CLIMATE SUMMIT IN BAKU BRINGS LITTLE CHEER FOR BANGLADESH

Bangladesh, a delta nation of 170 million people, is vulnerable to climate change and related disasters. Frequent floods, cyclones, and occasional droughts claiming lives and livelihoods every year speak of the depth of the climate vulnerability.

- Farid Hossain

Not unsurprisingly, Bangladesh has been at the forefront of the most vulnerable developing countries as they try to devise national strategies to minimize the damages and intensify the negotiations with the rich countries, bilaterally and at international forums, to get better deals. But more often than not we don’t get enough of what we need. That is unfortunate.

When the Baku climate summit wrapped up last month the rich countries agreed to triple finance to developing countries, from the previous goal of USD 100 billion annually, to USD 300 billion annually by 2035.

The developed nations, which are mostly responsible for global warming, also agreed to do more in all actors and work together to scale up finance to developing countries, from public and private sources to the amount of USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035.

Known formally as the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), it was agreed after two weeks of intensive negotiations and several years of preparatory work, in a process that requires all nations to unanimously agree on every word of the agreement, according to the COP29 conference documents.