Stop arms race, focus on climate financing, PM urges int’l community

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged world leaders yesterday to end the arms race and instead use the money to combat climate change.

“Senseless arms race must be stopped and resources need to be diverted instead to mobilise the much-needed fund for fighting climate change,” she said, adding, “Let’s keep in mind, when the existence of humanity is at a stake, pursuing narrow interests would come to nothing.”

The prime minister’s impassioned call featured in a six-point suggestion she placed at the panel discussion titled “From Pocket to Planet: Scaling Up Climate Finance” at the Munich Security Conference 2024 here in Germany.

“We must find solutions to unlocking climate financing to keep us on track by delivering on the six suggestions,” she said.

In her first suggestion, Sheikh Hasina said developed countries must live up to their commitment of USD 100 billion per annum in the two years up to 2025, based on a delivery plan.

“And, by the end of this year, we must all agree on a new climate financing target post-2025, preferably above USD 100 billion, based on scientific evidence,” she said.

Raising the second recommendation, she said the world needs to get rid of wars and conflicts, illegal occupations, and mindless killings of unarmed civilians as we watch in Gaza and elsewhere.

The premier, in her third suggestion, said the acute imbalance in financing for mitigation and adaptation needs to be addressed by at least doubling the current level of adaptation financing. In this context, she thanked French President Macron for committing to provide €1 billion to Bangladesh to support adaptation.

Placing the fourth suggestion, she said the long-pending issue of streamlining access to existing international climate funds by developing countries must be resolved, including by investing in their capacity.

In her fifth suggestion, Hasina said the reform of the global financing architecture must show meaningful results, especially in managing the debt burden of climate-vulnerable countries by expanding their access to grants and concessional loans.

Placing her sixth and final suggestion, she said the governments need to invest in the right plans, policies and instruments to mobilise private capital flows for climate action.

In parallel, international financial institutions need to develop innovative, blended financing mechanisms to attract private capital for bankable projects.

Sheikh Hasina said she was part of a closed-door meeting of leaders to find a last-minute solution at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 and realised that international climate finance would be quite difficult to come by.

After going back home, she took the initiative to set up the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund to undertake home-grown adaptation projects.

“Bangladesh is now considered a living laboratory of locally-led climate adaptation,” she said, adding that Bangladesh has so far implemented nearly 800 projects at a cost of USD 480 million, all from its own resources.

The prime minister said the COP28 in Dubai started on a positive note with the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund. “We are pleased that USD 792 million was committed to the Fund. We hope that additional pledges will be made to allow the fund to deliver on its mandate,” she said.

Talking about Bangladesh, she said her country ranks seventh among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, even though our contribution to global carbon emissions is negligible (less than 0.47% of global emissions).

“It is estimated that from now up to 2050, our annual GDP loss will be 2 percent because of climate change, and at this rate by 2100, the loss will be as high as 9 percent. It is also estimated that about 13.3 million people in Bangladesh could be internally displaced due to climate change impacts.”

Now Bangladesh spends about 4.6 percent of its annual budget and 0.74 percent of its GDP on climate adaptation and resilience, of which 75 percent comes from domestic resources, she said.