Madam President
Madam Moderator
I thank all the distinguished panelists for sharing their thoughts on climate finance which is a key component of climate actions and achieving the SDGs.
I would like to highlight three points.
First, as we all know, since climate finance comes mostly in the form of loans, and in grants in small quantities, it is necessary to provide these loans in concessional terms, which is presently not the case though. Climate finance provided in the forms of non-concessional loans are in fact adding to the debt distress in many least developed countries. We therefore demand that climate finances provided to the LDCs be given mostly in grants, and not in the form of high-cost loans, be it from MDBs or the private sector.
Second, as has been repeatedly underscored, we need a balance in allocation between adaptation and mitigation fundings. We need commitment from the shareholders of these funds to achieve this balance. This is critical for countries like Bangladesh, which is one of the most climatically vulnerable countries in the world. Projects on adaptation such as those related to disaster preparedness and early warning systems are necessary for these countries to cope with impacts of climate change such as worsening droughts, frequent and ferocious cyclones and floodings that they already experience.
And finally, considering the reality that the 100 billion dollars annual climate funds promised by the developed countries in 2015 have never been fully delivered, while the actual needs are far beyond 100 billion dollars, to the tune of trillions of dollars, as indicated by one of the panelists, we demand urgent fulfilment of the existing commitments in their entirety to enable developing countries to undertake meaningful climate actions which are a precondition to achieving the SDGs. And we should not confuse climate finance with ODA commitments and we urge development partners to honor both commitments fully and expeditiously.
I once again thank the panelists for their presentations.