Members, Our Voice, Statements

Statement for the COP27 CPP Flagship Event by H.E. Md Shahab Uddin, Hon’ble Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bangladesh

STATEMENT BY H.E. MD SHAHAB UDDIN

COP27 Climate Prosperity Plans Flagship Event

08 November 2022

Your excellency President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Your excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo,  Excellencies, Distinguished colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Assalamualaikum and very good morning to you all.

Today, I echo the sentiments of the Father of the Nation at the United Nations on 23 September 1974, “Our aim is to achieve self-dependence.”

Bangladesh is severely threatened by the constant and increasingly devastating impact of climate change that already significantly curtails the nation’s development.

Unchecked, global warming could permanently erode and submerge a significant share of the country’s territory. By degree of exposure and density of the population, Bangladesh is one of the world’s most climate vulnerable nations.

Despite several challenges, the government of Bangladesh has been moving quickly and becoming a global example of climate change adaptation. The initiatives taken by the Honorable Prime Minister H.E. Sheikh Hasina, as the Chair of the then Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Presidency, has played a crucial role in tackling the impacts of climate change. Indeed, our Honorable Prime Minister’s exemplary leadership on the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan (MCPP) is being lauded nationally and across various global platforms. We are working hard to implement this vision.

The Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan shifts Bangladesh’s trajectory from one of vulnerability to resilience to prosperity. The MCPP also positions Bangladesh strategically into the long-term, with this Plan including perspectives beyond 2040 to mid-century, in alignment with the Climate Vulnerable Forum Vision and the Paris Agreement.

The MCPP is specific to the green growth and climate change agenda and to securing Bangladesh’s prosperity and independence path amid the major and rapidly increasing threats of global climate change. The MCPP proposes a number of hallmarks, new initiatives that will help to anchor the MCPP and accomplish its goals and objectives.

This flagship Plan lays out as a critical milestone towards a resilient and prosperous economy guiding the battle to build forward stronger, particularly in the post COVID-19 scenario, thus supporting efforts towards making a smooth transition from a climate vulnerable developing country to a climate resilient middle-income country within this decade.

The MCPP, thus, is an excellent vehicle to invest substantially in targeted knowledge-generation as well as capacity-building of both government and non-government sectors, so that the country can take a whole-of-society approach to becoming both a climate resilient and prosperous country by 2030, as envisioned by the Honorable Prime Minister H.E Sheikh Hasina.

While it will provide a holistic pathway to success, I am sure it will take the case of Bangladesh another step further as a global benchmark to tackle climate change across the world.

With that in mind, the Government of Bangladesh urges other fellow climate vulnerable countries to formulate their own climate prosperity plans aligned with their own national priorities. We also applaud and all the best to the countries who have undertaken the Climate Prosperity Plan program.

With that, I would like to express our solidarity to the global community to work cohesively together to build a future in harmony with nature.

I thank the organizers for inviting me today to speak to you all. I wish the Ghana Presidency of the CVF and V20 the best in your journey.

Thank you all. Joy Bangla, Joy Bongobondhu.

 

Download statement here.

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