PM's emphasis on green recovery

In her article published in The Financial Times, London, on September 28, 2020, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has identified 'green recovery' as a panacea for the world's present afflictions. The publication of the article coincided with the Seventy-fifth Session of the United Nations General Assembly. As a statesman well versed in the planet's basic existential problems, the premier in her article has charted out the solutions as systemic shift in governments' policies on environment and climate, business practices, cutting carbon emission to the corona pandemic. She has lauded the European Union (EU) for its stress on the 'green recovery' as a means to coming free of the pandemic. In her article the Prime Minister referred to the recent analysis of the response to the pandemic by Vivid Economics. She has said she salutes the EU for prioritising a green recovery.

The country's tree lovers attach great importance to the concept of 'greening'. Barring the syndicates involved in encroaching on forests and impeding social forestry, there are many who passionately love planting and growing trees. A proof of this passion for trees, plants, orchids etc can be seen in a photograph published on the front page of the FE recently. The photo shows a young woman purchasing tree saplings at a popular roadside nursery in the city's Curzon Hall area. It is the motorbike-straddled woman's love for trees which has apparently prompted her to visit the outlet following the relaxed corona restrictions. This is but a lone example of the young generation's passion for trees. Vast tracts in the rural areas are found covered with roadside trees grown by local youths as part of social forestry. Against this encouraging backdrop, the Prime Minister can muster the moral strength to claim Bangladesh as a land of green. But environmental degradations in recent decades have detracted a lot from this greenness. This process has been exacerbated by climate change.

Being aware of these developments, she has urged the EU countries to go for a 'green recovery', while they planned strategies for an earth free of the climate change fallout. Alongside highlighting the natural disasters wreaking havoc on Bangladesh of late, the premier has also referred to the calamities increasingly battering the developed West. Without mincing words, she observed Bangladesh was not alone in going through the wrath of nature. She referred to the recent wildfires ravaging different parts of the planet. She has pointed out the calamitous cyclones and hurricanes hitting the US, the Caribbean and a large swathe of Asia. The premier has not forgotten to mention the UK, host of the COP26 climate summit next year, which was stricken by floods. In short, the Bangladesh PM has said that no countries, businesses or financiers are immune to the 'climate crisis'. It's only together can the mankind face up to the global crises, the fight against the corona pandemic showing the way.

The Prime Minister was forthright in pointing the finger at the G20 countries for about 80 pc carbon emissions, adding the bottom 100 countries emitted only 3.5 per cent. The responsibility for cutting emissions, thus, lay with the large emitters through capping the global temperature rise at 1.5C. The PM has claimed Bangladesh to be one of the best prepared among the vulnerable countries to confront extreme weather conditions. But it needs all kinds of support, especially from the EU.