Bangladesh, one of the worst victims of climate change, has ratified the landmark Paris agreement on climate change with the foreign minister submitting instrument of ratification to the UN secretary-general.
Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali handed over the Instrument of Ratification of the Agreement to Ban Ki-moon at the UN headquarters in New York, the foreign ministry said in Dhaka yesterday.
Bangladesh has now become one of the first countries to have made the deal officially valid.
“It reflects the firm commitment of Bangladesh and the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in addressing climate change adversities,” the foreign ministry said.
“This also places Bangladesh in a strong position in global climate change negotiations, particularly in the areas like mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, finance and technology transfer.”
Bangladesh, though not a contributor in global warming, signed the deal on April 22 this year. It was adopted last year in Paris.
The deal will enter into force only when ratified by at least 55 nations representing 55% of manmade greenhouse gas emissions.
The agreement, reached in Paris after years of negotiations, provides a pathway for countries to reduce emissions so that the global temperature rise is kept below 2 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, the World Bank projected Bangladesh to be one of the worst-affected South Asian countries due to global warming.
With rising sea levels, extreme heat, and more intense cyclones threatening food production, livelihoods and infrastructure, the warming climate will also slow poverty alleviation, said the global lender.
The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics prepared a scientific report for the bank that was released yesterday.
It forecast a two degrees Celsius rise in the world’s average temperature in the next decades.