Seven civil society groups of Bangladesh demanded withdrawal of the World Bank as a trustee of Green Climate Fund (GCF), saying that the WB spent more than 24.5% of the fund just for their own office expenses while the money was allocated exclusively for the poor and affected people of the vulnerable countries.
They said the World Bank is exploiting the fund for expanding its loan business. It is also trying to involve Asian Development Bank (ADB) and African Development Bank (AFDB) with this fund, which is completely illegal.
The seven civil society groups: Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA), Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL), Climate Finance Governance Network (CFGN), Coastal Livelihood Ecology and Adaptation Network (CLEAN), Equity and Justice Working Group (EquityBD), Humanity Watch and Network on Climate Change-Bangladesh (NCC-B), placed the demand at a joint press conference held at National Press Club on Saturday.
Hasan Mehedi, Chief Executive of Humanity Watch read out the written speech at the press conference attended by Mostafa Kamal Akand of EquityBD, Nuzhat Imam of CSRL, Mohua Rouf of CFGN and Sharifuzzaman Sharif of Nagorik Sanghati.
The speakers said GCF is still ineffective even after three years of its formation in 2010 and it is yet to assist the vulnerable countries.
Negligence of rich countries is mainly responsible for the situation as they pledged $30b as First Start Finance (FSF) in the 2010-12 period but was provided only $5.7m.
Now the rich countries are trying to add their official development assistances and other bilateral funds in the GCF, they said.
According to all the official reports on Climate Change including the UN, Bangladesh is one of the worst affected countries but they made Bangladesh an alternative member of Zambia in the steering committee of GCF, they said.
It is the diplomatic failure of the government of Bangladesh.
If Bangladesh fail to establish professionalism, transparency and accountability in international level and eradicate corruption, it will be hard for the country to take lead in this sector in the future.
The speakers suggested the activation of GCF by the upcoming meeting in Korea during 26 to 28 June.