Bangladesh:
Let the World Bank manage fund for nations at risk
The
Bangladesh delegation demands allocation from any climate
change adaptation fund in proportion to the percentage of
its population exposed to climate change. Rie Jerichow -
13/12/2009 - Last week, State Minister of Environment and
Forest in Bangladesh Hasan Mahmud said that at least 15
percent of any climate fund should to go to Bangladesh.
Now, he goes into details with his vision for a fund.
"The
climate change adaptation fund has to be created by mandatory
contribution of developed countries as over and above their
usual overseas development assistance fund," Hasan
Mahmud told at a press conference, according to Asia News
Network.
Mahmud,
who is leading the Bangladesh delegation at the UN climate
change conference in Copenhagen, stressed that more or less
one billion people are affected in the world due to climate
change and at least 15 percent of them live in Bangladesh.
When
the fund offered to Bangladesh by development partners on
bilateral basis to fight climate change becomes operational,
the government might let the World Bank manage the fund
for a short term as per a condition set by the development
partners, said member of the delegation Ainun Nishat, according
to Asia News Network.
African
Union threatens to scuttle a deal African Union climate
negotiator Meles Zenawi has sought Chinese and Indian backing
if the African demands are not being taken seriously.
Rie
Jerichow - 13/12/2009 - "If Copenhagen is going to
be about an agreement that simply rides roughshod over Africa,
then we will try to scuttle it, and I think we have reasonable
assurance we can scuttle it if our concerns are not addressed,"
says Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who represents
the African Union at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen,
according to US government funded Voice of America.
According
to Bloomberg, Meles had received assurances from Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao in a telephone conversation earlier this
week that China won’t sign any climate change agreement
in Copenhagen unless African demands for compensation for
the effects of global warming are met.
On
emissions, lots of progress has been made, Meles says. According
to AFP, his primary worry is about funding.
According
to Voice of America, Meles would stop in Paris and London
for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown before heading to Copenhagen.
Here, he would seek assurances that the offer pledged by
European countries would be what he called "real money"
and not an illusion.
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