Unlock climate finance, stop arms-race : PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while placing six-point proposals, urged world leaders to unlock climate finance for the victim nations and end the arms-race to divert resources into climate fund.

Senseless arms-race must be stopped and resources need to be diverted into mobilizing the much-needed fund for fighting climate change. Let's keep in mind, when the existence of humanity is at stake, pursuing narrow interests will come to nothing, she said.

She made the remarks in her recommendations, placed at the panel discussion, titled "From Pocket to Planet: Scaling Up Climate Finance" at the Munich Security Conference 2024 here on Friday (16 February).

While placing her first proposal, Bangladesh Premier said, "We must find solutions to unlock climate financing to keep us on track by implementing the six suggestions."

She reiterated that developed countries must fulfill their commitment to provide $100 billion per year up to 2025, based on a delivery plan.

And, by the end of this year, we all must agree on a new climate financing target for post-2025, preferably above $100 billion, on the basis of scientific evidence," she said.

In her second proposal, Sheikh Hasina said the world needs to get rid of wars and conflicts, illegal occupations and mindless killings of unarmed civilians, especially women and children, which the globe is witnessing in Gaza and elsewhere. The impacts of sanctions and counter-sanctions are also felt far away from the conflict zones.

In her third proposal, she said the acute imbalance in financing for mitigation and adaptation needs to be addressed by at least doubling the current adaptation finance. To this end, she thanked French President Macron for committing to providing 1 billion Euros to Bangladesh to cope with the climate change impacts.

Placing the 4th proposal, she said the long pending issue of streamlining access to existing international climate funds by developing countries must be resolved.
 
She said, In the case of Bangladesh, we only have two eligible entities to get financing from the 'Green Climate Fund' while two more are in the process. Placing her fifth proposal, Sheikh Hasina said the reform of the global financing architecture must show meaningful results, especially in managing the debt burden of climate-vulnerable countries by expanding their access to grants and concessional loans.

In the final and sixth recommendation, the Prime Minister said the governments need to invest in the appropriate plans, policies and instruments to mobilize private capital flows for climate action. Simultaneously, international financial institutions need to develop innovative and blended financing mechanisms to attract private capital for bankable projects.

It is evident that the large climate financing gaps cannot be addressed without the participation of the effective private sector, she said.

Sheikh Hasina said all recognise the need for substantially scaling up the current level of international climate financing for investments in mitigation and adaptation.

Regrettably, the climate financing committed and available so far remains severely insufficient. This is further complicated by the absence of an internationally agreed definition of 'climate financing' and its accounting methods, she said.