Global leaders gathered in Rotterdam to participate in the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) high-level dialogue have said the climate emergency demands policy shift to adaptation The dialogue titled “An Adaptation Acceleration Imperative for COP26” held in Rotterdam, Netherlands on Monday.  Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen represented Bangladesh in the dialogue.  With less than a hundred days to go until the world’s most significant summit on climate change, the dialogue established that the success of COP26 will be determined by whether, for the first time, climate adaptation is elevated to an equal priority with the mitigation of carbon emissions. Patrick Verkooijen, the CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation, who convened the dialogue, said they are now living in the eye of the storm – ‘adapting the world to our climate emergency is essential for our safety even as we tackle a global pandemic’.  "From now on, we’re fighting a battle on two fronts: we have to fight to slash emissions while investing the same level of energy to adapt to a global climate emergency. Millions of lives and the safety of communities around the world are already at stake.” Read:UK Foreign Secretary reaffirms support for Bangladesh’s climate actions Over 50 leaders from the international climate and development community attended the dialogue which concluded with a communique adopted in the presence of the dialogue’s co-conveners, chair of the Board, 8th Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation, Patrick Verkooijen, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva and UN High-Level Climate Champion on Private Sector for COP26, Feike Sijbesma. The recent report from the IPCC warned a major worsening of climate impacts is coming a decade earlier than previously anticipated with unprecedented and irreversible changes.  It highlighted that certain impacts, such as extreme heat spells, would double in scale over the next decade, demanding unprecedented acceleration and investment in adaptation and resilience to counteract the growing climate emergency. “We should be very clear that there is no issue with the Paris Agreement itself. It has been exactly the framework we needed, if only it could be lived up to. What we need to do is rebuild confidence and trust to work together under the Paris regime," said Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the Global Center on Adaptation.  He said countries are ready for new ambition on adaptation, and they are ready for much scaled up financing for adaptation too. "For this, solutions already out there need to be shared and put into place.” Ban Ki-moon noted that the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), created by GCA in partnership with the African Development Bank and backed by the African Union, serves as a template for the ambition and approach that needs to be scaled across all regions of the world. President of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chair of the African Union, Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi said at the peak of the corona pandemic, there was a collective political will, by all countries, to address the crisis.  He also announced that, under the auspices of the African Union, he will chair a Leaders Event for friends of Africa’s adaptation during COP26.