DHAKA: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging world leaders to create a multibillion-dollar fund to fight the effects of climate change.
He says governments must create a $100 billion ''Green Climate Fund'' at UN-sponsored climate change talks that start November 28 in Durban, South Africa.
Ban said at the opening of a climate meeting in Bangladesh's capital on Monday that the world should make a real move ''now.''
Representatives from about 30 countries under a platform ''Climate Vulnerable Forum'' are meeting for two days in Dhaka to design a united stand on the future finance of the climate schemes they desperately need to limit increasing loss of human life and other damage because of global warming.
The meeting in Dhaka is for 18 countries most affected by climate change to agree a united front ahead of UN talks in Durban, South Africa in December where a “Green Climate Fund” will be negotiated.
The forum is a response to the fact that the pace of international climate negotiations is “very slow and inadequate” said Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, speaking at the opening on Monday.
Ban also praised low-lying and deeply impoverished Bangladesh for becoming a “world leader in disaster preparedness.”
Using early warning systems and community volunteers, Bangladesh has significantly reduced the number of people who die during cyclones, showing the world that “natural hazards need not cause human catastrophe,” Ban said.
Bangladesh is building more cyclone shelters, extending its climate resistance agricultural scheme, planting greenery along coastal belts to fight climate change – all using its money from its domestic climate fund, Hasina said.
“We are bearing the brunt of the damage though we made negligible or no contribution to the menace.
This constitutes a serious injustice and demands immediate rectification and remedy,” she said.
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