DHAKA: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reaffirming her commitment to low-carbon, climate-resilient development path, has urged the large carbon-emitting countries to reciprocate by robust voluntary commitments for countries like Bangladesh.
 
She also re-assured that Bangladesh will never exceed the average per capita carbon emission of the developing world.
 
The premier made the call while addressing the intervention of the Retreat Session of the 10th ASEM Summit on the last day on Friday at Milan Congress in Italy.
 
In her statement, Sheikh Hasina also expressed Bangladesh’s concern over the huge gap between the commitments of the developed world and their initiatives to fulfill those saying the global action of sharing the burden is absent.
 
Referring to the Rio+20, she said, countries had agreed on a shared dream to have the “Future we want for all”.
 
Hasina said, despite being a climate-vulnerable LDC, Bangladesh was forced to divert country’s development budget for adaptation and mitigation of climate change.

Yet, climate change continues to affect the lives and livelihoods of millions of our people, she added.
 
Besides, increasing intensity and frequency of flooding, storm surge, salinity intrusion and the slow-onset changes as a result of climate change are badly affecting our coastal habitat, she added.
 
In this regard, she mentioned that if the world community is not ambitious about climate “mitigation”, adaptation costs will be much higher than it is estimated today.
 
Sheikh Hasina further said “Adaptation” is crucial for sustainable development but critical balance between adaptation and mitigation will have to be maintained.
 
She also said, Bangladesh has learned much on adaptation front and is ready to share its modest experience on climate-resilience.
 
Bangladesh Premier put emphasis on the respective “Intended Nationally Determined Contributions” saying it must be clear, measurable and verifiable.
 
Sheikh Hasina also said, there should be greater “fast-track finance” for adaptation, technology development and transfer, capacity building, transparency of action and support particularly for the climate-vulnerable countries.
 
Green Climate Fund would need to take those into account, she added.
 
Describing various measures undertaken on the Climate Change issue, the Prime Minister said, her government has been implementing Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan.
 
Besides, her government has installed 3.2 million Solar Home Systems, provided over 1.5 million Improved Cook Stoves across Bangladesh as well as developed stress-tolerant crop varieties.
 
It may be mentioned that the Prime Minister during her speech at the UN Climate Summit in September, 2014 in New York also urged the developed countries to come forward to match robust commitments and efforts for countries like Bangladesh to facing the adverse impact of Climate Change.

** PM urges strong partnership of Asia & Europe

BDST: 2023 HRS, OCT 17, 2014