DOT Desk
German Ambassador in Dhaka Peter Fahrenholtz on Sunday said his country’s cooperation in Bangladesh supports urban areas to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, reports The Daily Sun. Ambassador Fahrenholtz made the remarks while delivering welcome speech at a panel discussion titled Talanoa Dialogue for Climate Ambition in the capital. The German envoy said his country aims to strengthen planning, financial capacities and financing specific adaptation measures in major cities like Khulna, Barishal, Satkhira, Rajshahi and Dhaka.German also supports the government in mitigation interventions, to increase the share of renewable energies and in strengthen energy efficiency, despite of or because of increasing economic growth.We believe these are among the biggest challenges for Bangladesh when it comes to the impacts of climate change, he added.Talanoa Dialogue ensures that greater and ambitious climate action is initiated and sustained in Bangladesh especially at the community level.
Talanoa refers to the ‘inclusive, participatory, transparent dialogue process’ in the words of Fiji, which introduced this instrument during its presidency of the COP23.
The Talanoa Dialogue is the process to improve motivation to achieve this goal by sharing good practices related to the efforts of reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
The process of Talanoa involves the sharing of ideas, skills and experiences through storytelling.
During the process, participants build trust and advance knowledge through empathy and understanding.
Ambassador Fahrenholtz said the last October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s leading body assessing the science related to climate change, released its much-awaited special report on 1.5°C.
The scientists have warned there is only a 12 year period left to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C and avoid catastrophic environmental breakdown, he continued.
He said Germany, already in a far reaching energy transition, will unfortunately fall short of its 2020 climate goal of reducing emissions by 40 percent.
German will probably achieve 32 percent compared to 1990 levels. Hopefully, the goal will be met in 12 years, he maintained.
To this end, the German government urges especially energy-use-heavy sectors to reduce CO2 emissions, he said.
But investments cycles in this sector, as well as in the energy sector in general, are particularly long, he noted.
The German envoy said although some companies, like Siemens, chemical giant BASF, consumer retail group Henkel and facial cream maker Nivea, have set internal goals to reduce their carbon footprint.
They have also set goal to meet the targets will mean either major curbs on the economy, or inventing technologies that don’t even exist yet today, he said.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Chief Executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, Dr Nahid Rezwana, Assistant Professor of Dhaka University, Dr Emdadul Haque, ex-additional secretary of BEZA, Dr Sultan Ahmed, Director General of department of environment, Md Fazlul Hoque, Managing Director of Plummy Fashions Ltd, and Md Nizamul Azim, Councillor of Rajshahi City Corporation also spoke on the occasion as the panelists.