French-German-British Climate Diplomacy Day Tuesday

The UK, Germany and France are going to observe joint climate diplomacy day on Tuesday in more than 20 countries across the world, including Bangladesh.

Highlighting the need for joint international action to tackle climate change, envoys of the three countries in Bangladesh visited three climate adaptation projects at Dhamrai in the suburbs of Dhaka on Monday.

This will be their first celebration of the joint day on climate change highlighting “the importance of climate diplomacy partnership”.

“We must all be part of the solution and act on it now,” British High Commissioner in Dhaka Robert Gibson told journalists after visiting different projects in Dhamrai that can mitigate climate change.

Bangladesh is globally known for being vulnerable to climate change, though it contributes less than 2 percent of the global carbon emission.

The envoys saw for themselves the impact climate change is already having in Bangladesh and how some of its effects can be mitigated.

They stressed on the importance of an international agreement to tackle climate change.

“We stand ready to listen to all our partners, and are especially keen to work with our developing country partners such as Bangladesh,” said Chargé d’affaire of French embassy Babou Kamichetty.

The envoy said they would carry out series of activities in the run up to the next year’s UN Climate Change Conference from Nov 30 to Dec 11.

It will be the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP 11) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The objective of the conference is to achieve a universal agreement on climate which will be legally binding for all the nations of the world.

The French Development Agency (AFD) aims to achieve 70 percent of its projects in Asia to have climate co-benefits.

Its country representative in Bangladesh Jean-Benoit du Chalard told bdnews24.com that its Greater Dhaka Sustainable Urban Transport Project will save about 40,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year.

He said the AFD was also working on providing a more reliable and sustainable water supply while preventing further depletion of the groundwater table.

It is also pursuing energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

The projects the three envoys visited Monday were a solar home system for those without access to the national electricity grid, solar irrigation systems that provide an environmentally friendly solution to food security, and a domestic biogas project for cooking.

UK aid is funding 3 million and German development co-operation through KfW is supporting 850,000 units of 30 watt solar home systems.

Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) will fund 1,550 solar irrigation pumps by 2017, with their support.

So far 57 pumps have been installed, according to a joint statement, saving annually about 130,000 litres of diesel and reducing CO2 emissions by 30 tons, a joint media release said.

IDCOL also runs National Domestic Biogas and Manure programme since 2006 and so far installed over 31,000 biogas units, preventing local deforestation and reducing indoor pollution.

The projects brought smiles to the farmers of the remote Dhamrai villages.

Nayan Mia was one of the beneficiaries who gathered when the three envoys visited the village Sohapur.

“It reduced my irrigation costs by half,” he said as he was irrigating his crop field with solar irrigation system.

A large panel has been set up in the middle of a vast field from where more than 10 farmers get water for their fields incessantly.

The British High Commissioner said the projects they saw were helping “some of the most vulnerable people in Bangladesh to adapt to the impacts of climate change”.

“That is one of the most serious threats Bangladesh, and indeed all countries, face”.

There will be a joint launch event of the climate diplomacy day in Berlin on Tuesday.

Climate foreign policy experts will meet representatives from political, science, business, NGO, and media circles to discuss climate diplomacy priorities and will witness UK-German-French projects in action overseas.

“Restricting global climate change is indeed a task for all of us and the EU should lead the way,” Chargé d’affaire of the German embassy Ferdinand von Weyhe said.

He said their visit to Dhamrai was “a strong symbol of both our mutual co-operation on climate change and our desire to support Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi people to adapt to climate change in urban areas”.