Creation of regional climate fund for S Asia underscored

Experts at a dialogue urged the SAARC countries Saturday to create a regional climate change fund to build climate resilient South Asia by taking effective adaptation and mitigation measures, reports BSS.
All South Asian countries are vulnerable to the adverse impacts of global climate change and collective efforts are needed to deal with climate change issues, they told the dialogue on "Managing the Impact of Climate Change in South Asia" jointly organised by Bureau of Economic Research of Dhaka University (DU) and Hanns Seidel Foundation, Germany at the conference room of Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of DU Saturday.
DU Vice-chancellor Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddiquie.  Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of Germany Dr Ferdinand von Wehye and Additional Secretary of Ministry of Environment and Forest MA Hannan addressed the dialogue with teacher of Department of Economics of DU Prof Dr Barkat-e-Khuda in the chair.
Executive Director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies A Atiq Rahman presented the keynote at the conference.
Prof Arefin said Bangladesh is the worst victim of climate change despite its little contribution to carbon emission.
"We have to intensify research and academic activities on climate change issues to develop better ways and means to cope with its negative impact to protect our planet," he added.
In his presentation, Dr Atiq said the rich countries are mainly responsible for global climate change as they emit lion's share of carbon for rapid industrialisation. But developing countries like Bangladesh are being victimised due to unfair practices of rich nations, he added.
"Almost all developed countries agreed to provide financial support to poor countries to face climate change impact. But they do not provide financial support," Dr Atiq added.