Rich countries' response to climate issue is 'tragic', PM says

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has termed the richer nations' response to the crucial climate issue 'tragic',  saying the urgency of the situation is not being matched by the actions of the countries responsible for emissions.

"They don't act. They talk about it but they don't act," she told French news agency AFP in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session, adding that these countries are “responsible for these damages”, BSS reports. 

The premier added: “The rich countries, the developed countries, this is their responsibility. They should come forward. But we are not getting that much response from them. That is the tragedy."

"I know the rich countries; they want to become more rich and rich. They don't bother others."  

Supplementing her concerns AFP commented that “fertile, densely populated deltas, low-lying” Bangladesh was among the most vulnerable nations in the world to climate change.

Bangladesh, it said, produced a minuscule amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Paris accord called for US$100 billion a year by 2020 from wealthy nations to help developing nations cope with climate change. That year, $83.3 billion was committed, including through private sources, according to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development figures.

The French news agency predicted that one key issue facing the next UN climate summit, to take place in Egypt in November, is whether wealthy nations also need to pay for losses and damages from climate change -- not just to pay for adaptation and mitigation.

"We want that fund to be raised. Unfortunately, we didn't get a good response from the developed countries," Sheikh Hasina said in her interview with AFP, which noted that wealthy nations agreed only to discuss the loss and damage issue through 2024.

The UNGA this year featured repeated calls for climate justice with the leader of tiny Vanuatu urging an international treaty against fossil fuels while Pakistan’s prime minister warned that floods that swamped one-third of his country could happen elsewhere.