'COP28 must decide on fossil fuel phase-out to limit warming at 1.5°C'

The upcoming UN COP28 summit commencing in the UAE on 30 November should decide on phasing out fossil fuels to limit global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, leaders of the civil society organisations (CSOs) in Bangladesh have said.

"We are already experiencing the climatic effects with the globe warmed by 1.2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial level," said Barrister Shamim Haider Patwary, lawmaker and member of the Climate Parliament Bangladesh, at a roundtable discussion, "COP 28: Articulating CSOs Position Together", on Saturday. 

The roundtable was organised by 'Climate Justice Alliance' - an alliance of CSOs - comprising 33 organisations and coordinated by Centre for Participatory Research and Development (CPRD) at BRAC Centre inn in the capital.

The CSOs alliance also demanded a clear definition of climate finance at COP28, and the climate finances must be recognised and mobilised as need-based and as obligatory complement, not as a voluntary contribution.

Mentioning that Bangladesh always regrets its achievement from the climate negotiations, Shamim Haider added, "We must not forget that without having a specific strategy towards the COPs, we cannot achieve something significant from the negotiations."

The lawmaker further said that Bangladesh was a leading country to propose the 1.5 degrees Celsius target in the climate negotiation, and it also played a momentous role in creating public support in its favour. 

Chief Executive of CPRD Shamsuddoha, as the keynote speaker, said, "The COP28 must review the Transitional Committee Co-chairs' proposal on the institutional and governance arrangements of loss and damage fund to make sure their alignment with the Convention's CBDR-RC principle."

He added, "We urge to discard the elements that contradict the Convention's overarching principle and are subversive to climate justice – a sovereign governance structure of the L&D fund under the UNFCCC with flexible norms, operational guidelines and access modalities for the LDCs, SIDS, and climate-vulnerable countries."

Shamsuddoha emphasised that the global goal on adaptation (GGA) must focus on the human and social dimensions of climate change impacts on people, livelihoods and ecosystems.

Fazle Rabbi Sadeque Ahmed, deputy managing director of the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation said that the alliance of CSOs, led by CPRD, has undertaken commendable initiatives to achieve climate justice for climate change vulnerable people. 

He stressed that government delegates should read carefully all recommendations that come from different platforms for the COP28 summit.

Dharitri Kumar Sarkar, deputy secretary of environment, forest and climate change ministry, pointed out that there remains a substantial gap in establishing adequate climate finances for adaptation measures. 

"Though the developed world acknowledges climate change, they are not still admitting the impacts properly, which is clearly a double standard position," he added.