Bangladesh will play a leading role at the 24th Conference of Parties (COP24) in December, stakeholders at a dialogue on climate change said.
The dialogue was organized by ActionAid at the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) auditorium in Mohakhali, Dhaka on Saturday.
Dr Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCD) under Independent University Bangladesh (IUB), addressed the dialogue, which was presided over by Department of Disaster Management Director General Abu Syed Mohammad Hashim.
Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), COP24 will be held at Katowice, Poland, this year.
Dr Saleemul Huq said Bangladesh has been playing a leading role in climate change adaptation over the last 10 years.
“Bangladesh, along with the least developed countries, will be loud on the issue of building a global climate change fund at next two COP meetings,” he added. “If global temperatures rise by 1.5 to 2 degrees, then we will not be able to save those who are most vulnerable. When there is a question of loss and damage, there is also a question of compensation. Developed countries will not willingly agree to create such a fund.”
Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief Additional Secretary Satyabrata Saha said: “We need to build a loss and damage management mechanism. If global temperatures increase by even 1.5 degrees, we cannot avoid some losses. We are developing a mechanism to understand what kinds of loss and damage may occur due to such rises in temperature.”
ActionAid Bangladesh Country Director Farah Kabir moderated the dialogue, and representatives from relevant government and non government organizations took part in an open discussion.
Satyabrata Saha and ActionAid Lead-Resilience and Climate Justice Tanjir Hossain presented separate keynote papers on loss and damage management mechanisms.