Prove capacity to access $100b aid: UNDP chief
Sunday, 14 November 2010
UNDP administrator Helen Clark said Bangladesh should show its strategy and capacity to secure the global climate adaptation fund, which could be as big as US$100 billion a year.
She said her organisation is advocating for the "best system" to deliver international climate financing for smaller developing nations.
"This requires a very smart adaptation strategy," Ms Clark told a press briefing in the city while winding up a three-day visit to Bangladesh, her first since helming the UN agency in 1999.
She said a committee led by the prime ministers of Ethiopia and Norway agreed that a $100 billion annual climate fund is "feasible", even if the fund is ready yet.
The UNDP chief flew Thursday to the far-flung Char Kukri-Mukri Bhola district to see first hand how the islanders are adapting them to a changing climate by planting mangroves. The aim of her visit, she said, is to look at Bangladesh's climate change adaptation issue.
Climate scientists forecast that if sea level rises by up to a metre this century, as many as 30 million Bangladeshis could become climate refugees.
Ms Clark said Bangladesh is the "most exposed country" and the vulnerability of its southwestern region shows how endangered Bangladesh's environment is.
The UNDP top executive noted much of the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) money under the Kyoto Protocol went to large, emerging nations such as China, India and Brazil. Small and poorer nations couldn't access it, she added.
So, she said, her organisation is advocating for the best system to benefit smaller developing nations like Bangladesh.
Last year's UN climate summit agreed to disburse almost $30 billion over the next three years in quick-start funds under the Copenhagen Accord.
"But all depends on the ongoing climate change talks," she told reporters.
Bangladesh is the second biggest recipient of UNDP development aid in the Asia Pacific region after Afghanistan, she said. Its annual development budget in Bangladesh averages $70-80 million.
She avoided a direct answer when pressed to comment on the latest political situation in Bangladesh and the chaos over giving up the cantonment residence of the Opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia.
"I think we can contribute to the development of politics, that is, through dialogue. And parliament is a place for that kind of dialogue," said Ms Clark who served as the Prime Minister of New Zealand for nine years.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, calling for quick release of international fund as promised in UN climate conference in Copenhagen, sought Saturday UNDP's support to address poverty and migration induced by a shifting climate.
"We are anxiously waiting for operation of the 'International Climate Fund' and hope COP-16 in December next would establish this fund with specific allocations for Bangladesh as the most vulnerable country (MVC)," she said.
Inaugurating the Asia-Pacific Regional Cluster Conference of UNDP at a local hotel, she expressed the hope that the world leaders would reach a positive agreement based on the Bali Plan of Action with agreed cuts of greenhouse emissions to reduce climate change risk.
Listing her government's various programmes for socio- economic development, she said all efforts of the government are being adversely affected by the impacts of climate change, although the country's share of carbon gas emission is negligible.
She said natural disasters have increased in frequency in recent times in Bangladesh due to adverse impact of climate change that wreak havoc on lives and properties in the country.
"Climate migrants are already pouring into our cities causing social disorder and straining existing infrastructure," she said adding that quarter of the country's landmass would go under water with one meter rise of sea level in the coastal areas.
In this context, she said her present government has adopted a 134-point adaptation and mitigation action plan in facing the climate change challenges caused by global warming.
The plan includes dredging of rivers, recovering cultivable land, afforesting 20 percent of land by 2015, creating green belts on river banks, developing climate resilient crops, using renewable and clean energy and constructing cyclone shelters in the coastal areas.
The Prime Minister said despite resources constraint her government had set up a "Climate Change Resilient Fund' to this end.
She said her organisation is advocating for the "best system" to deliver international climate financing for smaller developing nations.
"This requires a very smart adaptation strategy," Ms Clark told a press briefing in the city while winding up a three-day visit to Bangladesh, her first since helming the UN agency in 1999.
She said a committee led by the prime ministers of Ethiopia and Norway agreed that a $100 billion annual climate fund is "feasible", even if the fund is ready yet.
The UNDP chief flew Thursday to the far-flung Char Kukri-Mukri Bhola district to see first hand how the islanders are adapting them to a changing climate by planting mangroves. The aim of her visit, she said, is to look at Bangladesh's climate change adaptation issue.
Climate scientists forecast that if sea level rises by up to a metre this century, as many as 30 million Bangladeshis could become climate refugees.
Ms Clark said Bangladesh is the "most exposed country" and the vulnerability of its southwestern region shows how endangered Bangladesh's environment is.
The UNDP top executive noted much of the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) money under the Kyoto Protocol went to large, emerging nations such as China, India and Brazil. Small and poorer nations couldn't access it, she added.
So, she said, her organisation is advocating for the best system to benefit smaller developing nations like Bangladesh.
Last year's UN climate summit agreed to disburse almost $30 billion over the next three years in quick-start funds under the Copenhagen Accord.
"But all depends on the ongoing climate change talks," she told reporters.
Bangladesh is the second biggest recipient of UNDP development aid in the Asia Pacific region after Afghanistan, she said. Its annual development budget in Bangladesh averages $70-80 million.
She avoided a direct answer when pressed to comment on the latest political situation in Bangladesh and the chaos over giving up the cantonment residence of the Opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia.
"I think we can contribute to the development of politics, that is, through dialogue. And parliament is a place for that kind of dialogue," said Ms Clark who served as the Prime Minister of New Zealand for nine years.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, calling for quick release of international fund as promised in UN climate conference in Copenhagen, sought Saturday UNDP's support to address poverty and migration induced by a shifting climate.
"We are anxiously waiting for operation of the 'International Climate Fund' and hope COP-16 in December next would establish this fund with specific allocations for Bangladesh as the most vulnerable country (MVC)," she said.
Inaugurating the Asia-Pacific Regional Cluster Conference of UNDP at a local hotel, she expressed the hope that the world leaders would reach a positive agreement based on the Bali Plan of Action with agreed cuts of greenhouse emissions to reduce climate change risk.
Listing her government's various programmes for socio- economic development, she said all efforts of the government are being adversely affected by the impacts of climate change, although the country's share of carbon gas emission is negligible.
She said natural disasters have increased in frequency in recent times in Bangladesh due to adverse impact of climate change that wreak havoc on lives and properties in the country.
"Climate migrants are already pouring into our cities causing social disorder and straining existing infrastructure," she said adding that quarter of the country's landmass would go under water with one meter rise of sea level in the coastal areas.
In this context, she said her present government has adopted a 134-point adaptation and mitigation action plan in facing the climate change challenges caused by global warming.
The plan includes dredging of rivers, recovering cultivable land, afforesting 20 percent of land by 2015, creating green belts on river banks, developing climate resilient crops, using renewable and clean energy and constructing cyclone shelters in the coastal areas.
The Prime Minister said despite resources constraint her government had set up a "Climate Change Resilient Fund' to this end.