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PM-COP25-GENERAL ROUNDTABLE
PM urges int’l community to adopt appropriate climate action plan
MADRID, Dec 2, 2019 (BSS) – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today called upon the international community to adopt a time-befitting climate action plan and implement all provisions of Paris Agreement and other relevant global instruments and mechanisms to stop further degradation of environment.
“Any consequence of failure to deliver a climate action plan must fall equally on every country, especially on the countries which are more responsible for contributing to climate change, and the cost of our inaction is devastating for every living person,” she told the general roundtable at the Conference of the Parties (COP25), the UN Climate Change Conference, here.
“To stop further degradation of environment, we must implement all provisions of Paris Agreement and other relevant global instruments and mechanisms,” she added.
Sheikh Hasina added it is the responsibility of the leaders and the politicians to make public aware of the critical situation and the actions required to stop it from developing. “We cannot decide to be undecided.”
The COP25 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change kicked off at Feria de Madrid, the largest exhibition complex in Spain and one of the most important venues in Europe, here this morning.
The prime minister said from now on the principle of ‘Loss and Damage’ must feature prominently in all negotiations and the ‘Warsaw International Mechanism’ must be given a much stronger mandate to explore financing loss and damage through its review.
“The global landscape of climate finance is highly fragmented, complex and grossly inadequate,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said the Convention and the Paris Agreement recognized the special circumstance and needs of LDCs and ‘Particularly Vulnerable Countries’ based on the principle of the ‘common but differentiated responsibility’, and this recognition must be adhered to in every delivery mechanism of the climate finance.
“We hope that finalization of robust rules under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement must continue environmental integrity, avoid double counting and other accounting loopholes, deliver a share of proceeds from the market mechanism for the Adaptation Fund to assist overall mitigation in global emission,” she said.
The prime minister said the concept of equity or fairness is a fundamental issue that underlies the framing and operationalization of the Paris Agreement under the Convention through which greater levels of international cooperation under the Convention and its Paris Agreement may be achieved.
Sheikh Hasina said impacts of climate change are harming the civilization and destroying the planet and it has now become an existential threat for climate vulnerable countries like Bangladesh.
“We are at the most important crossroad of human history facing the gravest global challenges of our time.
The prime minister said the globe is fighting the battle on two fronts. First, mitigation measures to reduce and eventually reach zero emission in future. Second, adaptation measures in areas where irreparable damage has been done, she said.
“Lives and livelihoods of millions of people would continue to be at risk unless we deliver on both these two fronts,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said the 5th Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) clearly states that adverse impacts of climate change will continue to intensify over the current century and “push us off the cliff unless we come up with drastic actions to reduce or stop carbon emission”.
“And if the IPCC 1.5 degree centigrade Report was bad enough, the recent WMO Statement on State of Global Climate 2018 shows that we are even worse off than what was originally thought,” she said.
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