Bangladesh has emphasised justice, ambition and urgent global solidarity in the face of escalating climate impacts at COP30 in Brazil’s Belém.
Speaking at a moment when the world grapples with irreversible climate damage and a profound trust deficit in multilateralism, Mohammad Navid Shafiullah, additional secretary, climate change, of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, reminded delegates on Tuesday that for Bangladesh, climate change was not an abstract threat but a daily reality.
Extreme temperatures, cyclones, floods, sea-level rise and riverbank erosion continue to displace millions, undermine biodiversity and push vulnerable communities to the brink.
He added that Bangladesh confronted extreme climate events while simultaneously bearing the humanitarian burden of the Rohingya crisis—demonstrating how climate, conflict and displacement multiply pressured on vulnerable nations.
Despite contributing less than 0.5 per cent of global emissions, Bangladesh has chosen leadership over despair.
Shafiullah highlighted that the country was advancing NDC 3.0, aligned with the global stocktake outcome, targeting 25pc of electricity generation from renewables by 2035—five times higher than the current level.
‘Bangladesh is operationalising its national adaptation plan and investing heavily in locally led adaptation,’ he noted.
He, however, cautioned that without predictable climate finance and accessible technology, climate-vulnerable countries could not survive, as limited national budgets were diverted to disaster response at the expense of essential sectors like health and education.
Calling for decisive global action, he urged four pathways— perceiving climate action through the lens of justice by translating the ICJ advisory opinion into measurable accountability; strengthening public finance and ensuring that adaptation finance reaches at least $120 billion annually; scaling up grant-based adaptation finance and swiftly operationalising the loss and damage fund for vulnerable countries; and investing in locally led adaptation and nature-based solutions such as mangrove protection—including the Sundarban—climate-resilient agriculture, and community-based flood-risk management.
He warned that the politicisation and commercialisation of climate initiatives had only deepened delays and escalated the cost of inaction.
COP30 will either become another missed opportunity accelerating climate collapse, or a turning point that redeems years of inertia, he said, adding, ‘Let courage rise, let justice lead and let collective action begin—to build a safer planet for future generations.’