Regional climate conference calls for collective effort

Representatives of several countries discuss the climate change problems in their respective countries and ways to combat those

A six-day regional climate conference is being held from September 25 to 30 at the CCDB Climate Centre, built on a 57-acre site in Sreepur of Gazipur.

The conference has been jointly organized by Bangladesh’s non-governmental development organization (NGO) Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB), and Brot für die Welt, Germany, said a press release.

Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP and chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bangladesh, was present as the chief guest at the conference held with the participation of 60 representatives of various development organizations from 11 countries, including Bangladesh.

At the conference, Dr. Saleemul Huq, OBE, director of International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Bangladesh, Prasenjit Chakma, assistant resident representative, UNDP, Bangladesh, Oliver Märtin, head of Asia Pacific Department, Brot für die Welt, Pamela Metschar, country coordinator for Bangladesh, Brot für die Welt, Germany and Dr. Harold S Baroi, vice-chairman of CCDB Commission were present as special guests.

At the beginning of the conference, the Executive Director of CCDB, Juliate Keya Malakar, delivered the welcome speech at the conference.

Saber Hossain, in his speech at the conference, emphasized the importance of reducing carbon emissions in the face of the impact of climate change. He said that the CCDB Climate Centre, which is the first of its kind in Bangladesh, will play an important role in climate adaptation, mitigation, and nature-based solutions.

Dr. Saleemul Huq said that climate change is a global problem that is now clearly visible, and concerted efforts must be made to deal with it from now on.

At the conference, the representatives of India, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Germany, Australia, and Bangladesh discussed the climate change problems in their respective countries and ways to deal with them.

Md Faizullah Talukder, head of the Climate Change Program, CCDB, said that the CCDB Climate Centre is going to be inaugurated on October 1, 2022.

The centre has modeled five climate vulnerable areas of Bangladesh, namely – coastal, haor, drought, char, hilly, and 90 climate adaptation and mitigation interventions, through which farmers, students, public and private officials, teachers, climate activists, researchers and the knowledge and skills of the general public including the youth will be enhanced.

This regional conference will be concluded by visiting the coastal areas of Bangladesh from September 28 to 30, said Md Abdul Alim Shaikh, capacity-building manager of the CCDB Climate Change Program.