Establish climate fund
PM urges world leaders
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday appeared critical of world leaders for being unable to take bold actions on issues of climate change and demanded immediate establishment of 'International Climate Change Fund' and make it operational.
“Most of the countries like ours are resource strapped and possess frail institutional capacities to meet such crises… so, the demand should be focused on the urgent establishment of an 'International Climate Change Fund' and make it immediately operational as agreed to by the world community at COP 15 in Copenhagen,” she said.
Hasina raised her strong voice at a meeting of South Asian leaders on climate vulnerability and its impacts on the MDGs at the North Lawn Building in the UN Headquarters here.
She urged the major emitters of green house gases responsible for global warming and creating a turbulent world of natural disasters must quickly agree on a legally binding agreement on emission cuts for stabilising the earthly elements soon.
Referring to the International Climate Change Fund, the prime minister stressed that the contributions of the rich and developed world to the fund would need to be generous.
“In all fairness and justice, the fund should be distributed based on per capita, and the climate vulnerability index,” she said, adding that the fund must also be separate from their commitment of 0.7 percent of the GNI for the developing countries, and 0.2 percent of the GNI for the LDCs, which were reaffirmed in the Brussels Program of Action.
Hasina also urged the developed nations to agree to free transfer of green technology to the developing world. “Unless these measures are taken, it would be difficult to achieve the MDGs by 2015,” she said in categorical terms.
“These constitute the minimum support that the countries involved could give as redemption for their blind, reckless drive for development which now threatens the existence of countries like ours.”
She said climate change is a reality and the people in South Asia know it through their experience. The onslaught of natural disasters has increased in frequency and ferocity in the region.
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