9:44 AM
The draft agreement reached at the UN climate conference in Paris has met Bangladesh’s ‘expectations’, observed members of the Bangladesh delegation at the conference, reports UNB.
Two major demands pressed home by Bangladesh at the conference – coming up with a mechanism to address losses and damages associated with climate change and ensuring rehabilitation of climate refugees – have been highlighted in the new agreement, which is expected to get the final approval in the end of the conference in Paris and will be signed in New York on April 22 next.
The UN climate conference in Paris – also known as Conference of Parties 21 (COP 21) - began on November 30.
The agreement will come into effect in January 2020 after the ratification of at least 50-60 countries.
Talking to UNB, Bangladeshi Environment Secretary Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed said, “The draft has reflected our concerns. We’ll try to change some wordings in the funding policies section and will give all-out efforts for the approval of the draft during this year’s ongoing conference.”
Dr Asaduzzaman, member of the Bangladeshi delegation, told the news agency, “Some wordings were amended to convince the United States to be part of the deal.”
At COP-21 in Paris, the USA has agreed to re-compensate for climate change losses and damages after 20 years from now.
The draft deal, called ‘Paris Outcome’, was uploaded online on Wednesday evening.
The 28-page document states limiting global temperature rises within 1.5 - 2 degree Celsius threshold for the current century. However, the draft doesn’t mention about any legal binding for implementation of the agreement.
The draft has outlined an exit for those countries who do not wish to be a part of the deal.
The countries that will enter the deal can notify of their exit after three years of their entry. Then after 1 year of notification, they can quit the agreement completely.
This means a country has to stay will the agreement for a minimum of four years from when it decides to quit.
Talking about climate change funding, Dr Golam Rabbani, a senior fellow of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, said the funding terms are not satisfying for Bangladesh and other developing nations.
The draft does not specify the origin of the funding and every participating country has to approve decisions about funding allocations before it can be used.
Golam Rabbani further noted that the developed nations did not accept their liability for climate change damages and the draft does not talk about any kind of climate change compensation for affected countries.
The draft has mentioned about rehabilitation of climate change refugees through a separate displacement coordination facility.
Bangladesh is concerned about keeping global temperature rise within 1.5 degree Celsius and getting access to climate change funds for mitigating risks.
The draft deal also talked about technology transfer and capacity development to combat climate change which Bangladesh has supported positively.
Samakal
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