The “Leaders’ Summit on Climate”, set to be held later this week, will largely incorporate the issues raised by Bangladesh on its agenda as the United States is “giving much importance” to Bangladesh as its partner to tackle the climate crisis, says the Foreign Minister.
“They’ve much interest in Bangladesh. They’ve taken a note of key issues that should come up in the Summit agenda,” Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told UNB during an interaction at his residence.
The US praised Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her leadership in the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and she will be "recognised for Bangladesh's leadership" of the countries, especially vulnerable to climate impacts, during the Climate Summit.
US President Joe Biden, who took action on his first day in office to return the United States to the Paris Agreement, has invited 40 world leaders, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to join the Summit to be held on April 22 and 23.
Bangladesh talked about the significance of the promised international financial flow at and beyond US$100 billion annually to support sustainable development and energy transformations of the developing economies.
Bangladesh stressed that the funding should be distributed at a 50:50 ratio between mitigation and adaptation at the same time noting that adaptation without mitigation is not a good strategy.
On the issue of the national determined contribution (NDC), Foreign Minister Momen emphasised on behalf of Bangladesh as well as the CVF that all countries need to work hard to fulfill their NDCs at the earliest.
“We talked about US$ 100 billion financial flow and the issue of NDC. Hopefully, these will be included in the agenda,” Dr Momen said.