Climate change confce in London: Bangladesh’s interest squandered away

The country's interest was squandered away in the Bangladesh-UK climate change conference, speakers yesterday said at a press briefing.

The declaration of the conference and the speech of Finance Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam have alienated Bangladesh from the G77 and other least developed countries' goal, the speakers said.

"If the declaration was implemented the G8 countries and the international financing corporations like World Bank, International Monitory Fund (IMF), Asian Development Bank (ADB) would be able to exploit other countries by using Bangladesh as a showcase.

Speakers said this while addressing a press conference organised by Equity and Justice Working Group (Equity BD) at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity.

Convenor Rezaul Karim Chowdhury and member AHM Bazlur Rahman, Shahadat Islam Chowdhury and Mostafa Kamal Akhanda of Equity BD addressed the conference.

They said according to Kyoto Protocol the developed countries should reduce their emission by 20 to 40 per cent by 2020. The G77 and other least developed countries are bargaining with developed countries on the issue. Bangladesh deviated from its avowed position by signing the declaration, where it is mentioned that the developed countries would reduce emission by 50 per cent by 2050.

At the Bali conference it was decided that adaptation and mitigation were not mandatory for the developing countries rather developed countries should adopt mitigation programme.

The speakers regretted that in the declaration Bangladesh admitted that it would adopt low carbon technology. This self-contradictory step would alienate the country from the goal of the developing countries.

Terming the Adviser's speech at the London conference 'isolationist,' where he mentioned, "Is there any meaning of demanding compensation when there is no such research on who polluted and to what extent? " they said, "Since advanced countries were held responsible for climate change and they too admitted it in the Kyoto Protocol, the Adviser's statement was illogical and self-destructive.

Speakers said as per the dictates of the international financing organisations many adjunct institutions of agriculture have been closed, subsidy in agricultural sector reduced to 1 per cent from 30 per cent, jute industries shut down and no investment made in the power sector, handing over the control of climate fund to these organisations would surely be destructive for the country's economy.

Equity BD demanded that the declaration be treated as a draft action plan for approval at the next national assembly.

They called for the cancellation of WB's participation in the fund management.

They also suggested for a Public Commission on Ecological Debt Assessment to fix the rate of compensation