Waterkeepers Bangladesh, a platform working to protect water and water bodies of Bangladesh, protested the end of the fourth meeting of the Transitional Committee (TC4) without any decision or recommendations.
Waterkeepers Bangladesh made the protest in a press statement issued on on Sunday (October 22) signed by coordinator of the platform Sharif Jamil,.
The TC4 meeting preparing proposals for COP-28 on the Loss and Damage Fund held in Egypt on October 21 ahead of the COP-28 conference ended without arriving at consensus on any recommendations.
Waterkeepers Bangladesh in its statement said. “The meeting of the Climate Loss and Damage Committee ended without any decision in which the legitimate interests of the affected countries were grossly ignored.”
In the TC4 meeting, the final decision on the creation of a fund for climate-damaged and climate-threatened countries is supposed to be taken, but due to the reluctance of rich countries, these initiatives are being delayed again and again.
Although the committee had its last meeting on October 21, without taking any decision, the new meeting date has been fixed for November 3-5, which poses a serious threat to the interests of countries affected by climate change. Rich countries are showing great activity to thwart and disable these international initiatives time and again through delay.
In this context, Waterkeepers Bangladesh strongly protested that no decision could be taken even in the fourth meeting of the Transitional Committee on Loss and Damage.
Chairperson of Waterkeepers Bangladesh Sultana Kamal said, “The COP conference initially gave us hope to deal with climate change, but one after another failed conference has disappointed us.”
One of the reasons for this is the extreme reluctance of the polluting countries to take any appropriate decisions at the conferences, she said.
She also said, in the last COP-27 conference, it was decided to create a loss and damage fund for the victims of climate change, but no decision has been taken despite calling one after another meeting of the Transitional Committee on Loss and Damage. “Finally, the committee on October 21 was supposed to reach a decision on the loss and damage fund, but they set a new date for another meeting, which is an expression of the extreme reluctance of rich countries on the fund. In this situation, we call on the polluting countries to take appropriate decisions and implement them and the countries of the Global South to make no compromises,” she said.
Coordinator of Waterkeepers Bangladesh Sharif Jamil said that in view of the long-standing demands of the countries affected by climate change, the initial decision was taken to form the ‘Loss and Damage’ fund at COP-27 last year. The last meeting of the Transitional Committee on Loss and Damage to implement this fund, instead of reaching any concrete decision, has again scheduled another meeting.
“We can see the reflection of the long practice of ignoring the demands of poor and affected countries or delaying decision-making in any matter of climate change. In this case, we will organise a movement on a large scale if the Transitional Committee on Loss and Damage cannot take a planned decision before COP-28,” said Sharif Jamil.
