Editorial
Bangladesh leader's call in Copenhagen
It is a position the developed world must not ignore
PRIME Minister Sheikh Hasina has made a plea in the Copenhagen summit for compensatory grants and easily accessible, adequate funds to be made available to countries vulnerable to climate change to help them help themselves. Indeed, the Bangladesh leader's expression of sentiments was a reflection not only of the risks to which her own country is today exposed but also a tale of other, poorer nations at present threatened by the climate deluge. The fact that narrowing down of differences is yet to happen even at the final moments may well have raised the temperature but this is not something exceptional either, given the dynamic of competing concerns and the hectic quest for establishing common denominators for an agreement.
The theme of climate justice is precisely what comes through in Sheikh Hasina's laying out of a position for Bangladesh and other affected nations. There can be little question that unless the developed world agrees to drastic measures to balance the climate, through reducing gas emissions and disbursing adequate funds to the poor, the Copenhagen summit will go down in history as a miserable failure. There are, though, all the reasons why it should not go down that road. In the first place, as Bangladesh's leader has noted, it is in everyone's interest to have a world that can go back to being the green planet it used to be. In the second, one does not need statistics and hard arguments any more to convince the developed nations of the dangers of climate change. Nations like Tuvalu and the Maldives are already exposed to serious risks. As for Bangladesh, as Sheikh Hasina has pointed out, a mere one metre rise in the water level will inundate 18 per cent of the country's land mass, create 20 million climate refugees and, by 2050, displace an additional 40 million people. Consider Bangladesh as the microcosm of vulnerability and you are then easily persuaded that the risks will expand to a point where other nations, those in the West included, will be affected.
All is not yet lost in Copenhagen. It may well be that a dramatic, positive finale will reassure people around the world that global leaders are seized of the problems. That the Danish prime minister has taken charge of the proceedings is a good sign. That President Obama continues to take purposeful interest in the summit (he will be there to state his views) demonstrates the seriousness with which the summiteers mean to cope with the crisis. In this context, Bangladesh Prime Minister's pointers to the priority concerns -- assessments of nations' vulnerability to climate change, considerations of population numbers affected and overall adaptation initiatives -- merit serious consideration. The suggestion that at least 1.5 per cent of GDP in the developed world be diverted to affected nations to help them take adaptation measures indeed opens a window, just a little, to hope.
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