Envoys of three countries called on Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin at his Secretariat office here today.
Danish Ambassador to Bangladesh Winnie Estrup Petersen, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (USE) Abdulla Ali Abdulla Khaseif AlHmoudi and Charge d’ Affairs of Egypt Embassy Mina Makary met the minister.
Environment Secretary Dr Farhina Ahmed, Additional Secretary (Admin) of the ministry Iqbal Abdullah Harun, Additional Secretary (Climate Change) Md Moniruzzaman and Additional Secretary (Environment) Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik were present, among others, a ministry press release said.
Speaking at the meeting, Shahab Uddin said all have to reach a consensus on some critical climate issues in the Conference of the Parties-28 (COP28) to be held in Dubai, the UAE this year.
“The source of fund for addressing the loss and damage must be finalised at COP28. This loss and damage funds should be new and additional without any compromising the funding for adaptation needs. We also need to have significant progress on the structure and operational modalities of the loss and damage fund to operationalise it as soon as possible,” he said.
The environment minister said Parties need to be reached a consensus on the ‘Mitigation Work Programme’ to reduce global Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by 43 percent by 2030.
“We need to finalise the definition of climate finance. We are also looking forward to achieving the delivery of milestone of US$ 100 billion by developed countries before the new collective quantified goal (NCQG) is adopted; without achieving the US$ 100 billion goal, setting a new target will not sound convincing to the Parties,” he said.
Then, the minister thanked the government of Denmark for hosting the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial Meeting this month.
Winnie Estrap Petersen said Bangladesh is one of the top countries in the world not only as a country at risk of climate change but also in successfully dealing with this risk.
Abdullah Ali Abdullah Khaseif Alhammudi expressed that there will be significant progress in other agendas, including loss and damage, at the COP 28 to be held in the UAE in next November.
Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha