Bangladesh sees the opening of the South Asian Regional Center of Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) as a ‘milestone’ for international partnership.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the regional office on Tuesday virtually with the presence of GCA Chair and former Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte.
The opening of the regional adaptation center in Dhaka is dedicated to the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the ministry for environment and climate change said.
The GCA regional center is housed at the new building of the Department of Environment at Agargaon in Dhaka.
“GCA Dhaka will be a milestone for international partnership as after the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will build back our climate resilience much better by making transition to a green economy and investing in more de-carbonisation of the production methods and consumption,” Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said at the inauguration.
“But this requires a strong global commitment and effort. Bangladesh is ready to share her experience and best practices regarding adaptation and disaster management,” he said.
“We have already formulated 82 year-long “Delta Plan 2100” which is a living test case for all the deltas of the world.
“During the establishment of the GCA South Asian regional office in Dhaka, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was closely associated with other stakeholders including GCA HQ and it would continue to do so in the future.
“We hope to receive necessary support from the international development partners in our efforts as it is very easy to achieve and demonstrate climate resilience successes in this region,” he said.
Dr Momen said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had realised the adverse impacts of climate change long ago, and called for greater international cooperation to face the natural calamity in his very first speech at the United Nations General Assembly in 1974.
“Cause of climate change is global so naturally the solution requires a global initiative. Today’s inauguration of the GCA South Asia Regional Office in Dhaka is an important part of that collective initiative,” the foreign minister said.
He said the whole planet is at risk but according to the Global Climate Risk Index, particularly South Asia is the most vulnerable region associated with climate change related risks and threats.
“Together with the countries of this region, GCA Bangladesh office will promote locally developed nature-based sustainable solutions and innovative adaptation measures.”
“We will create a Center of Excellence not only for the regional countries but also for the other regions of the world by sharing our best practices. Let me show one of our best practices.
“In 1970 during a devastating cyclone almost half a million people perished. But due to our cyclone and Disaster Preparedness progress in 2009 although we faced similar devastating cyclone and tidal waves, only 190 people died,” he said.
Following the inauguration, experts, academics and representatives from South Asian and global organisations working on climate change participated in the inaugural GCA South Asia Partnership Forum.
Partnership Forum discussed on Strategy and Action plan for GCA Bangladesh office.
After the panel discussions, the thematic Ambassador of Climate Vulnerable Forum, Saima Wazed Hossain inaugurated Youth Adaptation Network.
GCA Bangladesh will have both international and locally recruited staff with some seconded officers from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
It is expected that the headquarters of the Global Center on Adaptation in Rotterdam will support GCA Bangladesh through a matrix structure, acting also as the Secretariat of CVF and V20, two climate-based important international organizations under the chairmanship of Bangladesh.
In addition, the GCA will serve as a Secretariat of Delta Coalition to contribute to important works related to the blue economy.
GCA Bangladesh will also support Bangladesh in preparing and contributing to the Climate Adaptation Summit on January 22, 2021 and COP26 in November 2021.
GCA Bangladesh will facilitate and develop on-the-ground action in South Asia to accelerate adaptation and address climate change vulnerabilities across the entire region.
It will also mobilize international expertise to support Bangladesh’s challenge in responding to and continuing to prosper amidst our changing climate.
