Bangladesh: Let the World Bank manage fund for nations at risk

The Bangladesh delegation demands allocation from any climate change adaptation fund in proportion to the percentage of its population exposed to climate change. Rie Jerichow - 13/12/2009 - Last week, State Minister of Environment and Forest in Bangladesh Hasan Mahmud said that at least 15 percent of any climate fund should to go to Bangladesh. Now, he goes into details with his vision for a fund.

"The climate change adaptation fund has to be created by mandatory contribution of developed countries as over and above their usual overseas development assistance fund," Hasan Mahmud told at a press conference, according to Asia News Network.

Mahmud, who is leading the Bangladesh delegation at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, stressed that more or less one billion people are affected in the world due to climate change and at least 15 percent of them live in Bangladesh.

When the fund offered to Bangladesh by development partners on bilateral basis to fight climate change becomes operational, the government might let the World Bank manage the fund for a short term as per a condition set by the development partners, said member of the delegation Ainun Nishat, according to Asia News Network.

African Union threatens to scuttle a deal African Union climate negotiator Meles Zenawi has sought Chinese and Indian backing if the African demands are not being taken seriously.

Rie Jerichow - 13/12/2009 - "If Copenhagen is going to be about an agreement that simply rides roughshod over Africa, then we will try to scuttle it, and I think we have reasonable assurance we can scuttle it if our concerns are not addressed," says Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who represents the African Union at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, according to US government funded Voice of America.

According to Bloomberg, Meles had received assurances from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in a telephone conversation earlier this week that China won’t sign any climate change agreement in Copenhagen unless African demands for compensation for the effects of global warming are met.

On emissions, lots of progress has been made, Meles says. According to AFP, his primary worry is about funding.

According to Voice of America, Meles would stop in Paris and London for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown before heading to Copenhagen. Here, he would seek assurances that the offer pledged by European countries would be what he called "real money" and not an illusion.

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