A climate advocacy group yesterday (Saturday) vented its frustration over the outcome of the CoP21 convention, saying Bangladesh should come up with its own alternative to combat climate change. The press conference, titled ‘Madrid Climate Conference and Civil Society Observations’, was organised at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU). Moderated by M Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of COAST Trust, the discussion was attended by Dr Atiq Rahaman of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), Md. Ziaul Hoque Mukta from Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihood (CSRL) and others. The keynote was presented by Syed Aminul Hoque of COAST Trust.

In the keynote presentation, Aminul Hoque said the negotiations in CoP25 in Madrid have been the longest in history, but have ended with a deadlock and resultant disappointment over most of the important issues. The major emitters failed to show how they plan to resolve the issue by 2020 and broke their promises to carry out long-term financing, which had been very much expected by most vulnerable countries (MVCs) and less developed countries (LDCs).

The finalisation of the Paris Agreement Rulebook is yet to be completed, said Aminul Hoque. He said the existing deep divide and contentions between developed and vulnerable countries might hamper the next negotiations in 2020 and deepen the crisis, and make it difficult to find a solution.  

“Hence, the government has to consider it critically and will have to take the initiative accordingly in the next climate conference (CoP26) that will be held in Glasgow in December 2020,” Aminul Hoque said.

Atiq Rahaman said the politics and fossil fuel interests are superseding the interests of the people and the planet. “These are being played by the US, Japan, Australia and Brazil, and it once again exposed their lack of goodwill to save the millions of vulnerable people worldwide. This is a wilful rejection of science.”

Ziual Hoque said because of the connivance between rich and some advanced developing countries, the Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) principle in the Paris Agreement (PA) has been lost, which has weakened the negotiating capacity of the MVCs.

This, in turn, has turned the PA into non-binding in its implementation. He, too, urged the government to explore separate a forum under MVCs at the next conference.