Climate Change is one of the most serious challenges facing the world today and Norway’s first priority will be to establish a long term goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions based on scientific advice, said Ambassador Ingebjørg Støfring while attending as special guest to the dialogue on “Road to Copenhagen: Role of Bangladesh” held in Dhaka.
A recent dialogue on “Road to Copenhagen: Role of Bangladesh” was held at Sheraton Hotel Dhaka organized by Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) under its Capacity Building Initiative (CBI) program jointly funded by the British High Commission, the Royal Embassies of Sweden, Norway and Denmark in Dhaka. BCAS Executive Director Dr. Atiq Rahman chaired the dialogue session that brought together more than 80 participants including parliamentarians from all parties, members of the Bangladesh negotiation team, climate experts and other development workers including NGO leaders and journalists from the electronic and print media.
British High Commissioner Mr. Stephen Evans, Danish Ambassador Mr. Einar H. Jensen, Norwegian Ambassador Ms. Ingebjørg Støfring, Mr. Saber Hossain Chowdhury MP and Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change and Environment were present at the dialogue as special guests and delivered speeches.
The Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests Dr. Mihir Kanti Majumder presented the climate change position of the Bangladesh government and Dr.Atiq made a presentation on "Climate Change and Bangladesh: Impacts and Relevance ". Another power point presentation on Basics of Negotiations was delivered by Md. Golam Rabbani of BCAS.
"We must negotiate over the vulnerability due to climate change and people exposed to the risk" said by the State Minister for Environment and Forests Dr. Hasan Mahmud in his concluding speech as Chief Guest. Dr. Mahmud mentioned: that the population of many island countries e.g., Maldives was not even as many as the population of one coastal district in Bangladesh. Therefore, he emphasized further that Bangladesh, being top of the list of most vulnerable countries (MVCs), would demand a deal in Copenhagen that would ensure compensation measuring its vulnerability as well as number of people exposed to the impact of climate change. In addition, it is also important to deal with the climate change impact locally rather than waiting for what developed countries would do or what the Copenhagen Summit would bring for Bangladesh and other vulnerable countries.
Dr. Atiq Rahman pointed out that the sea level will rise by at least one meter by 2050 -- with possibilities of rising up to 1.5 meters causing unthinkable damage to the world, unless the Annex-1 countries commit and take global mitigation and adaptation efforts. In that situation, as Dr Atiq mentioned, the sea will even come within 60 to 100 km of the capital city Dhaka and most of the southern areas of Bangladesh will go under water. Other countries like the Maldives would go totally underwater.
The effects of climate change are already causing a huge loss to the government economically; speakers pointed out at the dialogue citing the examples of cyclones Sidr (in November 2007) and Aila (in May 2009). Experts at the dialogue praised the government for climate allocation through its budget but pointed out again that Bangladesh is not responsible for climate change. Therefore, countries causing the problem must take major responsibility for their actions at home and abroad and must make funds available for adaptation and research to combat the situation including efficient transfer of green technologies to the developing countries like Bangladesh. The speakers also urged that the industrially developed countries should introduce a special quota for Bangladesh to help people migrate from the affected areas to those countries.