UNB, Dhaka :
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called upon all to remain united in the war against nature to avert a possible loss for mankind.
“In our war against nature, we’ll lose unless we unite,” she wrote in the renowned magazine Diplomat in its April 2021 issue.
In the write up – ‘Forging Dhaka-Glasgow CVF-COP26 Solidarity’ – she said that humans are consciously destroying the very support systems that are keeping us alive. “What planet shall we leave for the Greta Thunbergs or those at the Bangladesh Coastal Youth Action Hubs? At COP26 we must not fail them,” she said.
“Who will pay for this loss and damage?” She asked. The Prime Minister wrote that like Bangladesh, every CVF nation has an irreversible climate loss and damage story to tell.
“But they contributed little to global emissions. It is time to address this climate injustice.”
She said that international cooperation on climate had been de-prioritised by the US for several years. International climate finance was falling far short of the $100 billion pledged at Paris.
“The G-20, accounting for nearly 80 per cent of global emissions lacked the political will to finance transactional carbon markets to support low-carbon projects in vulnerable countries. Loss and damage remained a far cry.”
And then, she said, COVID-19 hit us like a bolt from the blue, triggering the triple perils of climate, health and nature. A rude awakening finally forced the world to heed to my warning that the climate crisis is indeed an emergency.
And any recovery had to be green, nature-based and resilient. Therefore, my first act as CVF President was to declare climate change a ‘planetary emergency’ and call upon all to be on a ‘war footing’ to arrest global temperature rise at 1.5 degrees.
“By Autumn 2020, I’d seen very few NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions), and COP26 was postponed, so I launched the ‘Midnight Survival Deadline for the Climate’ initiative at the CVF Leaders’ Summit,” Sheikh Hasina said.
She said that US President Joe Biden’s returning to the Paris treaty was also inspiring.
“But those who failed to meet CVF’s midnight-deadline, I urge them, to submit ambitious NDCs ahead of COP26. CVF’s most vulnerable members pledged no less than a net-zero by 2030, including Barbados, Costa Rica and the Maldives.”
