Kamal: Bangladesh spends $2bn annually on climate change

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday said that the government has been spending $2 billion on average every year since 2010 for climate change adaptation and mitigation purposes

Allocation in the current budget is roughly $2.9 billion, he also said, during a virtual press briefing to announce the 1st V20 Climate Vulnerables Finance Summit, which will be held on Thursday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), will inaugurate the summit, which will also be attended by heads of State/Government from the CVF, as well as Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres.

Kamal also said that a high-level dialogue featuring finance ministers and representatives of the V20, with key partner governments from the G7, G20 and international finance and development partners, will also be held at the summit.

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Asked about the government's move to scrap 10 coal-fired power plant projects, he said that the government is going with the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant since it is fossil fuel free.

"Other countries continue with carbon emissions, which causes countries like ours to suffer," he also said.

He also said the summit outcome “Communique to articulate” will be the core priorities and initiatives of the V20 member economies following the G7 Summit and ahead of the G20 Climate & Energy Joint Ministerial and G20 Summits which represent a key interval on the road to COP26 in Glasgow.

At the press conference ahead of the summit, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Md Shahab Uddin; Special Envoy of CVF Presidency of Bangladesh, Md Abul Kalam Azad; Secretary of Economic Relations Division Fatima Yasmin and Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Md Mostafa Kamal were also present.

Formed in 2015, the V20 Group of Finance Ministers is a dedicated cooperation initiative of economies systematically vulnerable to climate change.

Also read - Bangladesh Climate Dialogue 2021: Changing the future together

At present, the Vulnerable 20 (V20) membership extends to 48 countries.

The V20 represents the economies of a collective 1.2 billion people with some of the consistently highest growth rates in the world yet facing existential threats from growing perils of climate change.  

Collectively, V20 countries seek a transformational approach to global economic activities anchored in keeping global warming to below 1.5 degree Celsius while simultaneously maintaining the growth trajectory of the world economy.