Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave Dhaka for Glasgow on Sunday to join the 2021 United Nations climate change conference, COP26, a crucial summit for Bangladesh, one of the countries that are most vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
Hasina, who has added responsibilities as the chairperson of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a global partnership of 48 countries that are disproportionately affected by the consequences of global warming, will address the summit on the first day before joining talks at different levels, reports bdnews24.com.
She will push for setting up Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, to keep the rate of planetary warming down to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a $100 billion climate fund pledged by the developed nations, and cooperation to increase the use of renewable energy, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said at a news conference in Dhaka on Saturday.
“The industrialised nations will have to play the key role because the G20 countries account for 80 per cent of carbon emission. [We will urge them] to work strongly to cut emissions,” Momen said.
In an official plan last week, they said they are confident they can reach their goal of handing over the fund by 2023, three years later than originally targeted, in the Paris COP summit in 2015.
“We want them to act rather than talk,” said Momen. Bangladesh has demanded 50 per cent of the fund to be spent on adaptation and the rest on cutting emissions.
Bangladesh accounts for 0.47 per cent of global greenhouse emissions, and it needs more renewable energy to cut the rate further, the foreign minister said. The government has taken an aggressive plan called Mujib Prosperity Plan to reach that goal, he said.
Bangladesh expects the COP26 summit to adopt a ‘Dhaka-Glasgow Declaration’ calling for the prevention of climate change, adaptation to its effects and funds.
After speaking at the summit, Hasina will attend a joint meeting of CVF and Commonwealth as the chief guest on Nov 1.
She will also join a meeting on action and solidarity in the ‘critical decade’ at the invitation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson the same day.
The prime minister will join a meeting on women and climate on Nov 2. She will also address Scottish MPs calling for “climate prosperity”.
Hasina will preside over the CVF-COP26 Leaders Dialogue during the visit. Besides the CVF countries, leaders of the UK and other countries will join the dialogue. During the 13-day tour, Hasina will travel to London and Paris as well.
She will hold a bilateral meeting with Johnson in Glasgow, although Bangladesh wanted London to be the venue.
Britain hopes the summit in Glasgow, which begins on Oct 31, will adopt plans to help move closer to the target of limiting the rise in the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
But reluctance among major carbon polluters, including China, India and Australia, to embrace stronger plans to reduce their planet-warming emissions has dented hopes for an ambitious outcome from the crucial UN climate summit.
Johnson said on Saturday he estimated the chances of a successful outcome to the UN climate change summit at about six out of 10.
A slew of national announcements just before the two-week COP26 talks has done little to advance efforts to meet global warming limits, which are set to be smashed without far steeper emissions cuts, analysts said.
China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, on Thursday submitted an updated set of contributions to the UN climate body that were widely seen as offering nothing new compared with earlier pledges from its leader.
Other big players, including Australia and India, have also fallen short, while uncertainties remain around whether US President Joe Biden can get approval for domestic legislation vital to his climate plans ahead of the COP26 conference.