Bangladeshi PM for deep and legally binding cuts of greenhouse gas emissions

By: G M Mourtoza on December 17th, 2009

COPENHAGEN–Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday made a call to all nations to take immediate action on climate change  and sustainable development.

She was addressing the main plenary in the afternoon session of the first day of the high-level segment of UN climate talks here in the Danish capital.

She said that the developed countries must commit to deep and legally binding cuts of greenhouse gas emissions to tackle the adverse impact of climate change around the globe.

Sheikh Hasina reiterated the more ambitious goals of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries. The rich countries responsible for historic emissions of carbon pollution from fossil fuel burning “must reduce emissions by 45% by 2020, below 1990 level, allow peaking by 2015, reduce greenhouse gas concentration to 350 ppm by 2100, and limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees,” she said.

Developed countries like the US and EU propose far less ambitious targets and resist stringently binding measures to hold them accountable. For their part, big new polluters like China also resist tough targets and a treaty to bind governments to them.
The Bangladesh premier said the climate summit must agree to provide adequate, sustainable and easily accessible grant funding to meet the full cost of adaptation to catastrophic climate change, particularly of the most vulnerable countries like low-lying coastal states, small island developing countries and the world’s poorest countries.

She said disbursement of money must take into account the extent of vulnerability to climate change, size of populations exposed to risk and adaptation initiatives by the countries concerned.

“Adaptation funding must be at least 1.5% of the GDP of developed countries,” she said, adding that it should be new pledges of money, not a shift of already existing overseas aid money.

She said the developed countries must also allow transfer of eco-friendly technology at affordable costs, particularly to the poorest and most vulnerable countries, and this must not be bound by the world trade regime governing intellectual property rights.

She said climate change is resulting in the increased frequency, ferocity and erratic patterns of natural disasters in Bangladesh. The South Asian nation has been ranked as  the world’s most vulnerable nation to floods, the third most vulnerable to tsunami, and the sixth most vulnerable to cyclones in terms of human exposure.

In addition, salinity intrusions in coastal areas are reducing cultivable land and threatening the world’s largest mangrove forests, the Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Sheikh Hasina told the conference.

Elaborating Bangladesh’s vulnerability to climate change, she said climate refugees are increasing everyday in Bangladesh as visible sea level and temperature rise are destroying fish sanctuaries and livelihood of the country’s fishermen.

Sheikh Hasina said a meter rise in the sea level due to global warming would inundate 18% of the country’s landmass, create 20 million climate refugees with 40 million more losing their livelihoods by 2050.

The Bangladesh premier, who has already earned worldwide acclaim for her role in tackling climate change, said, “We have come to the beautiful city of Copenhagen with hopes of justice, equity, and a fresh start for the common safety of mankind.”

The Prime Minister said time is now for collective wisdom and right decisions for a greener, habitable world. “Let us not forget that posterity will judge us for the choices we make here, and the world we leave behind for our future generations.”