World must share responsibilities of climate migrants: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said that the world would have to share the responsibilities of the climate migrants, as she addressed the Scottish Parliament 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 droughts. 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.  

The Prime Minister was presenting the keynote speech titled ‘A Bangladesh Vision for Global Climate Prosperity’ at the Committee Room, the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday 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 an effective and adequate climate finance mechanism is the key to 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 fulfil their commitment of providing 100 billion dollars annually to the developing countries for addressing climate change, with a 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 the dissemination of green technology from developed countries to developing countries at an affordable cost so that the plans like the ‘Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan’ can be realized.  

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.

ARR