SAARC Mins' meet calls for south-south cooperation on climate chan

Dhaka, Jul 3 (UNI) SAARC Environment Ministers' meeting on climate change ended here today, adopting a four-point 'Dhaka Declaration' calling for enhancing south-south cooperation on technology development and transfer for mitigation and adaptation to face climate change.

The one-day ministerial meeting also adopted a seven-point SAARC action plan on climate change to identify activities achievable through regional cooperation and provide impetus for regional level action plan on climate change through national level activities.

'The Dhaka Declaration' committed to promote programmes for mass awareness on climate change and inculcate habits towards a low carbon society.

It resolved to cooperate on climate change issues for capacity building including the development of Clean Development Management (CDM) projects and on incentives for removal of greenhouse gases by sinks, sharing of the results of research and development for mitigating the effects of climate change and undertaking adaptation measures.

The meeting agreed to initiate programmes as per SAARC practice for adaptation for dealing with onslaught of climate change to protect people's lives and livelihood for food, water and energy securities.

It also called upon Annex-1 industrialised countries to fulfil their commitments as per UN Framework Convention for Climate Change for providing additional resources.

Special Assistant for Chief Adviser for Environment Ministry of Bangladesh Raja Devashis Roy told a press conference that the government has allocated 300 crore takkas in the national budget to deal with detrimental effects of climate change.

He hoped that more funds might be mobilised from the London Conference on Bangladesh climate change to be held in September.

In reply to a question, Mr Roy said SAARC ministers agreed in principle to set up a fund on climate change and more discussions would take place at the SAARC Colombo summit.

He said the rising sea level was the main concern for Bangladesh as Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change reported that the country could lose as much as one-third of its landmass due to the rise in sea level.

However, Mr Roy said there was no need to get alarmed. There was time for preparations to face the adverse impact of the changing climate.

The SAARC action plan focusses on seven priority areas -- adaptation to climate change, climate change mitigation, actions for technology transfer, finance and investment, education and awareness, management of impacts and risks due to climate change and capacity building for international negotiations process.

UNI XC SKB RK2005