Kerry reaffirms US commitment on climate change
Dhaka, Apr 9 (efe-epa).- The United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, on Friday reaffirmed his country’s commitment in dealing with climate change and promised to work together with all stakeholders concerning the issue.
“No one country can solve the problem of climate crisis and today no country doubts that there is a crisis,” Kerry said at a press conference in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, where he is on a one-day visit.
Kerry arrived in Dhaka after wrapping up a four-day India visit, to deliver US President Joe Biden’s invitation to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to attend the Leaders Summit on Climate on Apr. 22-23.
Kerry’s trip also included a stop in Abu Dhabi to raise global climate ambition ahead of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in November in Glasgow.
“I am here because President Biden has called a summit of major economies of the word, and also to ask stakeholders nations, vulnerable nations to come and be heard in the early process working to up to Glasgow,” he said.
“We believe that the United States can make a difference in that regard and President Biden is determined that we will because it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
Biden signed an executive order on the first day in office rejoining the US into the Paris Climate Accord that his predecessor Donald Trump had pulled out from.
Kerry, who has previously served as Secretary of State under former president Barack Obama, insisted the US was ready to provide necessary funding for the Paris accord.
“President Biden put in our budget the $2 billion that was missing because President Trump would not pay it,” he said.
During his brief visit to Bangladesh, Kerry met Prime Minister Hasina and held meetings with Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, Environment Minister Shahab Uddin and other officials to discuss cooperation on climate change.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Momen said they have informed the US Presidential Envoy of measures taken by the country regarding climate change.
The programs included creating a climate trust fund, national energy roadmap, climate change action plan, budling over 14,000 shelters.
“We discussed US-Bangladesh climate collaboration in adaptation, resilience, mitigation, renewable angry, waste management, technology transfer and financing of climate change,” he said.
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, nearly 700,000 Bangladeshis were displaced on an average every year by natural disasters owing to climate change.
The number of people displaced by climate change in Bangladesh could reach 13.3 million by 2050, making it the country’s number-one driver of internal migration, according to a World Bank report released in March 2018. EFE-EPA
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