PM to Address Climate Summit Today

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will address virtually at the US's climate summit tonight urging the formation of a US$ 100 billion annual global climate fund and seeking support for Bangladesh in expanding its renewable energy sector.

''Our honourable Prime Minister will urge the industrial nations to come forward with 100 billion dollars a year for global climate fund as promised in Paris Agreement,'' foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told BSS ahead of the high-level two-day ''Leaders Summit on Climate'', convened by US President Joe Biden.

He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her statement, will also demand to utilize the fund equally, fifty per cent for climate adaptation and fifty per cent for mitigation.

As part of the Paris Agreement pledge, there was a provision of raising $100b per year from 2020 onwards to help the vulnerable countries tackle climate change through mitigation and adaptation but so far, the pledge was failed.

Sheikh Hasina will join the summit at the invitation of Joe Biden. John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, handed over an invitation letter to the Bangladesh premier in Dhaka on April 9 to participate in the summit.

The USA has organized the two-day virtual summit to be inaugurated by US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at 6 pm Bangladesh time today.

The US president has invited 39 heads of state and government from across the world and the European Council president to attend the two-day virtual summit.

After the inauguration, at Session-1 titled “Raising Our Climate Ambition”, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will deliver her statement along with other world leaders highlighting the urgency to keep the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius within reach.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are among the global leaders who will deliver statements at the session-1.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will also join it.

The session will underscore the urgent need for the world’s major economies to strengthen their climate ambition by the time of COP26 and provide an opportunity for leaders to announce new steps to strengthen climate ambition, according to the US state department.

During the summit, Foreign Minister Momen said, that Bangladesh would seek support from the USA and other industrialized countries for the development of renewable energy to fulfil the goal of ensuring the use of 100 per cent of power from renewable sources.

He said, as the chair of Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will also put emphasis on the issue of the nationally determined contribution (NDC), as all countries need to work hard to fulfil their NDCs at the earliest.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh will also highlight its own initiatives on climate change adaption endeavour including the formation of its own climate change trust fund, taking a comprehensive climate programme, building numbers of shelters and embankments and carrying forward huge plantation.

“We spend around 10 billion dollars in a year under adaptation, but we’ll emphasize that only (climate) adaptation is not enough, (climate) mitigation should follow,” he said.

As the Chair of CVS, he said Bangladesh will also request the industrialized nations to finance the vulnerable countries for compensating their losses and damages due to adverse impacts of climate change.

Different issues like investing in climate solutions, adaptation and resilience, climate action at all levels, climate security and nature-based solutions will also be discussed at a different session of the summit.

Noting that the United States is giving importance to Bangladesh’s leadership in the global climate tackling movement, Momen said during his visit to Bangladesh on April 9, John Kerry had taken Dhaka’s suggestion to set the summit agenda.

The US will recognize Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s leadership of vulnerable countries to impact of climate change during the “Leaders’ Summit on Climate”, he added.

As the chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and the Vulnerable Twenty Group of Finance Ministers, Bangladesh plays a vital role in international efforts to combat climate change and adapt and build resilience to climate hazards, a US Embassy statement said after Kerry’s visit.

The summit will be a key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) to be held in November this year in Glasgow.

President Biden took action on his first day in office to return the USA to the Paris Agreement.