Sheikh Hasina, prime minister of Bangladesh, has argued that if the developed nations really want to address the mounting challenges that originated from the global climate change, they will have to be engaged and act decisively.
In an article, published in the Financial Times (FT) on Monday, Hasina also said: “My country is investing for a zero-carbon future, but the world must commit at COP26 to make efforts like ours a success.”
In the article, titled as “A global ‘climate prosperity plan’ not empty pledges,” she also wrote that only a tiny fraction of global warming can be attributed to Bangladesh’s carbon emissions.
“Even so, we are committed to leading the path to a solution,” she added. “This is not only because we wish to avert the worst of climate change; it also makes economic sense.”
According to Hasina, “Investing in zero-carbon growth is the best way to create jobs across the economy and ensure that our nation becomes more prosperous.”
Hasina also wrote: “The inconvenient truth of our times is that while action on climate change has never been more urgent and achievable, governments are not cutting emissions fast enough to keep nations such as mine safe.”
In this connection, she mentioned that in the north of Bangladesh, millions of people depend on freshwater stored every year in the Himalayan ice fields, which warming air is now destabilising.
“In the south, sea level rise is exacerbating the threat from coastal flooding. Falling crop yields are another destructive change we can anticipate,” she said in the FT piece.
Hasina also mentioned that earlier this, her government cancelled plans for 10 coal-fired power plants.
“But that was a relatively small step,” she added. “Subsequently, with COP26 in view, we developed the world’s first national ‘climate prosperity plan’ — a vision under which we will enhance resilience, grow our economy, create jobs and expand opportunities for our citizens, using the action on climate change as the catalyst.”
She also added that under the plan, Bangladesh would obtain 30 per cent of the energy from renewables by the end of the decade.
“We believe that developing wind farms along the coast will revitalise the mangrove forests that help stabilise our shifting shores, protecting against storms and flooding,” she mentioned. “We will empower banks to offer favourable terms to fossil-fuel-free infrastructure projects, and pursue co-operation with developed nations in areas such as green hydrogen.”
The prime minister of Bangladesh also pointed out that by investing in resilience and zero-carbon development, the country is likely to create about 4.1 million additional jobs this decade than under business-as-usual.
“The plan will simultaneously prevent up to 6.8 per cent of the economic damage that would otherwise come not only from climate change but also increasingly uneconomic fossil fuel infrastructure,” she mentioned.
Hasina further added that the benefit to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is estimated at over $850 billion.
“I believe more developing nations will adopt such plans in the coming months and years, led by members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum,” she further added.
Hasina mentioned that Bangladesh could implement this plan independently but international climate finance would speed the things.
“But what the world needs if we are to meet the Paris agreement goal to keep warming to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, is a global version of our climate prosperity plan,” she argued strongly. “This year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow is the best opportunity we will ever have to make one.”
She, however, cautioned that failure is a distinct possibility. “Having pledged three decades ago at the Rio Earth Summit to lead the world out of the climate and nature crises, developed nations have cut their combined greenhouse gas emissions by less than one-seventh, she mentioned adding that the failure ‘is not leadership’.
“Nor is their repeated refusal to take seriously the needs of those nations most immediately affected,” she continued. “Agreement to support the poorest in dealing with the losses and damages caused by climate change is far removed from implementation.”
The article also mentioned that although recent net zero pledges from the European Union (EU), United States (US) and others are welcome, they are largely not accompanied by policies that give confidence.
“The $100b per year finance pledge made 12 years ago remains unfulfilled,” she pointed out adding that the amount is tiny compared with what developing nations will need in order to build a zero-carbon future.
“Both governments and private institutions want to invest but we face the stark burden of a high cost of capital, exacerbated now by Covid-related debt,” she asserted.
Hasina mentioned in the FT article that if developed nations wish to help, they must address this.
“Cutting the cost of capital will substantially accelerate decarbonisation across the global south, yielding worldwide benefits,” she added.
Hasina also questioned: “If western leaders cannot see the logic of this, perhaps recent events in their own backyards will help — for what were the extreme forest fires seen in North America and Australia or Germany’s recent lethal floods, if not alarm bells clanging in regions of the world most responsible for climate change?”
The PM, in her concluding note, wrote: “Bangladesh was born 50 years ago this year, a birth shrouded in blood and pain. My father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, inspired and led our struggle for independence. It is in his memory that we have named our climate prosperity plan the Mujib Plan.”
“Climate change is a very different foe from those he faced, but dealing with it, we require a great deal of fortitude, imagination, hope and leadership,” she added.
“If western leaders listen, engage and act decisively on what science demands of them, there is still time to make COP26 the success it desperately needs to be,” Hasina expressed optimism at the end of the article.
