State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam has called for collective efforts by the global leaders in tackling climate change and its adverse consequences.

He made the call while delivering a keynote speech virtually at the ‘P4G Thematic Breakout Session on Water’ on the sidelines of the P4G Seoul Summit- 2021.

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P4G -- Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 -- is a global initiative launched in 2017 to accelerate the response to climate change and the implementation of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.

It is a multilateral platform that aspires to channel investments in impact to deliver inclusive and tangible solutions to Build Back Better and Greener to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement.

As an active partner of P4G, Bangladesh has already developed nodes of partnership in the five P4G focus areas, like “Financial Inclusion Improves Sanitation & Health (FINISH) Mondial”, “Sustainable Future for Textile Factories”, “Clean Water for All’ etc, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

State Minister Alam lauded the market-based solution orientation of the P4G platform in ensuring access to safe and clean water and sanitation in developing countries.

While presenting an overview of Bangladesh’s leadership role in spearheading innovative adaptive solutions to climate change induced challenges, Alam highlighted Bangladesh’s firm commitment as the current Chair of Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) to break new grounds in garnering financing and international resolve to balance lives and livelihoods in all the vulnerable member states.

He underlined Bangladesh’s exemplary precedence of establishing a “Climate Change Trust Fund” and expenditure over US$ 415 million from its own resources to implement over 800 mitigation and adaptation programmes, despite being a LDC.

The State Minister lauded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visionary leadership in fighting against climate change.

Alam mentioned that Bangladesh has been spending, on average, 2.5% of its national GDP for adaptation and resilience building measures through projects like the ‘Barind Multipurpose Development Project (BMDP)’.

He said Bangladesh has adopted a unique ‘Delta Plan-2100’ that aligns with the five P4G focus areas in cross-cutting ways and fortifies the country’s commitment to the global goals towards green development.

The inaugural P4G Summit convened on 19-20 October 2018 in Copenhagen, Denmark.