The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, London

Bangladesh and the United Kingdom Wednesday made a joint partnership calling for an ambitious international deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions as London made a fresh pledge of 75 million pounds sterling to Dhaka for combating catastrophic impacts of climate change on livelihood and food security.

The money will go on measures such as protecting houses, schools and farms against flooding, and introducing new crop strains in Bangladesh, trebly hit last year by devastating floods and cyclone.

Aid agencies have welcomed the move but say poorer countries will need much more money to adapt to climate change, escalated by excessive carbon emissions from the developed countries.

At a summit here Wednesday on Climate Change in Bangladesh, the two countries called on nations gathering to thrash out a new global warming agreement in Copenhagen next year to achieve a comprehensive deal on prevention of dangerous climate change.

UK's International Development Secretary (minister) Douglas Alexander today said the lives of millions of people in Bangladesh would be devastated if urgent action is not taken to tackle climate change and cut down the emissions.

Caretaker government's Finance Adviser Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam outlined deep concerns for Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the phenomenal climate change of the time.

Speakers at the cutting-edge London meet include Raja Devashish Roy, Special Assistant to the Chief Advisor, and former chief economic adviser to the UK Government and leading climate-change analyst Lord Nicholas Stern.

The UK and Bangladesh showed their long-term commitment to tackling climate change by signing a joint communiqué outlining the urgent need for a strengthened international deal in Copenhagen in 2009.

Douglas announced a financial package of £75m to help the Bangladesh government fund its response to climate change. He said: "Climate change is today's crisis, not tomorrow's risk, and is already affecting millions of people in Bangladesh. But Bangladesh is resilient and is setting an example to other vulnerable countries with its innovative approach to adapting to the changing climate.

"I am pleased to announce today the launch of a new £75m grant-funded programme to support Bangladesh's efforts to protect its people further from impacts such as rising sea levels, water-logged land and increased salinity."

He said, "Adaptation on-the-ground is not enough. We believe more must be done at a global level. This is why today the UK and Bangladesh are announcing a new partnership calling for a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen, leading to the stabilization of greenhouse gases at a level that avoids dangerous climate change - and benefits some of the world's poorest people."

Finance Advisor Dr Aziz outlined a comprehensive strategy to make the country climate-resilient for the next decade. The strategy, called Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, focuses on practical adaptation and mitigation measures which can be put in place. He also announced a new trust fund, which will be used to implement the action plan.

The Finance Advisor said, "Least Developed Countries (LDCs), including Bangladesh, need immediate international support to build their resilience to global warming and climate change."

He told his audience that tthe resources currently available for adaptation are grossly inadequate to meet the needs of the LDCs who bear the brunt of increased climate variability and unpredictability resulting from climate change.

"The effects of climate change will severely constrain our ability to attain the high rates of economic growth needed to sustain development gains. We want a new sense of urgency to support Bangladesh in our search for a better tomorrow," the advisor told the high-level climate conference.

He said, "This is why today we are presenting our Climate Change Action Plan and calling upon the international community to assist Bangladesh by providing predictable, long-term financing for this plan and also by pushing for a meaningful agreement at Copenhagen."

According to the Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change more than a fifth of Bangladesh could be under water by the end of the century, if sea levels rise by a meter.

Representatives from other South Asian countries, including Nepal and the Maldives, donor countries, the private sector and non-governmental organizations working in Bangladesh attended the event.

Britain has established an £800m Environmental Transformation Fund - International Window to help reduce poverty through environmental protection and to help developing countries respond to climate change. This will be used to capitalize the multi-donor Climate Investment Funds, administered by the World Bank.

The UN has established two funds - the Least Developed Countries and Special Climate Change funds - to raise money to help countries such as Bangladesh to adapt, but the amounts of money pledged have been small.

The new UK money, by contrast, will be managed by a "multi-donor trust fund" in Bangladesh and used to support government initiatives.

Some of it will explore ways in which Bangladesh could make use of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a Kyoto Protocol designed to use money from the international carbon market to aid low-carbon development in poorer nations.