Global leaders urged to cut greenhouse gas emission
Eminent green activists and civil society members on Wednesday urged global leaders to forget their differences of opinion and commit unilaterally at COP26 today to work together to cut greenhouse gas emission drastically.
They gave their call at a webinar organised by the Centre for Governance Studies, a non-government think tank.
‘Global leaders should realise that climate change impacts are not threatening developing and poor countries alone but the globe as a whole,’ said Institute of Architects president Mubasser Hussain.
‘Covid-19 has shown that world leaders can unite if it is needed and we hope that we have learnt our lesson,’ he added.
The COP26 is going to be held at Glasgow today with the participation of over 200 countries where many heads of states are expected to be present.
Speakers at the webinar urged developed countries for taking responsibilities for pushing the world into the climate crisis and compensate developing and poor nations for the cost the developed countries made the world to pay.
‘Internal climate migration has already begun in the country and Bangladesh will have to handle one of the largest crowds of internal climate migrants,’ said Atiq Rahman, the executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies.
He pointed out that increased salinity had already forced thousands of people to leave coastal areas.
Bangladesh, according to Atiq, spends $10 billion to $12 billion every year for climate adaptation.
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association’s chief executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan said that Bangladesh is among the countries in the world to see parts of their landscape disappear under the sea by 2050.
‘It is the development model of the western countries that brings the world to this crisis,’ she said.
Referring to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the speakers reminded that the world has already warmed over 1 degree Celsius relative to preindustrial period.
The goal of limiting the warming within 1.5 degree Celsius in this century is not possible to achieve, they said, even if countries implemented their promise that they made on the eve of COP26.
The speakers also called for measures to reduce the use of coal and asked the developed world to consume less.
The webinar was also attended by Dhaka University teacher Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, architect Iqbal Habib, CGS chairman Manjur A Chowdhury and its executive director Zillur Rahman.
News Courtesy:
https://www.newagebd.net/article/149869/global-leaders-urged-to-cut-greenhouse-gas-emission