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Regional fund sought to tackle climate change

Two-day Saarc experts group meet begins
Experts from the Saarc countries yesterday emphasised the need for creating a regional climate change fund to establish adaptation research and training centres and share information and experiences to face the common menace of climate change.
At a two-day meeting of the Saarc Experts Group on Climate Change starting yesterday, they presented country situation reports on climate change and their progress in battling it and sought regional cooperation.
Ministers from the Saarc member states will sit tomorrow to plan a course of actions on the issue.
Environment experts from eight Saarc countries—India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Maldives. Bhutan and Bangladesh--joined yesterday's meeting.
Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser for Environment and Forest Raja Debasish Roy opened the session. Leader of the 15-member Bangladesh team, Environment and Forest Secretary’ Dr Rezaul Kabir moderated the sessions.
In his address, Debasish said the Saarc member states need to jointly raise voices against the climate change to intensify the ongoing negotiations for getting global climate change fund planned after the Bali conference.
"Our focus is on getting grants rather than loans from the developed countries since they are the most responsible for creating the adverse impact on climate change by releasing huge quantity of carbon dioxide," he said
The experts suggested developing region-wide comm unity-based measures in diverse ecological conditions by exchanging information. They also called for cooperation in capacity building to take more "clean development mechanism" (CDM) projects and promoting cooperation in renewable energy technology.
Former UNESCAP director Dr Rezaul Karim in his keynote paper said with global temperature increase between 1.5 and 2.5 degrees Celsius, 20-30 percent plant and animal species could become extinct while crop yields in South Asian region could decrease by up to 30 percent by the middle of this century.
The cities in South Asia are also likely to face severe drainage conges -tion due to increased precipitation, he said.
Studies suggest that it is no longer possible to reverse the process of climate change in the coming decades but the region is still not prepared to face the disruptive effects of a warmer world, he added.
While presenting the report on Bangladesh situation. Dr Asaduzzaman proposed extending the regional action plan to manage climate change like the European Union.
He proposed best sharing of water resources for optimal use and control in hydro-power projects. He also proposed cooperating each other to develop a regional food bank and new crop varieties tolerant of climate change.
Asaduzzaman underlined the need for cooperation for disease prevention and control and early warning system for short and long-range weather and flood forecast.
The Indian representative said India is willing to share its CDM experience with other Saarc countries. He proposed holding a joint workshop with project developers, CDM consultants and industry associations of Saarc countries.
Sri Lanka proposed establishing a common regional position and criterion to assess the cost in terms of monetary values of "environmental debt" owed by developed countries to the Saarc countries.
He said the Saarc countries may curtail use of carbon and exchange the carbon credit with the developed countries for financial debts.