[mukto-mona] Fw: International Seminar on Bangladesh Climate Change

 

European Action Group on Climate Change in Bangladesh

5 Norton House, Bigland Street, London E1 2PL

Tel 07932 450063  linkbangla@gmail.com

 

 

15 Sept 2008

PRESS RELEASE     PRESS RELEASE     PRESS RELEASE

 

International Seminar on Bangladesh Climate Change

 

 

A seminar attended by international speakers on Bangladesh climate change was held on the 9 Sept 2008 at the Montefiore Centre, Hanbury St. E1 organised by the newly formed European Action Group on Climate Change in Bangladesh, chaired by Ansar Ahmed Ullah, and conducted by M A Palash.

 

The seminar was attended by community activists, environmentalists and climate experts from the UK, Europe & Bangladesh and representatives of campaign groups including Rising Tide, World Development Movement (WDM), Action Aid and Oxfam.

 

European Action Group on Climate Change in Bangladesh -UK member Dr Akter Sobhan Khan said: "We have to do something about climate change. The country most at risk is Bangladesh.The prevailing opinion is that 40 percent of the land will be inundated by 2050 and an estimated 70 million people will affected, most of whom will be the poor''

 

London Bangla Press Club President Mohammed Belal Ahmed said: "As journalists, we have a great role to play. We can influence public opinion and we can even changes the minds of governments. "Bangladesh is considered to be the most vulnerable country in the world to climate change. We are at the extreme end, and extreme situations require extreme methods. The people want to see action."

 

Climate Change Scientist Dr Ahsan Uddin Ahmed has studied the way in which climate change is affecting everyday life in Bangladesh. He pointed out that increasingly bad weather in the Bay of Bengal was preventing fishermen from plying their trade to such an extent that many were simply giving up and moving to urban areas in search of work.

 

European Action Group on Climate Change in Bangladesh -Belgium Convenor Dr Ahmed Ziauddin said: "Bangladesh is an innocent party, but it has already been found guilty and condemned."Climate change is going to be the deadliest threat to Bangladesh. But the seed has been planted. The issue of climate change in Bangladesh has to be a mainstream issue. "We are all in the same boat, and we have to survive as one human community."

 

Sara Ayech (World Development Movement) pointed out that inhabitants of the developed world produce two tons of Carbon dioxide emissions each per year.

She criticised the decision to build seven new coal fired power stations in Britain, arguing that coal was the most polluting of fossil fuels in terms of carbon emissions. She added that nuclear power presented a great opportunity to move to renewable electricity generation.

 

Communist Party of Britain London Assistant District Secretary James Tweedie pointed out that Bangladesh is the most densely populated major country in the world, and that on average, each square kilometre lost to the sea would leave 1,000 Bangladeshis displaced and destitute with little or no prospect of resettlement. "In the event of such a disaster, the victims must be found refuge, and if necessary, permanent resettlement in other nations," he said. Referring to the campaign's aim of lobbying European-level policy-makers, Mr Tweedie warned that the European Union was a club of capitalist states, adding that climate change had been used by developed nations as a "Trojan horse" to enforce neo-colonialist under-development. "The EU will not jeopardise its members' economic prosperity for the sake of climate change," he said. He added that it would be difficult to win the argument against coal power among the British working class in the face of rocketing energy bills when coal was Britain's only long-term indigenous energy source, but stressed that trade unions and left parties were nevertheless the natural allies of the Bangladeshi people.

 

Ziaul Hoque Mukta (Oxfam Bangladesh) denounced British government plans to replace 20 per cent of motor fuel used with biofuels. "The people of Bangladesh are suffering from hunger because, while the nation has the money to buy food, there is none available on the international market," he said. "Meanwhile, food grains are being used to produce biofuels."

 

Mark Brown (Rising Tide) said: "We think there is a sickness at the heart of climate change, and that sickness is capitalism. Governments and corporations don't have the interests of the people at heart." Mr Brown warned against corporate "green washing" through fig-leaf schemes such as carbon offsetting. "Biofuels are a terrifying scourge – it is the illusion of a solution." "These are the last throes of the human race, not only to have justice but to survive."

 

Murad Qureshi (Labour Assembly Member, GLA) defended the EU as the source of legislation on the environment and human rights, saying: "This is the organisation to go to make the case for climate refugees." He added that he was glad that the interest in the issue of climate change had spread beyond the more white, middle-class areas of London where he was used to speaking.

 

Labour Party parliamentary candidate for Bethnal Green & Bow Rushanara Ali said: "Nowadays a lot of votes are tied to the issue of climate change, which is a good thing."

But, she asked: "As we move towards a more challenging economic climate, will the global climate remain such a big issue?"

 

Dr Rafiqul Hassan Khan of the Bangladesh Medical Association gave a presentation on how environmental changes are affecting human health. "A wave of protest should come from the people and from across the political spectrum to say that this insanity must stop," he said.

 

Action Group joint convenor Syed Enam concluded the meeting by presenting a list of demands: The incremental reduction of British carbon emissions to 80% of 1990 levels by 2030, not by carbon offset but by actual reductions; a "drastic" carbon tax at the point of purchase, for instance on luxury tourism; an adaptation fund for the victims of climate change to help them diversify their micro-economy so that they can survive – to be paid as compensation not charity; for western nations to facilitate migration for climate refugees and give them the opportunity of a prosperous life in other countries; and for a moratorium on biofuels.

 

Others participants who took part in the discussion were Ashfaq Hossain Dipu, Dhaka University Associate Prof, Shamsul Hoque, Bengali International, Masud Rana, UK Bengali, Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, Action Aid, Suza Mahmud, Journalist, Dr Moklesur Rahman, Dr B B Choudhuri, Chairperson, Forum for Secular Bangladesh, Elora Ferdous, Oxfam BD and Shameem Ahmed, National Socialist Party.

 

 

End

 

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