‘Developed countries should deliver on $100b promise’

Experts at a workshop on Monday said development partners should strongly and decisively support the climate change related action and ambitions of the least developed countries (LDCs) across the globe.

In this context, they said that the developed countries should deliver on the $100 billion finance per annum they had promised to provide to the countries hit by climate change.

The observations came during a workshop on “UNCTAD LDC Report 2022: Implications for Bangladesh” organised by Support to Sustainable Graduation Project (SSGP) of Economic Relations Division (ERD) in the capital.

State Minister for Planning Prof. Shamsul Alam attended the workshop as the chief guest while UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Ms Gwyn Lewis as the guest of honour. ERD Secretary Sharifa Khan chaired the programme.

It is mentionable that United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) annually publishes a report on issues pertaining to LDCs. This annual report provides a comprehensive and authoritative source of socio-economic analysis and data on LDCs.

This year’s UNCTAD LDC report, published on 03 November 2022, had been themed on “The low-carbon transition and its daunting implications for structural transformation.”

The report said that although least developed countries had barely contributed to climate change, they are on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

It also observed that although LDCs had set ambitious emission-reduction targets for themselves, international support for adaptation and sustainable development of LDCs had so far fallen remarkably short of what is needed, both in terms of climate finance and access to environmentally-sound

technologies.

The workshop was organised to discuss and analyse the significance of the theme and findings of this year’s report in the context of Bangladesh.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Shamsul Alam said that Bangladesh continues to seek a 50-50 distribution between adaptation and mitigation from international climate

financing.

He also urged the partners from international public and private sectors to join in Bangladesh’s climate change related efforts in line with the Paris Agreement.

ERD Secretary Sharifa Khan in her keynote paper cited inadequate and complex financing mechanism as one of the major challenges towards Bangladesh’s green transition.

“Bangladesh spends over US$1 billion while receives only US$417 million from the Green Climate Fund,”

she added.

Noting that transition to climate resilient technology is costly, she pointed out that the development partners are more interested in financing mitigation measures while paying less attention to adaptation.

UN Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis in her speech said, “While emission reduction cannot be the primary goal of LDCs, including Bangladesh, the country can and should reap every co-benefit of developing its economy along a low-carbon pathway.”

Speakers at the workshop called for ensuring access to climate financing as well as cheaper access to relevant technologies.

Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Iqbal Abdullah Harun, Executive Director of Policy Research Institute Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur, Chief of the LDC Section of UNCTAD Dr. Rolf Traeger and Director of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Asif Ashraf also spoke at the event.

Farid Aziz, Additional Secretary of ERD and Project Director of SSGP, delivered the welcome address.

Stakeholders from public and private sectors as well as research organisations were present at the workshop.