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3 years ago

Bangladesh urged to lead nations to be carbon-neutral by 2050

Illustrative photo — Collected
Illustrative photo — Collected

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Bangladesh as the current chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) should lead the CVF countries to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

A group of national and international civil society organisations (CSOs) made the call on Thursday.

They exhorted Bangladesh to create pressure on other countries for their faster response to carbon emission reduction.

They urged the government to ensure participation of sectorial experts, CSOs, the private sector and people's expectations in the enhanced nationally determined contribution (NDC).

Centre for Participatory Research and Development (CPRD), Climate Action Network South Asia-Bangladesh (CANSA) and CAN South Asia and CAN International made the call during a press conference.

The briefing styled 'Aligning Enhanced NDC to the Paris Goal: Bangladesh's Leadership as the Chair of Climate Vulnerable Forum' was hosted virtually.

CPRD chief executive Md Shamsuddoha chaired the event and presented a keynote paper.

Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation director Dr Fazle Rabbi Sadek Ahmed, Forum of Environmental Journalists of Bangladesh president Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, Bangladesh Climate Change Journalists Forum president Kawser Rahman, Kaler Kontho senior journalist Nikhil Bhadra and Coastal Development Partnership executive director Syed Jahangir Hasan Masum, among others, spoke.

The keynoter emphasised dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as the CVF chair to lead 48 climate vulnerable countries of this forum in the Prescient Biden's Climate Suga Summit in April and towards the 26th climate conference in November.

He also laid emphasis on full implantation of the Paris pact, especially achieving its overarching goal of limiting global average temperature rise well below 2.0 degrees from the pre-industrial era.

Mr Shamsuddoha urged Sheikh Hasina 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 pact.

If Bangladesh wants to achieve the unconditional target of NDC, according to Mr Masum, it is mandatory to incorporate people in the NDC process.

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

Mr Chowdhury said the NDC is a national document where a few relevant ministries have possibly been involved, but CSOs are yet to be incorporated in the process.

It is not acceptable both nationally and globally to keep CSOs outside the process while preparing a national document like NDC, he added.

Mr 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 UNFCCC guideline.

The people working at the ground level, active researchers and the affected community bearing the brunt of climate change have not been involved in the NDC process, Mr Bhadra observed.

Mr Rabbi said high carbon-emitting nations have apathy towards enhancing NDC.

Terming it a big concern, he insisted that many of them were seen submitting the previous version of NDC.

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

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