UNB :
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Saturday said Bangladesh will play a very significant role at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) that is set to begin in Glasgow on Sunday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), will lead the Bangladesh delegation at the COP26 Summit.
“Under Prime Minister’s leadership, Bangladesh will play a very important role at the COP26 Summit,” Dr Momen told reporters at a media briefing held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen were also present.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave for the United Kingdom on Sunday to attend the COP26 and other bilateral meetings.
The COP26 summit, hosted by the UK, will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
She will address the key segment of the COP26 on November 1. The same day, the Prime Minister will attend a joint meeting of the CVF and Commonwealth as the chief guest.
Hasina will also attend a meeting titled “Action and Solidarity-the critical decade” at the invitation of her British counterpart Boris Johnson on November 1. On November 2, the Prime Minister will attend a meeting titled “Women and Climate.”
The Foreign Minister said the Prime Minister will hold bilateral meetings with her British counterpart Boris Johnson, Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and other leaders during her visit there.
After Glasgow, she will visit London from November 3 to 8 before heading towards Paris, France.
Meanwhile, “Dhaka-Glasgow Declaration” is likely to be adopted during the COP26 to address the climate change related challenges. The Prime Minister is likely to deliver a speech on “A Call for Climate Prosperity.”
In London, she will deliver a speech for the British MPs at the Palace of Westminster and will join a virtual investment summit hosted by Bangladesh.
Earlier, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson emphasised the need for urgent climate action, pinpointing that there are three areas where Bangladesh has a particular role to play at COP26.
Mentioning that the world has a lot to learn from Bangladesh, he said this is the last opportunity to avoid dangerous climate change and secure a brighter future for everyone on the planet.
The High Commissioner said there are three areas where Bangladesh had a particular role to play at the COP26.
First, he said, as a leader on climate adaptation and a country highly vulnerable to climate change, Bangladesh could make the moral case for increased investment in adaptation as well as offering its practical experience as one of the founding members of the Adaptation Action Coalition, which puts a particular emphasis on the locally-led adaptation on the ground.
Secondly, Dickson said, Bangladesh could show leadership on mitigation by publishing an ambitious nationally determined contribution (NDC).
The High Commissioner commended the radical transformation of Bangladesh’s forward energy plans, including the removal of significant elements of coal-fired power from the plans that the government has to generate the electricity that Bangladesh needs to power its economic growth.
The UK hoped Bangladesh would be ambitious in this space.
Third, the High Commissioner said, Bangladesh had a particular role to play at the COP26 through the Prime Minister as the Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, which brings together 48 climate vulnerable countries.
Bangladesh’s international leadership will be important in ensuring sufficient pressure is applied to the big emitters by the climate-vulnerable to reach the ambitious global deal that will be needed, he said.
