In a recent meeting the Finance Ministers of the G8 countries agreed to the “G8 Action Plan for Climate Change to Enhance the Engagement of Private and Public Financial Institutions” and supported the launch of new Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) by the World Bank, which will complement existing bilateral and multilateral efforts, until a post-2012 framework under the UNFCCC is implemented. 

The establishment of Bank’s Climate Investment Fund will lead to parallel structures for the mobilization and disbursement of climate-related financing and will bypass existing multilateral negotiations of establishing under the auspicious of the UNFCCC. Many international NGOs, civil society groups are raising concern about the potential conflict between the Bank proposed Adaptation/ Climate Resilience Pilot Fund and the UNFCCC’s Adaptation Fund agreed at the climate change talks in Bali, Indonesia in December 2007.

Furthermore, the architecture of the climate investment funds of the World Bank is vastly “top-down’, which disregards adequate participation of developing countries, need of accountability mechanisms, and promotion of environmental and development benefits. Please find EquityBd position paper Group on Bank’s Climate Investment Fund titled ‘World Bank: Corporocracy to Carbocracy’

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Owe Climate, Cancel Bangladesh Debt: Reparation and Justice Now

Bangladesh is a disaster prone country. In the recent years the frequency and intensity of hydro-metrological disasters has been increased due to climate change for which the country is responsible in no way. But, ironically, the poor Bangladeshis’ has to suffer to compensate the life styles of the population of developed and advance developing countries. Cyclone and flood frequencies has increased four fold, but recovery and reconstruction efforts are very little, cyclone SIDR in November 2007 caused death of 4000 lives and asset loss of $ 3.5 billions but so far government has received only $ 400 millions foreign assistance for recovery and reconstruction. 

Amidst country’s economic crisis foreign assistance has dropped 33 percent from 1999 level. Thus the achievement of MDGs would hold back, there are addition of 2.5 million poor population in 2007-08 due to the present food and fuel crisis, it is estimated with present trend analysis that there will be per capita internal debt US$ 145, external debt US$ 250 in 2015, and there will be debt servicing 17.3% in revenue budget and 12.6% in total budget, thus which will be new overhang for Bangladesh with a lot of fall back chances in MDGs. Bangladesh would require $ 7.5 billion assistance annually for achieving, which is four times high from the present assistance, annually average $1.5 billions. Bangladesh has not entitled for the debt cancellation because of debt to export ratio has been set by the IFIs. Jeffery Sacks (2005) mentioned the criteria as arbitrary; he criticized the criteria as it is not lined to MDG achievements. Former Secretary General Kofi Anan also argued also in this line. Historically Bangladesh was under the British and Pakistani colony for 285 year, Nobel Prize winner economist Amartya Sen shows during the colonial period while there were great Bengal famine, millions of people died, on that period highest amount of revenue had repatriated to colonial capital. In fact south has paid for the industrial development of the north. At present again country like Bangladesh has to pay for the over consumption and thereby carbon emission of the developed countries. So we demand not only debt cancellation and reparation with justice now.

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