Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said Bangladesh is not waiting for the world to save us, that's why we are fighting for our own future, albeit with limited resources and technologies.

"We are keen to see the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the upcoming climate agreement in Paris, adopted and moving into implementation. But Bangladesh has not been sitting around waiting for the world to save us," she said.

She said this in her recent article published in The Huffington Post on Saturday in conjunction with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of a series by world leaders' writings on "What's Working: Sustainable Development Goals."

Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League President, said Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated with the lowest quantity of per-capita arable land (0.05 hectares) countries in the world.

"Although we made considerable progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), climate change in the form of extreme-weather events, tidal surges and erratic rainfall has negatively impacted agricultural production, industrial development and social structures," she said.
In this regards Sheikh Hasina said,
"These can create millions of environmental refugees, even though Bangladesh's contribution to climate change in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions is negligible. And the situation will worsen without urgent action."

The Prime Minister said, "Bangladesh was the first developing nation to create a Climate Change Strategy, Action Plan and allocated Tk 30.30 billion to our climate-change trust fund. All of the activities have been targeted toward adaptation to environmental changes with a view to protecting human lives from floods and hurricanes, and protecting the environment from pollution caused by rapid urbanization and unsustainable industrialization."

"There are so many examples of specific actions we undertook as part of our policy framework. We have built about four million solar-home systems in off-grid areas and 1.5 million improved cook stoves to decrease indoor air pollution," she added.

Despite these efforts, Sheikh Hasina, "We have also made remarkable progress in food production and the country has become a food-exporting country from a food-importing country over the last six years."
She stressed that we cannot do it alone, which is why we need the international community to stand up for nations such as ours through the SDGs and the climate-change process.

Sheikh Hasina said, "Bangladesh has been leading by example, and we are ready to share our experiences on climate resilience with rest of the world."

RI