Activists hail grants, refutes WB loan for climate change adaptation

Environmental activists at a rally said Bangladesh should stick to the demand for realising compensation and grants to face the climate induced challenges, refusing large-scale loans at London conference. brThe rally was organised at the city's central Shaheed Minar Wednesday in the wake of the Bangladesh Climate Change Conference now being held in London, reports BSS. brAdviser for Finance and Planning AB Mirza Azizul Islam, now in London, is leading the Bangladesh delegation to the conference. brSeveral grassroots organisations including Dev-Tec, Equity and Justice Working Group (EJWG), Dhakabashi and Prodeep further demanded immediate development of new institutions and mechanism in the country to deal with the climate related challenges. brParticipants in the rally said it was appreciable that the World Bank (WB) and the DFID of the United Kingdom (UK) government had proposed US$ 4.00 billion for Bangladesh to cope with climate change problems up to 2015. brBut they denounced WB's $3.00-billion loan proposal as against $1.00 billion grants by DFID and other agencies. brIt will only add to the country's credit burdens and balance of payment, the participants said. brThey said the WB should not be the funding agency as it works for the developed countries who are responsible for today's global warming and its adverse impact over developing economy. brMoreover, Bangladesh is demanding compensation from developed countries on the basis of 'exploiters and polluters should pay' for damage. So, Bangladesh should not accept loans and stick to claims for compensation, they added. brRezaul Karim Chowdhury of EJWG said Bangladesh suffered a total loss of crops and property to the tune of $6.00 billion alone from Sidr, but post cyclone assistance from developed world was only a few million dollars. brHe said developed countries were trying to switch the climate change fund to business purposes and affected countries like Bangladesh had opposed such approach at the Bali conference and would continue to oppose it.brHe said climate change projects were not enough.brWhat we need to do is to focus result oriented projects and implement those with people's participation, Rezaul Karim said. brHe also demanded a Public Audit Commission to monitor the utilisation of funds relating to climate change projects. brThe government should also set up mechanism to assess the ecological losses from global warming so that Bangladesh could develop and present critical cases for compensation, he emphasised. brDev-Tec President Ferdousi Begum demanded an international climate change research and training institute in Bangladesh, which would help develop sustainable response to crops, livelihood and sea level rise. brMustafa Kamal Akhand demanded the developed world should give resettlement opportunities at their lands of 22 million climate refugees in Bangladesh as these people were going to lose their homes due to sea level rise in decades.