The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Bangkok

Bangladesh on Monday asked global community to help people of Bangladesh to fight poverty, mostly triggered by climatic calamities in their efforts to achieve the millennium development goals.

Bangladesh also asked the global community especially the industrialised developed countries to urgently cut, back their dangerous greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change endangering economic growth of the least developed countries like Bangladesh. "Climate induced disasters are increasing in frequency and severity in Bangladesh. These as well as other climate related phenomena, erratic behaviour of temperature and rainfall pose severe threat to agriculture and food security, damage of infrastructures, create uncertainties with water availability, endanger livelihood of people," environment secretary AHM Rezaul Kabir told opening of the UN Adhoc Working Group (AWG) 5th meeting on future commitment of Kyoto Protocol at the climate change conference at UNESCAP here. "These expose people to malnutrition, disease and morbidity and premature death. All these together challenge the ultimate objective of the UN Climate Change Convention environment- friendly economic growth in a sustained manner," he added.

Kabir, leader of an eight-member Bangladesh delegation, made the plenary statement expressing deep concern that measures and actions to reduce greenhouse gases should not compromise with present and future food security concerns. "Bangladesh wants to record its worries on slow progress made in last two years by AWG under Kyoto Protocol on future commitments. We also notice that there is lack of progress to comply wih present commitment by the Annex-1 (industrialised developed) countries. Urgency of the issue should be translated into immediate actions," he told the conference.

The Bangladesh delegation leader, who successfully led Bali negotiation and United Nations General Assembly thematic debate on climate change last month in New York, said, AWG should agree on reduction commitment without which effective adaptation cannot be designed along with funding and technology deployment.

Bangladesh, Kabir said, believes that to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change, the global average temperature increases must be kept as far below two degree Celsius as possible.

Members of Bangladesh delegation-director general of Department of Environment Dr Khandaker Rashedul Haque, Bangladesh ambassador to Thailand and PR to UNESCAP Mustafa Kamal, experts Dr Ainun Nishat, Muhammad Reazuddin, Dr Nasir Uddin, Quamrul Islam Chowdhury and Mozaharul Alam actively participated in the different sessions and working group meetings of the climate change conference here.

The Bangladesh delegation was also very vocal at the G-77 meeting and raised the concerns of LDCs which should be urgently addressed by the UN Climate Change Convention processes.