The International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) and the Embassy of Sweden in Dhaka have jointly organized a roundtable in the build-up to the Stockholm+50 Conference.
The roundtable, which was held at the Trustee Lounge of IUB on Tuesday, disclosed details about the conference, to be held in Stockholm, Sweden in the first week of June, said a press release on Wednesday.
The discussion was organized to gather perspectives from actors in Bangladesh on how to tackle climate change, pollution and waste, and loss of nature and biodiversity, and accelerate the delivery of sustainable, equitable, and resilient development, including a green post-Covid recovery.
The key output of the roundtable was a report with recommendations for Stockholm+50 Conference and follow-up actions in Bangladesh.
As the chief guest, Tanvir Shakil Joy, member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, said: “Due to climate change, massive internal migration is taking place in the country.
“In the northern district of Sirajganj, people living on the banks of Jamuna are migrating to Kurigram and Panchagarh, which are further north, due to riverbank erosion. Even people who relocated within their own upazilas are often treated as refugees.”
He also noted that Bangladesh’s Mujib Climate Investment Plan integrates a number of strategies that express the country’s environmental and climate sustainability priorities.
In her welcome remark, Swedish Ambassador HE Alexandra Berg Von Linde said: “Our action and choices will have a decisive impact on the future of humanity. It is still possible to create a better future if we act together.”
She hoped that Stockholm+50 can offer an opportunity to close the implementation gap of commitments that have been made, to put science at the centre of people's actions, and show that people will act in solidarity with those that often have contributed the least to the problems but are hardest hit by the consequences.
IUB Trustee A Quaiyum Khan; Prasenjit Chakma, assistant resident representative of Resilience and Inclusive Growth Cluster of UNDP; Faiyaz Murshid Kazi, director-general of Economic Affairs Wing of Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Raquibul Amin, IUCN Bangladesh Country Representative; and Tariq A. Karim, former ambassador and director of IUB’s Centre for Bay of Bengal Studies, also spoke at the program.
