Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Environment and Climate Change and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry Saber Hossain Chowdhury on Thursday said Bangladesh will take steps to get quickly an effective loss and damage fund operationalized in COP-28.
“For this, the capacity building activities of the concerned officials of Bangladesh will be undertaken soon,” he told a workshop on '28th UN Climate Conference (COP28): Expectations and Achievements and Future Action Plans' held at the auditorium of the Department of Environment (DoE).
Saber said a total of 19 countries have pledged $792 million to the fund so far and this fund will increase in the future.
The new fund will initially be administered by the World Bank for four years, he added.
Chaired by Environment, Forest and Climate Change Secretary Dr Farhina Ahmed, the workshop was addressed, among others, by Professor Emeritus of Brac University Dr Ainun Nishat, Additional Secretary (Admin) of the ministry Iqbal Abdullah Harun, Additional Secretary (Climate Change) Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik and DoE Director General Dr Abdul Hamid.
The panel discussion session was moderated by Dr Fazle Rabbi Sadeque Ahmed, deputy managing director of Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation.
Three thematic presentations were made by the ministry's Deputy Secretary (Climate Change) Dharitri Kumar Sarker, DoE Director (Air Quality) Md Ziaul Haque, and Director (Climate Change and International Conventions) Mirza Shawkat Ali.
