South Asian nations issue joint climate plan

South Asian environment ministers said yesterday that developed countries should establish a special fund dedicated to saving them from the effects of climate change.

The measure is one of a wide range of proposals the ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in an environmental action plan following a three-day summit in the Bangladeshi capital.

It is the first time the eight SAARC countries have issued a joint plan to fight the effects of global warming.

"The SAARC region is most vulnerable to climate change and thereby seriously affecting our agricultural production, crippling our vital infrastructures, diminishing our natural resources and limiting our development options for the future," the joint declaration said.

Environmentalists have long warned that SAARC's member countries - Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - are among the worst affected by climate change even though most of them are responsible for a tiny portion of the world's carbon emissions.

As well as a special fund, ministers also said more technology was needed to fight climate change and developed countries needed to reduce their carbon emissions.

Bangladeshi deputy environment minister Raja Devashish Roy told reporters that his country had dedicated 30 million taka ($437,000) to fight climate change, but that alone could not fight the effects on his country.

Plans to fight climate change needed to be integrated into all sectors, he said.

"Thirty million taka is just the beginning. We're engaging at an international level of negotiating. We are going to push for more funds to come into Bangladesh," he said. He said predictions by scientists that Bangladesh could disappear under water by the end of the century was the biggest environmental threat facing his country.

"Amongst other things rising sea levels are a serious concern but there is time to prepare."

Leading Bangladeshi environmental scientist A. Atiq Rahman said some countries, including Japan, were already taking steps to fund climate projects and that money needed to be chanelled into a bigger fund. He said Bangladesh and the Maldives were the countries in the region facing the biggest threat from rising sea levels. AFP