All countries, particularly the rich, must help Bangladesh to tackle the impacts of climate change, the French foreign minister has said in Dhaka.
“You are not responsible for the (carbon) emission, but you are having the consequences,” Laurent Fabius said on Monday at a press briefing at the end of a whirlwind visit along with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
He said Bangladesh, despite many of its activities including early warning system, needed “technological and financial” support to adopt more to the impacts of climate change.
Their joint visit, the first of its kind, came ahead of the December climate summit in Paris, which is meant to deliver a draft that could lead to a new world climate treaty to replace the expired Kyoto Protocol.
They had to cancel their plans to go to the southern Patuakhali district by helicopter, due to bad weather, to inaugurate one of the anti-cyclone shelters built with German support.
Instead, they spent two hours on the river Bangshi at the Dhaka suburb of Savar on Bangladesh’s traditional wooded boat and saw the impacts of climate change on both sides of the river.
In a joint statement after the trip, the two ministers said they witnessed “the impact of ups and downs of the river level on the environment”.
During their travel, they also saw the vast inundated areas, where bricks are usually made. “These areas are now under flood and only the chimneys can be seen,” they said in the statement.
They said this joint trip underlined the commitment of the two European nations “to broker a pragmatic, yet comprehensive, legally-binding agreement in Paris”.
“Tackling climate change is a challenging task for the whole international community. And the burden to avoid further environmental hazards caused by climate change has to be shared.”
At the press briefing, the French minister, who would chair the Paris conference, said it was interesting to work with Bangladesh on climate change as the country was “deeply concerned” by the impacts.
“Bangladesh has a very positive action and position and as a matter of fact we are at the same line.
“Nothing was more valuable (than) to come on the ground to see what is happening,” Fabius said, explaining the visit.
Their visit also marked the topping-off ceremony of the first-ever Franco-German embassy of the world being built in Dhaka.
He said the joint embassy was “a symbol of our relationship and triangular relations”.
The embassy, which will be ready for operation at the beginning of next summer, would be a “green” building.
Source: bdnews24