World has to share responsibilities of climate migrants: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said the world would have to share the responsibilities of the climate migrants, as she addressed the Scottish Parliament in Glasgow at an event titled “Call for Climate Prosperity”.

“The world has to share the responsibilities of the climate migrants – the people displaced because of climate change induced natural events like sea-level rise, river erosion, increasing salinity, floods and draughts. The issue of loss and damage must be addressed properly,” she said.

The prime minister said Bangladesh already has six million climatically displaced populations with an additional burden of 1.1 million Myanmar Rohingyas, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic has created additional challenges to address.  

She was presenting the keynote speech titled “A Bangladesh Vision for Global Climate Prosperity” at the Committee Room, the Scottish Parliament in the evening.

Speaker Alison Johnstone received the Bangladesh prime minister on her arrival at the Scottish Parliament.

Sheikh Rehana and CVF Thematic Ambassador Saima Wazed Hossain were present.

Mentioning that effective and adequate climate finance mechanism is the key for achieving prosperity, she put forth some proposals for successful implementation of the MCPP.

Placing a proposal, Sheikh Hasina, also chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and the Vulnerable20 (V20), said, “The major emitting countries must submit and implement aggressive NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions). Without ambitious mitigation efforts, only adaptation measures are not sufficient to slow, stop and then reverse the adverse impacts of climate change.”

The prime minister in another proposal said that developed countries must fulfill their commitment of providing 100 billion dollars annually to the developing countries for addressing climate change, with special focus on the climate vulnerable countries.

She also said that these amounts should be in addition to the existing ODA (Official Development Assistance), and there needs to be synergy among the different climate funds.

“The distribution of the climate fund should have a 50:50 ratio between adaptation and mitigation,” she added.

In the last proposal, the prime minister suggested dissemination of green technology from developed countries to developing countries at affordable cost so that the plans like the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan can be realised.  

Sheikh Hasina said that the world leaders have gathered in Glasgow to demonstrate resolve and ambition on climate action combining their global collective efforts to respond to the unprecedented challenges and risks of the adverse impacts of climate change from which no country is immune.

She described the recently published IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 6 Assessment report as “yet another wake-up call” for the globe to take decisive actions now to save the planet from temperature rise that cannot be reversed, and a climate disaster.

“We are facing the most serious global challenge of humankind. It is a major threat for climate-vulnerable countries like Bangladesh though we contribute less than 0.47 per cent of global emissions,” she said.

Extreme temperature, erratic rainfall, flood and drought, more intense tropical cyclones, sea-level rise, seasonal variation, river erosion, ocean acidification are causing severe negative impacts on the lives and livelihoods of millions of people of Bangladesh and other climate vulnerable countries, she mentioned.  

Describing sea-level rise induced by global warming as a serious threat for Bangladesh, she said,” With a 1-meter rise of sea-level, tens of millions of people in the coastal area of Bangladesh will be displaced.”

The prime minister said that every year two per cent of Bangladesh’s gross domestic product (GDP) is lost due to adverse impact of climate change, and it may go up to nine per cent in the coming decades.  

“Although we are climate vulnerable, at the same time we are globally recognised for our resilience,” she said, referring to her government’s various measures to face the adverse impact of climate change.

The prime minister said that the government of Bangladesh, with its own financing, has established the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF).

Under this fund Bangladesh has undertaken 800 projects so far with an investment of $480 million, which mainly focuses on adaptation, mitigation, and climate change research, she added.