The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) was launched in Bangladesh on the 7th August, 2014, at the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel, Dhaka.
(Please see below for detailed news).
The program was hosted by The Planning Commission in collaboration with Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Disaster and Relief, IPCC, CDKN, LEAD and NACOM.
Mr. A H M Mustafa Kamal, FCA, MP, Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was present as the Chief Guest, while Mr. Md. Shafiqur Rahman Patwari, Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests and Dr. Mesbah ul Alam, Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief were present as special guests. The launching session was chaired by Mr. Shamsul Alam, Member, Planning Commission, Govt. of Bangladesh.
Dr. S.M Munjurul Hannan Khan, Spokesperson, LDC Group at UNFCCC and Country Engagement Leader, CDKN provided the welcome speech while Mr. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, Director of CDKN Asia, providing the introduction.
The technical session was chaired by Dr. Ainun Nishat. The key presenters were the authors Dr. John Church, Coordinating Lead Author, Dr. Mizan R Khan, Lead Author, and Mr. Dipal Chandra Barua, Lead Author of the IPCC AR5.
The relevance to Bangladesh in this pivotal report was discussed at length with the Honorable Minister pointing out how Bangladesh has already achieved being a role model in combatting climate change impacts. He has shared that the loss of 1% of our GDP is due to the adverse impacts of climate change and that since independence, Bangladesh has spent US$ 10 billion to mitigate it. Bangladesh National Planning Commission has taken initiatives to mainstream climate change into the ‘7th Five Year Plan’ as well as perspective plans of the country. His Excellency also mentioned that the Planning Commission is already undertaking a project called ‘“Poverty, Environment and Climate Mainstream (PECM)” to initiate climate mainstreaming in development process. And currently, a project called “Support to Sustainable and Inclusive Planning (SSIP)”’ in which climate change has been taken as an independent component of the project.