the country, an area larger than many small island countries, will be submerged due to sea level rise by this century.’

On October 31, 2022, Bangladesh submitted its National Adaptation Plan to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), he said, adding: ‘In our NAP, we have identified 113 actions for 8 vulnerable sectors. USD 230 billion will be required to implement the actions over the next 27 years (2023-2050). We need dedicated, additional financial resources for effective implementation of adaptation actions identified in the National Adaptation Plan.’

The country has established a national climate finance mechanism, ‘Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund’ from its own resources and allocated USD 490 million that supports more than 850 projects for making the country climate resilient, he said.

‘Apart from this, the climate-relevant allocation in our Annual Development Plan has increased by two and a half times over the last eight years – from USD 1.4 billion to more than USD 3.1 billion – for climate adaptation and resilience-building through construction of embankments, cyclone shelters, development of stress tolerant crop varieties and coastal afforestation and reforestation,’ the environment minister said.