Leader of Bangladesh delegation, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin will speak for the country during the minister-level high level segment scheduled to kick off on Tuesday at COP25 – this year’s edition of the UN’s annual conference on climate change.
The 2-day high level segment from December 10-11 will be attended by ministers from 200 countries, said Abdullah Al Mohsin Chowdhury, Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and coordinator of the Bangladesh delegation.
Mentioning that the discussion of the negotiation teams will conclude today, the secretary said that decisions will be taken at the politically high level segment on issues that were agreed upon as well as those that failed to yield a consensus.
“Discussions were held on technical, financial subjects and loss damage for the past few days. Good progress was made during the discussion on finance and loss damage and decisions on these subjects will be taken during the high level segment of the COP25 Conference,” he explained.
“Through political dialogue, decisions will be taken based on consensus on all the subjects discussed till now at the conference at the high level segment,” the secretary added.
SM Munjurul Hannan Khan, Additional Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and a member of the Bangladesh delegation told UNB that all the affected countries including Bangladesh want to formulate the implementation strategy of loss damage according to the decision taken at Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM), something which has not been done yet.
“We, the affected countries are negotiating on the funds we ought to receive and discussion on this regard will take place at the high level segment,” he said.
He explained that a solution has not been reached on the addition of Article 6 according to the rule book of Paris Agreement. “The negotiation team has not reached a consensus yet. We hope it will be discussed at the high level segment and then we can say what decision has been taken.”
Md Mohsin, Additional Secretary of Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and a member of the Bangladesh delegation told UNB that Bangladesh is at the top of the most affected countries and suffers from natural disasters like hurricanes, droughts due to climate change.
Mentioning the recent devastation caused by hurricane ‘Bulbul’, he said such natural disasters were caused by climate change.
“We are talking about receiving assistance from developed countries on facing disasters and building sustainable accommodation at the negotiations,” he stated.
“Primarily, we are seeking assistance so we can develop the capability to co-exist with natural disasters. Furthermore, the affected countries including Bangladesh want to be compensated for loss and damage according to the Paris Agreement after the extent of damage has been determined,” he added.
COP25 is this year’s Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, which is tasked with making sure that the Convention (and now the 2015 Paris Agreement, which strengthens the Convention), are being implemented.UNB
