Climate change and the need for adaptation

Bernice Lee

Good afternoon, everybody. A very warm – a very, very warm welcome from me, Bernice Lee. I’m the Research Director for Futures at Chatham House here, and this event today is on Climate Change and the Need for Adaptation. This – let me start by apologising to everybody for our late start, as our Prime Minister was delayed earlier on from a previous event, I was running late.

Now, I think the good news and the bad news is that after the summer of water and fire that we all had, I need to do a lot less introduction, in terms of why this is an extremely important event that we are gathering together around in London. And because of that, it is also our great pleasure as well to spend this afternoon as we are, two months from COP26, thinking through some of the challenges around adaptation, which is no longer the purview of frontline countries like Bangladesh, that we will hear from today, but also, increasingly felt around the world as well.

Now, a little bit of housekeeping, if I may. Today this event is on the record. It will be recorded, online, and let me welcome both our audience here in person here at Chatham House, as well as our online audience as well. It will be recorded, and for all the attendees, if people would like to tweet about the event, please use the #CHEvents. And for those who are coming to join us online today, and thank you for joining us, please feel free to submit a question online in the Q&A function, and then the raise hands and chat function will be disabled. And when you ask a question online, would you also tell us, when we come to the Q&A part, whether or not you would like to ask the question with your own voice, or you would like me to read out your question as well.

Now, since we are running a little bit late, and now I must confess, because it is September, I’m feeling a little bit rusty, the back to school feeling, so let me settle down, I’m feeling a bit more, settling in. So – and so, without further ado as well, we have a treat today, because we have an introduction not only from me, but more importantly from Her Excellency Miss Saida Muna Tasneem, Bangladesh High Commissioner. It’s the greatest pleasure today for me to introduce her, to give her an introduction, also because she has been an extremely active advocate on climate change issues. And since Bangladesh took over – the President of Bangladesh took over as the Chair of CVF, the Climate Vulnerable Forum last year, she has also been convening the High Commissioner and Ambassadors in London, as part of this push towards COP26, and obviously climate change action, as part of the Climate Vulnerability Forum – the Vulnerability Forum that she is chairing the London-based High Commissioner and Ambassadors as well. So, without further ado, Her Excellency, would you kindly come to the stage, the podium, and introduce our session today? Thank you.

H.E. Saida Muna Tasneem

Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone, and first of all, I’d like to thank everyone who’s come here to our programme today, which Bangladesh High Commission London is very proud to be hosting with Chatham House, and thank you, Bernice, for that introduction. I didn’t deserve that, but I would particularly like to address our Honourable Foreign Minister, His Excellency Dr A K Abdul Momen MP, and His Excellency Mohamed Nasheed, former President of Maldives, Speaker of the Majlis, the Parliament of Maldives, and the CVF Thematic Ambassador for Ambition. Ambassador Ken O’Flaherty, I’d like to recognise him, the COP26 Regional Ambassador for Asia and Pacific. He’s present here today. We invited him to say something on behalf of the COP26. And, of course, CVF High Commissioners and Ambassadors, resident in London, I know many of you have come, at my invitation, so thank you very, very much, we’re very grateful to you. I would like to particularly thank High Commissioner of Maldives, my friend Farah, for getting President Nasheed here, and always been a very good friend, ladies and gentlemen, everyone who’s come from the Bangladesh British community, also.

And we’re just so privileged and honoured to have the opportunity to co-partnering this here in the Chatham House on the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence, and also 50th anniversary of Bangladesh-UK diplomatic relations. And it’s just so – you know, it’s such a great honour to have our honourable Foreign Minister visit us in London today, where he just had this morning a meeting with COP26 Presidency, and the meeting went so well. Ambassador Ken O’Flaherty was there and the meeting – the gist of the meeting is that COP26, perhaps the most political COP after COP21 in Paris, looks forward to, you know, interacting and, you know, a dialogue with the CVF Presidency and the CVF countries, and their focus, you know, everything that COP26 is aiming for, and everything that CVF is aiming for, there is a great solidarity here. So we’re trying to build that, as President of CVF.

As you are aware that Bangladesh has assumed the Presidency of the CVF Forum of 48 most climatically vulnerable countries, which was created in 2009, with only 11 countries, and thanks to President Nasheed, his initiative, and we were one of the founder members. And in 2011, you know, we became the first, you know, rotating President of CVF. And this will be the second time that Bangladesh’s Honourable Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, she has assumed the Presidency of the CVF.

Immediately after assuming the Presidency last October, she made a call, it’s called Midnight Survival Deadline, and there she called out to all the countries, in particular the most – the biggest emitters. I don’t want to name groups, but definitely, you know, the finger points at the G20 countries, which is the greatest emitters, 80% of the emissions is made by them. And she’d made them a call, that please submit your embassies ambitious, declare your net-zero ambitions, and she called that – this is a survival question for CVF countries. It’s an existential threat, and for you, it is a matter of emitting or not emitting, for us, it’s a matter of survival. And that was called the Midnight Survival Deadline and she gave a deadline of 31st December at that time.

Later on, Her Excellency Sheikh Hasina also joined the Ambitions Summit, organised by UK Prime Minister, and later on, we’ve also joined the Global, you know, Alliance for Adaptation. Bangladesh is also hosting the GCA, the Global Centre for Adaptation South Asia Regional Office. In London, as representing the CVF Presidency, I have tried my best to get together, you know, to organise all the CVF Ambassadors here and High Commissioners, and wonderfully, we’ve organised many programmes where we’ve invited the COP26 Presidency, Minister Zac Goldsmith, Adaptation Ambassador Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and we also participated in many of the Chatham House events. So, thanks to Chatham House for being such a champion of CVF and of course, Bangladesh’s own climate vulnerabilities.

So, with these words, I would like to say a few words about my Honourable Minister. You know, Honourable Minister Dr Abdul Momen, has – he is actually an economician. He’s a Teacher, he’s taught all his life, probably for 36 years in the United States, in University of Boston, Harvard, many universities, and he is – you know, there’s a bit of political background to his family. His family has always been freedom fighting. That means, in 1971, in a war of liberation when Bangladesh was born, and their family had made great sacrifices, including his father, and he is a great, great patriot. He has submitted – he actually surrendered his US passport to become a Member of Parliament in Bangladesh. And Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, you know, appointed him as Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN in 2009, and he served there for seven years, seven glorious years, where he secured many, many awards from the UN for Bangladesh, including the Champions of the Earth award, which our Prime Minister had, you know, received. He also was the Vice President of the UN General Assembly, he was the President of UNICEF, and served in many positions in [inaudible – 28:24]. But I think most importantly right now, after we’ve assumed the CVF Presidency, he’s going around and he’s really, really voicing the concerns of the CVF countries and he – when COP26 President visited Bangladesh last June, he hosted him, and they had a very good meeting.

Today, again, we requested the COP26 Presidency that on 1st and 2nd of November, on the sidelines of the War Leaders’ Summit, the CVF would like to meet the COP26 Presidency. So there will be a CVF COP26 dialogue, and he promised to give us a slot on 1st and 2nd. So if we get that, it’ll be the – it’ll be such a, you know, blessing for the CVF, that we’ll have a dialogue, a leaders’ dialogue of the CVF with the COP26 Presidency. And of course, we are also looking towards a declaration, the Dhaka-Glasgow Declaration. So honourable Foreign Minister is here for a two-day visit, and he’s met with the Trade Secretary and also the CVF COP26 Presidency, and you know, there was a common resolve. It’s called the CVF COP26 Solidarity. That’s why we named the topic of his speech today on that. And we hope that, you know, from this meeting with President Nasheed here, we can take on, leading up to the COP26, we can do great things to demand that the developed countries do not contribute to raising the temperature of this world, so that we don’t go under water. Thank you very much.

Bernice Lee

Thank you so much, High Commissioner, for setting us up so nicely for an ambitious discussion this afternoon as well, because I think ambition has to be the name of the game. Without further ado as well, Dr Abdul Momen, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, would you like to give us your keynote speech as well? Thank you very much.

H.E. Dr A. K. Abdul Momen MP

Thank you, madam. Good afternoon. We have a new normal, look at – don’t you like it? I’m so pleased to be here at this Chatham House. Madam Chair, Miss Bernice Lee, and members of the House, ladies and gentlemen, salaam-alaikum, peace be upon you. It is indeed a great pleasure to be amidst you at the Chatham House. I’m delighted to see His Excellency, President Mohamed Nasheed, the CVF Thematic Ambassador for Ambition. He joins us today, along with many other distinguished Ambassadors, High Commissioners, from London. President Nasheed, our Speaker of the Maldives Parliament, he is the Founder of CVF, a group of [inaudible – 31:13] most vulnerable – most climatically vulnerable countries, and currently, Bangladesh is the President of the institution he built, and around 2009. I’m so happy to see President Nasheed here. I thank Chatham House and the Bangladesh High Commission in London for organising this talk.

As I speak here today, COVID-19 pandemic has already taken away more than 4.4 million our fellow human lives. The pandemic has torn apart the existing script of societal, national and global norms, and the world is undertaking minimal tax survey post-pandemic recovery. The climate crisis takes no break. It keeps unfolding at an aggressive space, and continues to remain the great, great threat to human civilisation.

Recently published IPCC six assessment report once again warns us that the temperature rise to date has irreversibly altered the planetary order. July 2021 indeed, the hottest month in last 142 years. The report is yet another wakeup call ahead of November COP26, for us to take decisive actions to save our planet from a climate change induced disaster. Our response to the pandemic therefore is crucial at this stage. Every measure we take to revive the economy, if not aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement, will have an impact on global carbon emissions. Instead of taking a path of quick, unsustainable recovery at our own peril, we should focus on low carbon policies and circular market structures that will lead us to achieving the ambitious goal of zero carbon emission by 2050. The choice is ours.

Dear friends, rank number seven in Global Climate Risk Index in 2020’a, most at risk countries, Bangladesh is often referred to as the ground zero for climate vulnerabilities and disasters. Despite being a non-emitter, Bangladesh remains at the tipping point of global emissions and temperature rise. Our people live with IPCC projections that by 2050, more than 17% of our coastlines may go underwater, displacing nearly 30 million people. Everywhere, we lose 2% of our GDP to climate induced disasters, including sea level rise, increasing salinity, river erosion, floods, and droughts.

Bangladesh already has six million climatically displaced population. Each year, because of global warming, increasing salinity, and of course, river erosion, there are hundreds and thousands of people are being uprooted from their homes. And the government has the responsibility to help rehabilitate them, although government has no role in global warming. It is the abuse and misuse of resources by certain countries that resulted in our disaster. Therefore, we should also ask for a separate fund, so that the global leadership should come forward in helping the countries, which are all facing this music for help rehabilitation.

We also have around 1.1 million, you know, displaced people from Myanmar, known as Rohingya, and they are – we have given them shelter in around 6,800 wooded areas, which used to be, you know, the grazing places for elephant, now there are these 1.1 million Rohingya, and it is also costing our environment and ecosystem. And yet our nation, under the visionary leadership Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has emerged as a leader in climate adaptation and resilience. While adaptation has been our forte, ours was the first Parliament in Asia, and I feel good about it, that we declare climate change as a planetary emergency in 2019. The resolution was adopted unanimously. All members of the Parliament voted in favour of this, because we must take action now, not tomorrow. We were the first LDC to set up a US$450 million climate change trust fund, back in 2009, with our own resources. It finances more than 800 adaptation resilience projects. Each year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is investing US$5 billion into building climate resilience. We are not a rich country, yet we have to do it.

In our journey to Glasgow, we are updating our National Adaptation Plan towards a more ambitious adaptation regime, complemented by ambitious and quantifiable NDCs towards 40% renewable by 2050. Bangladesh is also making nature-based solutions. Our adaptation and resilience mainstay for conservation our ecosystems. Our locally-led adaptation innovations, including floating agriculture, flood defence and cyclone shelters, conservation of the wetlands, and the mangrove for carbon capture, all are now global adaptation models. This year, we have declared the Mujib Climate Prosperity Decade, 2021 to 2030, named after our father of the nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The Decade aims to relentlessly pursue strategic low-carbon development and policy framework to set Bangladesh a good trajectory from one of the vulnerability to one of the resilience to prosperity.

If people take action, there is good result. I may remind you that in 1970 we had a ferocious cyclone, and that killed around 556,000 people, 1970. It washed away and killed so many people. But afterwards, we have our home-based adaptation programme. We created 14,400 cyclone centres, and also, the early warning system result is better; result is really excellent. We had similar in a cyclone with same ferocity in 2007, and also, recently, but fortunately, because our, you know, actions that we have taken, only 132 people died, while 556,000 in 70, because the actions that we have taken, only had 132 people died. Even we have taken adequate measures, so that our livestock do not get washed away. But unfortunately, we cannot save many our properties. You see, we got the tidal waves, and the cyclone comes, you know, and nowadays, other countries are following same music. And since we have not done enough much earlier, and that’s why currently, I see many other countries where there was not that much flood or, you know, tidal waves, they are also facing the same music. Therefore, it is a warning call, that the global leadership, it does not matter who you are, everybody should work together in partnership, in collaboration, to face this challenge.

On 8th September Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina established in Dhaka the South Asian Regional Office for the Global Centre of Adaptation in collaboration with the Global Centre on Adaptation in the Netherlands. The Centre is fostering partnership and collaborations amongst South Asian countries, in exchanging knowledge, experience, and best practices towards ambitious climate adaptation projects to protect the vulnerable communities. Ladies and gentlemen, in 2020, Bangladesh was entrusted with the Presidency of the Climate Vulnerable Forum for a second time, under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s global climate leadership. A global partnership of 48 most climate vulnerable nations, symbol the combined voice of over one billion people facing existential threats, and also security threats. President Nasheed can, you know, elaborate on that.

The current Chair of the CVF, Bangladesh [inaudible – 41:05], is to support its members’ countries, gain technology, loan aid and financing, in the forefront of climate adaptation, and the resilience building and amplify the voices of COP26 and beyond. We like to have one voice altogether. However, for us, the vulnerable countries, adaptation has its limits, as global adaptation actions are far from keeping space with emissions and lack of finance and political will. The biggest emitters, mostly the G20 countries, need to come forward to support our adaptation and mitigation measures. To this end, the upcoming COP26 must set the stage for a global solidarity, especially between the COP26 Presidency and the CVF members.

At Glasgow, we want a decisive action oriented declaration that should contain the following. First, ambitious nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, from the developed countries to limit the temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Second, disbursement of the promised US$100 billion climate financing of which 50% should be dedicated to adaptation and another 50% for mitigation measures. Third, new additional and adequate financial mechanism to address loss and damage. And I’m thankful to the Presidency of UK, the COP26 President of UK, they have included a slot for the issue on loss and damage. Fourth, transferable low carbon innovative technology to the vulnerable countries at zero cost. And also, they should also come up with a special fund to help rehabilitate the uprooted people that are being uprooted, due to river erosion or climatic changes, for their rehabilitation.

This morning I was encouraged to hear from the COP26 President Designate, Alok Sharma, his willingness to work closely with Bangladesh CVS Presidency. I have also tabled CVF Presidency’s proposal to the COP26 Presidency, to host a CVF COP26 Leaders’ Summit at Glasgow, at the sidelines of the World Leaders’ Summit. At Glasgow, the CVF and COP26 need to join hands in forging shared climate ambitions towards a successful Dhaka-Glasgow CVF COP26 Declaration. Climate change in an [inaudible – 44:01] for us, the CVF. Therefore, I call upon friends of the CVF here at the Chatham House to amplify the voice of the most vulnerable communities at the upcoming COP26 and support the CVF COP26 climate solidarity. I thank you, [mother tongue – 44:23].

Bernice Lee

Thank you very much, Minister, and I think that it is great that you reminded of many, many, many important things, first of which is how mitigation and adaptation goes together, that it’s not one or the other. You also, at this time, very importantly reminded us as well, the importance of international co-operation and solidarity, when it is actually needed more than ever. And last but certainly not least, reminded us as well of all the responsibility of the major economies, such as G20, and outlining this very clear vision of the four steps that you heard from, obviously, finance, all the way to transfer of low carbon technology, that would be needed.

So, if I may, sort of, take you through some of – you know, some of the questions, and involve some of the audience as well in the process. I mean, you know, obviously, we all know how important finance is in this. The 100 billion is important. But I’m just – I’m interested to hear from you, what would you consider a success at COP26, in addition to money, finances? So what is an ambitious and successful outcome from an adaptation perspective?

H.E. Dr A. K. Abdul Momen MP

So you ask me what is the ambition, what is the expectation of Bangladesh? You see, our expectation is just like that of the CVF expectation. We have certain goals, and one is we want each country, must aggressively pursue their NDCs, so that they – and global warming must not exceed 1.5 degrees Centigrade. That is number one. Number two, we would like to see that industrialised countries should come forward with their $100 billion, you know, the – annually, that fund for the climate change. That should be up there. No more talks, we need to see that the money is up there., and out of them, 50% should be, you know, dedicated for adaptation, and 50% for mitigation. We know that adaptation is not enough, unless we do mitigation, and here everybody has to come forward and sacrifice so that we can also take measures for mitigation.

And the other one we, of course, we need for our own purpose. We need to have more renewable or green energy and, for that, we – if we just want, that’s not enough. We must be supported with required technology and the financing, and financing mechanism should be established, so that the countries that are looking forward, renewable or green energy, they could be, you know, they can get it. So these are three, and for my own country, Bangladesh, I also looking forward to see that a special fund be created for those who are uprooting from their homes. This, as I said, these people who have been living there for years, they’re suddenly being uprooted from their homes, from their traditional jobs, without nowhere to go, and the country has become responsible to help rehabilitate them.

It is time the global leadership should think about it and also help those countries, because these are the climate migrants, these displaced people, I term them as climate migrants. And if there are too many, it can create, you know, this, you know, the security problem. I often say, “Let’s say 30 million people is uprooted from their coastal band. Where will they go? They will try to move around the neighbouring countries.” And that might create – and without job and without home, that might create security problem. So, currently, the world leaders are spending $2.3 trillion for, you know, this security, weapons and mass destruction, all those. $2.3 trillion a year just for enhancing security of this human being. But if you don’t spend some money out a bit for the, you know, the uprooted people, the climate, you know, migrant, then that may not last long. So, they should come forward, and you know, share some of those funds for helping those uprooted people.

In the process, we can establish security of this Planet Earth. We know that – all of us know, we have one planet so far. One or two guys could have gone to another, but we all have to live in this Planet Earth and we have to ensure that this planet survives. It is the only planet we have. We have to leave it to our generations, so that they can have a better living, and that’s obligatory on us. My, you know, future generations may not pardon me if we don’t do things today. Today is the time.

So we don’t have any special as such. We are along with the rest of the vulnerable countries. And of course, those who are not vulnerable, even they will face the music in future, unless they take actions. Currently, we are facing the music, but others – I was told that my old alma mater, Harvard and MIT, they will be under water. That will be sad for me. So it is not only Bangladesh that would be under water, even great institutions that we take pride on, they are likely to go under water and therefore, global leadership should come forward. There should be a political will to face this challenge. The thing that is missing is political will, and I want you all to create the political will, public awareness, and the process, create a political will. Where there is a will, there is a way. I believe in it.

So, because Bangladesh is an example, Sheikh Hasina tried her best to achieve the goals of her father, who was killed, you know, he could not achieve the goals. But she has the will, and single individuals will resulted in a meteoric, you know, improvement of Bangladesh economy. It is no longer a bottomless basket with no hope of survival. It is a vibrant economy. Now it is the land of opportunity. So where there’s a will, you can achieve it. We have – the global leadership has to come forward with the political will, so that we can face the challenge of climate change. For now there’s, like, we call it climate disaster, that’s what they said. Our climate in Bangladesh Parliament, we said ‘planetary emergency’. In IPCC, it says ‘climate disaster’ something instead of – something, a new coined word. Pardon?

Member

Catastrophe.

H.E. Dr A. K. Abdul Momen MP

Huh?

Audience Member

Catastrophe, climate catastrophe.

Bernice Lee

Catastrophe.

H.E. Dr A. K. Abdul Momen MP

Climate catastrophe, yeah, rightfully so, thank you.

Bernice Lee

I mean, I’m just thinking that, obviously, climate vulnerable nations like Bangladesh, is the moral beating heart in many ways of the climate change debate, and certainly action package. Between what you laid out as what you would like to get at COP26 and where we are today, I think that it’s not particularly controversial to say that we have some gaps. So, I just wonder what – how do you feel that CVF, Bangladesh and other – really, the moral beating heart of climate change issue, so what do you think you need to do between now and COP26 for us to get a better outcome, from an adaptation perspective?

H.E. Dr A. K. Abdul Momen MP

You see, I’m here in London. I had no problem of coming here. I’m here in London to put to you, you know, some pressure on the COP President Designate, so that, you know, he can – we are very happy to know the Queen Elizabeth II will attend the event, to give more push to it, to create a big trust on it. So we all are working on it, and here, he’s here, also the same reason, you know, we want to put more pressure on the governments, so that, you know, the issues that are so critical to us, they could be, you know, actually realised. It is no longer talk, there should be some action. We are looking for action. But in my own country, we have made many agreements. We have made many, you know, goals, and we want to achieve. You’ll be surprised to know, in order to have more renewable green energy, we had around ten projects for a coal-based, you know, the power plant projects. We have scrapped seven of them, only because – this is our – you see, we, at cost, because we made the agreement. So even after making the agreement, we just scrapped the seven of them. So we are doing our part of the job, and we need others to come forward and do their part of the job.

Bernice Lee

Excellent. I mean, I have the pleasure of being in the front, and seeing the front row very clearly. So, knowing how many illustrious participants we have here, I think it might be time for us to bring in some of them as well, so, as part of the discussion. And I see, acknowledge, obviously, President Nasheed from Maldives, former President of Maldives, who is now the Speaker for Parliament, but also he is, as you mentioned, the Ambassador, the Thematic Ambassador for Ambition as well, for CVF. So if my colleague can – yeah, you see the microphone coming to you, yes?

H.E. Mohamed Nasheed

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you, Honourable Foreign Minister. As countries get to plan to go to COP26, as it stands, it doesn’t look very promising. In mitigation, the Paris Agreement is not adhered to. Countries are not coming up with ambitious enough NDCs. We were – the thought – the view was that by December last year, countries would have submitted their NDCs. But that didn’t happen, and we were waiting for big emitting countries and everyone to come up with new figures before they went to the COP. That is not happening. Countries have also pledged a vast amount of money since 2009, and only Germany has a recognisable delivery plan for that, no-one else does. The United States is not party to the last agreement. They had recently joined in, and they have no figures or firm enough commitments on the pledged funds. So, as it stands, the COP26 looks like not very convincing argument. Meanwhile, the planet is burning. Meanwhile, the news is bad. We see bad news every day. If Afghanistan hadn’t taken up, then we would have just COP or bad weather and COVID.

We have an opportunity, though, because I am very grateful for Prime Minister, Honourable Bangladeshi Prime Minister Hasina. She has taken leadership. She has got all the climate vulnerable countries around, and she has had a number of discussions with the 48 countries. And I believe that if we are to make the COP a reasonably successful story, which is very important, otherwise immediately the UN system’s credibility is on the line, we cannot be just simply talking. This is the 26th time that the conference of the parties are getting together. The last time I was attending a conference was in Poland. I realised that the only thing that had happened was that there were COP children. Negotiators had got married to each other, and their children were there. I am hopeful though, because the Prime Minister has a plan, and I believe that if we were to save some credibility, we must adhere to her plan.

She has two main thoughts, I believe. One is on adaptation and finance, is debt restructuring. Vulnerable countries are paying 20% of their income on debt repayment. Meanwhile, they spend another 30% on adaptation. So you would know that they would now not have any money for health and education, infrastructure building, or anything. She is – she has mentioned in her statements after the IPCC’s sixth report on 10th August about debt restructuring. I think it’s very important we take that seriously. Who is holding the debt of these CVF countries? And we must have a structure to restructure that debt. And on 1.5 degrees, and 350 parts per million, and not heating up the planet.

She has a prosperity plan idea and she has rolled out and declared her Mujib Prosperity Plan. The plan aims to give you development, but with the same economic outcomes with less extraction and more recycling. So I think these two things are – these two issues are extremely important, and again, I’d thank the Honourable Minister, the Prime Minister, her climate change Spokesperson, Advisor, Chief Azad, and her High Commissioner here, and the whole CVF team, who is trying to do that. We will be in Rotterdam tomorrow, day after tomorrow, and we hope to come out with a singular view, but a singular narrative that we can have in COP26. Thank you.

Bernice Lee

Great, thank you very much, and I think it’s a great reminder as well, on many, many important points that echo in what the Foreign Minister already said as well, that it is so important that, given not only do we have one planet, we actually have one people, we have to fix all the problems in some ways in one go. So we can’t really afford to separate all the issues and fix them one – you know, we have to make sure that as we are tackling poverty and debt, for example, climate is part of the equation and vice versa. So thanks for the reminder of the interconnectedness of all these different issues, and how important it is that we have to tackle these problems together, if not in one go, certainly in an interconnected fashion.

So before I come back to you, Foreign Minister, I thought maybe we’d get some more voices from the floor, perhaps. I can also see, with the benefit of being in the front, in the front row, that we have Ambassador Ken O’Flaherty as well, the Regional Ambassador for COP26 here, so maybe we can also get his input as well, from…

H.E. Mohamed Nasheed

Maybe we can hear from here.

Bernice Lee

Yes, we will hear from here.

Ambassador Ken O’Flaherty

Well, thank you very much, and thank you, first of all, to Chatham House, who’ve been a great partner ahead of COP26, and thank you to Foreign Minister Momen for your excellent remarks. I can only agree that we are in the middle of a climate crisis, and you’ve – many people have mentioned the media coverage of extreme weather events in the US, in Europe. On a personal basis, I’m sorry that it took these events coming to those countries, because of course, countries like Bangladesh have been – or the Maldives, or other vulnerable countries, have been dealing with the impacts of climate change for many years, and it was a third of Bangladesh, for example, was underwater just last year. But I think I do agree that there is a growing awareness worldwide that the world must take urgent climate action, which is a welcome development. But the less welcome development is that we are still very far from keeping the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal set out in Paris, or even the two degrees Celsius objective.

So our role as COP26 Presidency is to try to keep that 1.5 degree goal alive. I think for us, the support of the vulnerable countries is crucial to that, and indeed, to all of our four objectives, which to remind colleagues, we want to ensure mitigation, so cuts in emission. We want to ensure support for adaptation and resilience, action on loss and damage, and we want to ensure finance, which has been mentioned by the Foreign Minister as important, making sure the 100 billion goal is met, and we want to ensure progress on the negotiations and the outstanding issues left over from Paris. And I think the support for the vulnerable countries in all of this is going to be crucial, and I think – I very much welcomed there what both Foreign Minister Momen and, indeed, Speaker Nasheed said, around raising the pressure on the big emitters worldwide.

I am a natural optimist. I think we have seen progress over the last year. We have seen many net-zero announcements, for example, covering, I think, about 70% of the global economy, if I’m not mistaken. But there’s still a long way to go, and those net zero commitments need to be translated into practical plans for emissions cuts. So I would very much welcome the action by the CVF in the intervening weeks between now and Glasgow to ramp up the pressure worldwide on those emitters who have not yet taken action, which is commensurate with the scale of the crisis which is facing us.

I think we are also very grateful to Bangladesh for its role on our CVF Presidency. We have seen a real acceleration of the work being done by CVF, including organised by the High Commission here, for which many thanks. And I think we would see this as a long-term challenge, and therefore I think, as the UK, beyond COP26, we are clear, this is going to be our top foreign policy priority for the next decade. We are gestalt in all our various reviews and so forth, so we are committed to this, and we see Bangladesh as a key partner. You have immense experience in this area, and you have a lot to teach us on adaptation and resilience. The scale of this – the saving of lives, which you described, Minister, is very, very impressive, and we need to share that experience worldwide. So, thank you and thank you again to our organisers and we look forward to working very closely with CVF in the weeks ahead to ramp up the pressure, friendly of course, on our partners worldwide. Thank you.

Bernice Lee

Well, thank you very much, Ambassador, and I’m definitely looking, you know, looking forward to more views from everybody, in terms of the pressure, stepping up, as we all know how important and needed that is. Now, we had a bit of a late start earlier, as we might have noticed. So we are running a wee bit late right now, but I would really like to get some questions in. I’ve got some from online that I would like to ask. But also, I would like to get one or two from the room as well, if we could. So I wonder whether or not, with a show of hands, indicating to me who would like to ask a question.

Member

Yeah, at the back.

Bernice Lee

Excellent, at the back, please.

Member

Thank you. Thank you for this event, very encouraging, I appreciate that. My question is…

Bernice Lee

Can you introduce yourself, sorry?

Member

Sorry, what’s that?

Bernice Lee

Do you mind introducing yourself, sorry?

Member

I’m from Bangladesh Mariners’ Society in the UK. So I’m one of the operator of that organisation. We see that most of the cargo is carried by – in ships in the marina environment and these ships are most polluting fuel users, possible, designed for their use. So, is there any, sort of, plan to tackle those marine ships, to have purified fuel to be used, or any other alternative use?

Bernice Lee

I think this is a question about shipping emissions and I can’t hear it very well. But I also have one here – I have one at the front as well here and then I’ve got one from the Zoom that I would like to ask as well, from Sahoma Rahman. I don’t know whether – you didn’t particularly want to ask it yourself or – so I’m going to ask it for you, which is, “How is Bangladesh involving young people in the climate policy and in COP26 as well?” That’s another question about how is Bangladesh involving young people?

H.E. Dr A. K. Abdul Momen MP

Young people, okay.

Bernice Lee

Yeah, exactly, and then we’ll take one more, and then I’ll come back to you, to answer all the questions and wrap up perhaps. So, the gentleman at the front as well, please.

Member

Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you Dr Abdul Momen for coming along on this visit to London, and welcome to London, and I hope you have the best of luck in meeting the Foreign Secretary here in the UK. My concern is, obviously, the climate finance. I mean, that seems to be an issue of trust now, for many countries coming up to COP. I mean, what kind of things do we really need before COP26 to regard as successful? People don’t realise, actually, this was a major commitment by the G20 countries when they said, in Paris, that they would come up to 100 billion by 2020. And it’s envisaged in the future, we’ll need probably 300 million by 2030, so it is critical if we, kind of, do the adaptation work. So I would like to know what the red lines are.

And also, something which you’re very engaged with, and you’re going to spend, no doubt, the next few days, is with the Bangladeshi community here in the UK. What can they do to put – make your hand stronger in Glasgow, along with all the other communities that are represented in the Climate Vulnerable Forum? And you’ve got 48 members, I’m sure all the Caribbean islands have got a similar fate to the Maldives. I think there’s a lot of goodwill amongst those communities to do something, ‘cause let’s face it, I mean, in the UK, it’s seen very much as a white middleclass obsession, and actually, many of these communities know the reality of climate change and the impact it has on their ancestral homes.

Bernice Lee

Thank you, and with that, I’m going to pass back to you. So you’ve heard the question. We’ve got quite a few questions for you. We’ve got a question about shipping emissions. We’ve got one from the Zoom about young people, how are they involved in Bangladesh, and we also have one about – well, two actually, I must say, he’s sneaked in two, one about how can Bengali diaspora help in…?

H.E. Dr A. K. Abdul Momen MP

You are asking me?

Bernice Lee

And last but not least, I want to get that in, the red lines, what are your red lines? I don’t want to forget that part. And then you can have as long as you like right now, to answer those. Maybe not too long, but still.

H.E. Dr A. K. Abdul Momen MP

Okay, you’re asking me how we can involve young people and also people. In Bangladesh, we have an example. You know, we have developed a programme, this is known as Disaster Management. And when we get the warning that there will be a cyclone or some tidal wave, we disseminate the information, and that we have 82,000 volunteers, and they are from all across, varieties of people, young and, you know, youth. And we immediately send out – we have their cell phone numbers with us, and we immediately tell them that the – this is – something is coming, so you must protect your neighbours, you must protect your family. And they go out from house-to-house and instruct the – advise the other what actions they have to take. This is one reason why we have reduced the death rate. This is an adaptation programme. It’s not a mitigation programme. But we involve our young people in it, and young people find, I must say, lot of excitement in helping other human being.

So this is something we did, and I want that for the mitigation programme, even in the developed countries, I’m happy that Councillor Emma Rudd is here. That even in the developed countries, you know, they should energise the new generation, young people, because the ark is for them. We will be going, you see. But they should be energised to achieve the goal, of at least 1.5 degrees, below 1.5, because this world has to be sustainable. We want development pro people, pro planet, to a peaceful, more sustainable world for all. That’s what we want, and if we want, we have to gear up our own development projects, so that we can, you know, maintain a pro planet approach. We must save this planet.

In the end, people should take leadership roles in it, that’s the way I’d look at it, and it’s the responsibility of the current leaders to encourage them to come forward and take leadership. We have an obligation in it.

Bernice Lee

Brilliant, thank you. Well, with that, I think, thank you very much for your extremely inspiring words, and I think that I would like to think that I’m speaking on behalf of many people, to say that, in fact, we wish you great success with the CVF as well, and getting the Declaration right, and making sure that you will be at the forefront of helping us step up the pressure even further, as we now know how much we need to do between now and COP26 to make sure that COP26 is only the beginning as well of ambition, not the endpoint. And importantly, we need to get our act together with yours and others’ leadership. So with that, I thank you very much, and please, audience, join me in thanking the Foreign Minister for this [applause]. Thank you very much.

H.E. Dr A. K. Abdul Momen MP

Thank you. Thank you.