{"id":101137,"date":"2025-11-12T04:19:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T04:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/saarc-can-drive-climate-action-if-revived-bangladesh-minister\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T04:19:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T04:19:05","slug":"saarc-can-drive-climate-action-if-revived-bangladesh-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/saarc-can-drive-climate-action-if-revived-bangladesh-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Saarc can drive climate action if revived: Bangladesh minister"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/div>
Climate Minister Rizwana Hasan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

ISLAMABAD: As countries discuss climate finance and goals at COP30 in Belem, Brazil, Dawn<\/em> is speaking to experts to answer questions on people\u2019s minds about climate change negotiations.<\/p>\n

In this conversation, Bangla\u00addesh\u2019s Climate Minister Rizwana Hasan explains the hurdles in climate talks, the insufficient clim\u00adate finance for Global South countries, and regional approa\u00adches to finding homegrown solutions.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the sidelines of the SDPI\u2019s 28th Sustainable Develop\u00ad\u00adment Conference in Islamabad, Ms Hasan stressed the need to revive Saarc, scale up climate finance and speed up efforts to reduce climate emissions.<\/p>\n

Q. Do you think regional forums like Saarc can play a role in tackling climate change?<\/p>\n

\n

Dawn speaks to Rizwana Hasan, who calls for transparency in climate finance and an end to debt-based funding<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I think Saarc has great potential. Both in terms of pushing the development agendas of different countries in the region and pooling common resources and also in tackling climate change. There are many resources that we share \u2014 for example, water. So if, in the face of climate change, Saarc countries could come up and take a common regional river management or shared water management policy that is climate-sensitive, that would be a major step towards climate adaptation.<\/p>\n

There are some countries in Saarc that do not take the same degree of interest in the forum\u2019s proceedings. So, while some countries may take their time to actively engage in Saarc, other countries that are ready to cooperate should come forward.<\/p>\n

Q. Is Bangladesh working with regional countries to address climate change?<\/p>\n

On climate change, Bangladesh is actually working with Nepal and Bhutan because the three Saarc countries will become middle-income countries at around the same time. The challenges we will face in accessing the climate fund will therefore be the same.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we have already started contacting and working with these two countries so that we can take a common position in climate negotiation forums for accessing the climate fund, as well as other concessional grants and technological assistance.<\/p>\n

Q. The Global North is asking for compliance with emission red\u00aduction targets, while the Global South nations are asking for fina\u00adnce in order to meet their climate goals. Is there a middle ground?<\/p>\n

Emissions reduction is our ch\u00ad\u00ado\u00adi\u00ad\u00adce. It was not mandatory for us un\u00ad\u00adder the UNFCCC and Kyoto Pro\u00adto\u00adcol. Under the Paris Agreement, it is also not mandatory. It creates a high ethical ground for countries, but the amount of emissions we generate is negligible in the global context.<\/p>\n

But for the sake of our own peop\u00ad\u00adle, we need to reduce emissions. We need to keep our air pure, and there are so many options to switch to safer alternatives that there is no reason why we should continue in the old grey way of industrialisati\u00adon and energy production. There are co\u00ad\u00adst-effective ways, there are safer ways. We should simply swit\u00ad\u00adch to them because they prove to be not expensive in the long run. You may need an initial investment, but over time, it is very cost-effective.<\/p>\n

I think Western countries sho\u00aduld not be tagging compliance with adaptation support because that was not the intention of the UNFCCC. For most Saarc countries, our NDC commitments are partly unconditional and partly conditional. The unconditional ones are progressing well, but for the conditional ones, it is rather us who are putting the condition that \u201cif you give us money, we will be able to mitigate better\u201d.<\/p>\n

Q. What counts as climate finance, given that some development money has also been tagged as climate funding?<\/p>\n

What we want is a clear definition of climate finance so that regular development assistance cannot be tagged as climate finance. The promise under the UNFCCC was new and additional funds, so it has to be new and additional. We are also requiring that it should not come to us as debt because that is creating double jeopardy for us. On the other hand, you are climate vulnerable; on the other hand, you are paying interest while being im\u00ad\u00adpacted by climate change. It is not our fault that we face these climate threats. It is because of the fault of those who are imposing this debt on us. So transparency in the climate finance is absolutely a must.<\/p>\n

Q. Is Bangladesh going to access the loss and damage fund?<\/p>\n

Bangladesh will surely come up with proposals. But $250m is what Bangladesh needs per year for ad\u00ad\u00adaptation based on UN calculati\u00ado\u00ad\u00adns. So $250m as a total pot, to be shared with others, is not something that will meet Bangladesh\u2019s needs and it also does not fulfil the promises made by the develop\u00ad\u00aded countries when this fund was an\u00ad\u00adnounced. It is grossly inadequate.<\/p>\n

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Climate Minister Rizwana Hasan ISLAMABAD: As countries discuss climate finance and goals at COP30 in Belem, Brazil, Dawn is speaking to experts to answer questions on people\u2019s minds about climate change negotiations. In this conversation, Bangla\u00addesh\u2019s Climate Minister Rizwana Hasan explains the hurdles in climate talks, the insufficient clim\u00adate finance for Global South countries, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/primary\/2025\/11\/6913d6ea77fee.gif","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}