Climate change is seriously disrupting city life across the globe, Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Md Atiqul Islam said Monday, urging everyone to work together to save cities and their people.

No one is safe until everyone is safe, he added.

He was speaking at the Blue Zone of the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) China Pavilion with C40 – a network of mayors of nearly 100 world-leading cities collaborating to deliver the urgent action needed right now to confront the climate crisis – in Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh.

Atiqul spoke to the mayors of Chinese cities and representatives of other South-South cities.

The Blue Zone is a UN-managed space where negotiations are hosted and, to enter, all attendees must be credited by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat. 

This year there are 156 pavilions inside the Blue Zone, double the amount at Glasgow. Many UN agencies, countries and regions are being represented.

Atiqul said: "Heatwaves, flooding, cyclones and salinity are making people leave their homes for cities in search of a living and livelihood. As mayors, we have responsibilities towards our cities and their people."

Read more: Around 6500 become climate refugees in Bangladesh every year: Momen at COP27

The vital United Nations climate talks, billed as one of the last chances to stave off climate breakdown, are taking place from November 6-18 amid a multitude of competing crises, including the war in Ukraine, high inflation, food shortages and an energy crunch.

Negotiators are spending frantic days discussing whether to formally consider the issue of loss and damage, or reparations, to vulnerable nations suffering from climate change, and the issues, which weighed on the talks for years at COP27.

Read more: Bangladesh wants mechanism to address loss and damage financing by 2024