DHAKA, June 9, 2020 (BSS) – Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today said Bangladesh will act as the vulnerable countries’ global voice to realize the right cause over climate change issues as Dhaka today formally took over the presidency of Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and Vulnerable Twenty (V20) for 2020-22 from Marshal Island.
“Under the leadership of the Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh will be the voice of the vulnerable countries and will promote their interests in the global platform during her presidency of CVF and V20,” he said while addressing media after holding a virtual meeting of Troika Ministers from Bangladesh, Marshal Islands and Ethiopia along with CVF Expert Advisory Group.
The CVF is a global partnership of 48 countries that are disproportionately affected by the consequences of global warming.
In December last year at the 25th Annual Conference of Parties (COP25), known as the UN Climate Change Conference, in Paris Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accepted a proposal of Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine to take over the charge of the chair of CVF from this year.
Dr Momen said creation of a new CVF and V20 Trust Fund, possibility of having a new Special Rapporteur on climate change, appointing CVF’s thematic Envoys and Special Envoys for Climate Change, publication of the third edition of the Climate Vulnerability Monitor will rank high during Bangladesh presidency.
“We will also highlight the issues of ‘Loss and Damage’ and the cases of displacement of the climate refugees caused by climate change,” he said.
He urged all CVS member states to attach the highest level of priority to CVF and V20 and to contribute by providing technical and financial support to carry out the priority works ahead.
“I request the development partners to assist the CVF generously as investing in climate today will be a safeguard for our children tomorrow,” he said.
Replying a question how Bangladesh would highlight climate change issues in the global platform during this shattered global economy due to COVID-19 pandemic, Momen said no government can avoid the climate change issue as “crisis of climate change could be worse than pandemic”.
However, he said, “We have mounting challenges ahead of us. We (Bangladesh) have to take a leadership role … I do believe with support and commitment of CVF members and people of the world, we can make some headway and hopefully to reach our goal (regarding climate change issues).”
Maldives formed the CVF before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009, which sought to increase awareness regarding the causes of the countries considered most vulnerable.
Bangladesh was the third chair of the CVF, from 2011 to 2013 while it hosted a ministerial meeting of the forum 2011 in Dhaka where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon presented keynotes during its inauguration ceremony.
Out of the membership of CVF, Finance Ministers of the Vulnerable Twenty (V20), representing close to 700 million people threatened by climate change and spanning different regions of the world, held their inaugural meeting on 8 October 2015 in Lima, Peru and issued a declaration and announced the formation of V20 Group within the CVF.
CVF and V20 have been seen as great examples of South-South and Triangular cooperation while Global Centre on Adaptation in the Netherlands agreed to act as the Secretariat of the CVF.
Marshal Island Foreign Affairs and Trade minister Casten N Nemra and Ethiopian Commissioner for the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Professor Dr. Fekadu Beyene also joined today’s virtual press briefing after the meeting while Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen was present.