Since Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to the climate change, its leadership has taken the lead to represent these nations. And Dhaka's efforts have been rewarded when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was honoured with Asia Climate Mobility Champion Leader Award in recognition of her voice of leadership in championing the climate actions.
The Global Centre for Climate Mobility supported by International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UN system conferred the Award on her during a high-level panel on the sidelines of the COP28 in Dubai on Friday.
As the current chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum of 48 most vulnerable developing countries, Dhaka has continued to zero in on the industrialized nations or major polluters to make them pay for the loss and damage in the poor countries due to climate change for which they are least responsible.
For instance, Bangladesh has long been advocating for the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund (LDF) to support the most affected countries by the global warming.
And Dhaka's efforts have come to fruition when LDF got the nod in the COP 28 climate summit in UAE on Thursday.
Initially, more than $400 million has been pledged to the new LDF which will be operated by the World Bank to extend support to countries impacted by climate change. But the committed amount has so far fallen well short of the $100 billion the developing nations have been demanding to meet the costs of changing climate.
The LDF has been praised as a positive start to this year's COP summit with Bangladesh's endeavors attached to it. This is because climate finance has been a key sticking point with wealthy nations most responsible for emissions but not delivering on promises to support the worst affected countries.
Sheikh Hasina has long been urging the world community to make an arrangement for the support of hardest-hit nations by the climate change. Even just a day before the start of the COP 28, she called on global leaders not to let climate displacements turn into a humanitarian crisis.
Evidently, the most vulnerable countries have already started feeling the impacts of global warming and the worse is to come soon. By 2050, an estimated 216 million people are likely to be displaced, of which 40 million alone would be in the South Asian countries.
Bangladesh is to face the worst by the climate change as over 20 per cent of its population lives along the coastal belt where natural calamities occur every now and then and the rate and intensity of these weather events are increasing every year because of the rising temperature due to climate change.
As like many other most climate vulnerable nations, Bangladesh needs financial support from the developed countries and we hope that the financing from the LDF will start pouring into the worst-affected countries as soon as possible.
