Emission reduction pledges for 2030 needs to be increased seven times: Shahab Uddin

The ambition of emission reduction pledges for 2030 needs to be increased seven times to meet the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Agreement, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin said on Saturday. 

"Bangladesh strongly urged the developed countries to fulfill their commitment of $100 billion," he told a press briefing of the Bangladesh delegation at COP28 being held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The minister said the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), Adaptation Fund (AF) and GEF Trust Fund should be strengthened with adequate resources and access to those funds should be quick and easy.

He said Bangladesh is strongly in favour of a balanced 50:50 allocation between adaptation and mitigation and grant-based financing for adaptation in line with the Paris Agreement.

"We would put importance to new and additional public financing. Bangladesh firmly emphasises the doubling adaptation fund and support for National Adaptation Plan (NAP) implementation, which is the priority of 49 countries that have already prepared and submitted their NAPs.  

"We are looking forward to adopting a decision on Global Goal on Adaptation emphasising on time bound implementable targets for achieving climate resilience," Shahab Uddin said.

He said Bangladesh, under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has demonstrated unwavering commitment to climate action, as exemplified by the recent recognition of her efforts with the "Climate Mobility Champion Leader Award" and "GCA Local Adaptation Champions Award" in the category "Innovation in Devolving Finance".

Shahab Uddin expressed gratitude to the COP28 Presidency and some concerned countries for the historic decision on the Loss and Damage Fund of more than US$ 700 million, adopted on the opening day of the conference.

He also expressed dissatisfaction seeing that the progress on both the Mitigation Work Programme, mitigation under Global Stock Take (GST), and the just transition work programme have been significantly insufficient.

He urged the standing committee on finance (SCF) to fix a common definition of climate finance on an urgent basis. It is also important for the discussion of New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) of climate finance, the minister said.

Deputy Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Habibun Nahar, Special Envoy of Prime Minister for Environment and Climate Change and Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Environment Secretary Dr Farhina Ahmed, Additional Secretary (Climate Change) of the ministry Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik and Bangladesh Ambassador in Abu Dhabi Md Abu Zafar were also present, among others.