In her speech at the Leaders’ Summit of the Climate Conference (COP-26), Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made four demands, including asking the developed countries to fulfil the promises they made. She also highlighted various initiatives taken by Bangladesh in its efforts to tackle climate change. The Prime Minister said Bangladesh has cancelled the construction of 10 coal-fired power plants worth 12 billion dollars to protect the environment.
The Prime Minister addressed the Leaders’ Summit during the main episode of the Climate Conference (COP-27) in Glasgow, Scotland, UK on Monday (1 November) afternoon local time. The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, President of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), made four demands to world leaders on tackling climate change.
In her first demand, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said major carbon emitters must submit ambitious nationally determined contributions (NDC) and implement them.
In her second demand, Sheikh Hasina said that the developed countries have to fulfil their promise of providing 100 billion dollars, divided in half, annually for adaptation and mitigation (50:50).
The third demand of the Prime Minister is that the developed countries should provide safe and environment-friendly technology to the most affected countries at a low cost.
In the fourth demand, the Prime Minister said that the issue of climate change needs to address the damage and destruction caused by climate change, and responsibility needs to be taken of the displaced people due to rising sea level, increasing salinity, river erosion, floods, and droughts.
Noting that Bangladesh is one of the most affected countries despite its negligible contribution to climate change, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh’s responsibility for global total carbon emissions is less than 0.47%. But Bangladesh is one of the countries most affected by climate change in the world.
The three-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina mentioned the establishment of ‘Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund’ in 2009 to address the challenges of climate change.
The Prime Minister said, ‘In the last seven years, we have doubled our climate-related expenditure. We are currently preparing a national adaptation plan.’ She said that recently the government of Bangladesh has presented an ambitious and updated national plan.
Sheikh Hasina hopes that by 2041, 40% of Bangladesh’s energy will come from renewable sources. She said Bangladesh has one of the largest local solar power programs in the world. The Prime Minister said Bangladesh is implementing the ‘Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan’ to move the country from climate-vulnerable to climate-tolerant and from there onto the path of climate prosperity.
