Sheikh Hasina has called on global leaders to step up efforts to meet the goals set under the Paris Agreement with a stark reminder of the threat of climate change.
“Unfortunately we are nowhere near to our goals set under the agreement," the Bangladesh leader said in her virtual address to a UN Climate Ambition Summit on Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris accord.
"The reality is the climate change is neither going to take a break nor it will spare us from its adverse impact for our inaction."
Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the opening remarks that the world leaders should declare states of "climate emergency" in their countries to spur action to avoid catastrophic global warming.
More than 70 world leaders are addressing the one-day virtual gathering aimed at building momentum for much steeper cuts in planet-warming emissions, reports bdnews24.com accrediting Reuters.
Prime Minister Hasina highlighted Bangladesh's emergence as a “global leader” on climate adaptation measures. She outlined the initiatives taken by the South Asian country but warned about the limitations of adaptation plans.
As the president of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, Bangladesh has launched the CVF Midnight Survival Deadline for the Climate initiative urging every country to declare enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs by midnight on Dec 31, 2020, she said.
Her government is planting 11.5 million saplings nationwide to mark the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It has also launched a programme called Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan to mobilise resources for a secured sustainable future, Hasina said.
As part of an effort to substantially raise Bangladesh's NDC and adaptation ambition, the government has included a few more potential sectors in addition to the existing energy, industry and transport sectors in the mitigation process, according to Hasina.
Bangladesh is also finalising a National Adaptation Plan, the prime minister said, while pointing out that the country spends over $2.0 billion on climate change-sensitive projects and $3.0 billion on adaptation measures every year.
In order to effectively deal with the threat of climate change, Hasina urged all developed countries to come forward with predictable and promised mitigation measures along with climate finance.
On Friday, summit co-host Britain announced it would pledge to end direct government support for overseas fossil fuel projects at the summit, aiming to spur similar moves by other countries to accelerate a shift to cleaner energy.
Diplomats are watching summit speeches for any signs of significantly stronger climate pledges from countries including China, which surprised many observers by announcing a goal to become carbon neutral by 2060 in September, India and Japan.
Under the Paris pact, nearly 200 countries agreed to limit the average rise in global temperatures to "well below" 2.0 degrees Celsius and ideally to 1.5C above preindustrial times.
But the Earth has already heated up by about 1.2C and is on track to warm by more than 3.0C by the end of the century, the United Nations said.
Understanding has accelerated in recent years about the crucial role ecosystems on land and sea play in absorbing carbon emitted by human activities - mainly from burning fossil fuels - and curbing potentially catastrophic planetary heating.
In 2019, a UN climate science report said the way the world manages land, and how food is produced and consumed, had to change to curb global warming - or food security, health and biodiversity would be at risk.
But the United Nations and others are still waiting for governments to iron out differences over a system to use carbon credits to meet emissions reduction targets under the Paris pact.