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3 years ago

‘Bangladesh should lead CVF members towards carbon neutral economy ’

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Bangladesh, as the current chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), should lead the member countries towards a carbon neutral economy by 2050, opined a group of national and international Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

Terming that Bangladesh could also create pressure on other countries for their faster response in carbon emission reduction, they also urged the government to ensure participation of sectorial experts, CSOs, private sector and people’s expectation and opinion in the enhanced NDC development.

Center for Participatory Research and Development (CPRD), Climate Action Network South Asia-Bangladesh (CANSA) and CAN South Asia, CAN International made their opinions and calls at a virtual press conference titled ‘Aligning Enhanced NDC to the Paris Goal: Bangladesh’s Leadership as the Chair of Climate Vulnerable Forum’ on Thursday.

Md Shamsuddoha, Chief Executive of CPRD, presented a keynote paper and chaired the discussion.

Dr Fazle Rabbi Sadek Ahmed, Director, Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, President, Forum of Environmental Journalists of Bangladesh, Kawser Rahman, President, Bangladesh Climate Change Journalists Forum, Nikhil Vadro, Senior Journalist, Kaler Kontho and Syed Jahangir Hasan Masum, Executive Director, Coastal Development Partnership (CDP), among others, spoke on the occasion.

While presenting the paper, Shamsuddoha emphasised dynamic leadership of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as the chair of CVF to lead 48 climate vulnerable countries of this forum at the US President Biden’s Climate Suga Summit in April and towards the 26th climate conference at the end of this year.

Mr Shamsuddoha also laid emphasis on full implantation of the Paris Climate Agreement, especially achieving its overarching goal of limiting global average temperature of rising well below 2.0 degree Celsius from the pre-industrial era.

He called up Bangladesh’s political leadership to undertake enhanced targets of carbon emission reduction under the NDC and also pursue other countries to make their NDCs progressive and aligned to the Paris Agreement.

Mr Syed Jahangir Hasan Masum said that if Bangladesh wants to achieve the unconditional target of NDC, it’s mandatory to incorporate people in the NDC process.

There is no such scope to separate the current development from NDC process, he added.

Mr Quamrul Islam Chowdhury said few relevant ministries have possibly been involved in preparing the documentation of NDC but CSOs are yet to be incorporated in the process.

 He added that it’s not acceptable both nationally and globally to keep CSOs outside the process while preparing a national document like NDC.

Mr. Kausar Rahman said Bangladesh has already demonstrated a pioneering role in combating climate change.

The country has to prepare NDC as a participatory document and it must follow the guidelines of UNFCCC, added he.

Mr. Nikhil Bhadra opined that the people working at the ground level, active researchers and the afflicted community bearing the brunt of climate change have not been involved in the NDC process.

Mr Dr. Fazle Rabbi said that high carbon-emitting nations have apathy in enhancing NDC.

Terming it as a big concern, he insists that many of them were seen to submit the previous version of NDC.

Bangladesh is responsible for 0.003 per cent of the global emission and our country's national economic reality is quite lower than the high emitting countries, added Mr Rabbi.

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