A consortium of civic organisations on Saturday presented a charter of 11 demands for effective functioning of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The demands by the seven groups were made public in a joint press conference at Jatiya Press Club in the city. The seven groups are Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA), Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL), Climate Finance Governance Network (CFGN), Coastal Livelihood Ecology and Adaptation Network (CLEAN), Equity and Justice Working Group (EquityBD), Humanity Watch and Network on Climate Change-Bangladesh (NCC-B).
Humanity Watch chief executive Hasan Mehedi read out the charter. Nuzhat Imam of CSRL, Mohua Rouf of CFGN and Sharifuzzaman Sharif of Nagorik Sanghati were among those who addressed the press meet.
The civic groups alleged that the GCF has been ineffective as it was yet to assist the vulnerable countries since its formation in 2010.
They blamed the negligence of Annex-1 countries for this situation. The countries had pledged USD 30 billion as first start finance (FSF) for 2010-12 period, but they have provided only USD 5.7 million.
It was agreed that all the climate finances will be “new and additional”, but now the Annex-1 countries were trying to include their official development assistance and other bilateral funds in the GCF, they said.
The civic groups also demanded the World Bank’s exclusion as a trustee of the GCF because it had allegedly spent more than 24.5 per cent of the funds for office expenses.
-With The Independent input
