Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus has said the world needs a new economic framework to tackle the climate crisis and create a new civilization that works for the earth and its people.
Yunus was speaking at a high-level LDC meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of COP29 in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, according to a message received in Dhaka.
Leaders of five major climate-vulnerable least-developed countries, Nepal, Malawi, Gambia, Liberia, and Bangladesh, joined the closed-door meeting.
"We need a new economic framework that serves the planet and the people," Yunus said, adding that he backs the UN-sponsored Summit for the Future to create an economic order for the world's young people.
"We have created an economic framework based on consume, consume, and consume, and it only generates waste, waste, and waste. We need to create a world of zero waste," he said.
The chief adviser said the climate conference should not be held every year.
"We know what the world needs, and we should make a long-term plan for that. It should be country by country. And we have to make the plan for long-term mitigation," Yunus said.
"We do not need to meet here every year. Meeting every year to negotiate is time-consuming, wasteful, and humiliating," he added.
The chief adviser also called for a new approach to climate negotiations, as the current approach has largely failed to meet the needs of much of the world.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said the LDCs face the greatest injustice as far as climate change is concerned.
"We want to tell you that we care about you," Guterres said, adding that the LDCs need to do hard negotiations and "serious mechanism" to secure a bigger fund for climate adaptation and mitigation.