Different civil-society organisations called for escalating actions to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius to rescue the earth from a catastrophe.
They also underscored the need for a separate funding facility for addressing loss and damage (L&D), and Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM)’s governance under both the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) and the Conference of the Parties (COP).
The civil society bodies also demanded a separate board for Santiago Network on Loss and Damage (NELD), new and need-based finances and grants-based adaptation finances, alongside instituting human rights in all aspects of addressing climate change.
The organisations made the demands on Thursday at a press conference on climate diplomacy, in order to articulate their stance on and demand from the imminent COP 27.
An alliance of 25 civil society entities coordinated by the Center for Participatory Research and Development (CPRD) organised the press event at the National Press Club in the capital.
Lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, was present at the press meet as the chief guest.
Besides, Shaheen Anam, Executive Director, Manusher Jonno Foundation; and Farah Kabir, Country Director, ActionAid Bangladesh, among others, were also present.
CPRD Chief Executive Md Shamsuddoha facilitated the event.
In his keynote speech, Mr Shamsuddoha, as the representative of the civil society alliance, demanded that the COP 27 take actionable decisions on massive emission cuts to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial level to rescue the earth from a certain catastrophe.
He also demanded a mandatory phase-out of coal by 2030, and all fossil-fuels by 2040.
Speaking as the chief guest, Saber Hossain said Bangladesh always regrets its achievement from the climate negotiations.
But it must not be forgotten that without having a specific strategy towards COPs, there is no way to achieve something significant from the negotiations, he observed.
“There is adaptation gap, there is mitigation gap, there is finance gap, but the greatest gap is in mutual trust,” he added.
Ms Farah Kabir stated that since the very beginning of climate negotiations they have presented several pieces of evidence and logics about the situations that have been confronted by climate vulnerable countries.
Ms Shaheen Anam said, “Today we – the civil society bodies – are sharing our stance on COP 27; we expect our government to play a significant role in communicating this to the global negotiations.”
“We have often seen that many countries spend trillions of dollars in wars but we hardly get any financial assistance from them for adaptation and mitigation purposes,” she added.