Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, chairman of PKSF, speaks at the National Congress on Sustainable Development, held at the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation auditorium in Dhaka yesterday.Photo: STAR

Bangladesh should strengthen its negotiating capacity if it wants to realise the benefits of global carbon trading as the developed countries are mostly responsible for carbon emission, environmental experts said yesterday.
There is a possibility that temperatures globally would increase by another 4 degrees by the end of the century, despite efforts to keep temperatures below 42 degree Celsius, according to the experts.
Although the developed countries, being the highest carbon emitters, are taking various steps to keep the emission at tolerable level, an opportunity has been created for Bangladesh to earn money from global carbon trading.
“But the country needs to strengthen its bargaining capacity with the developed countries to realise the benefits of trade,” said Mohammad Shahjahan, director general of Department of Environment.
The country does not get the just price for its garment products as the hidden costs such as water and environmental pollution are not taken into account when setting the price.
The country requires 100-150 tonnes of water to manufacture one tonne of clothing items, Shahjahan said.
His comments came at the National Congress on Sustainable Development, held at the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) auditorium in Dhaka.
Citizens' Forum on Sustainable Development, a civil society forum to feed voices and opinions to the Bangladesh government and development actors, organised the event.
The forum has been working on 10 separate issues to be raised at the United Nations conference in September.
The issues are: poverty eradication, food security and nutrition and sustainable agriculture, energy, transport, sustainable and resilient cities, health and population, equity and justice, access to information, knowledge and technology, democratic governance and promoting full and productive employment, decent work for all and social protections.
Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, chairman of PKSF, said the Citizens Forum will hold more dialogues at all levels for opinions in favour of the issues.
Palash Kanti Das, assistant country director of United Nations Development Programme, said the UN has been working on four areas for sustainable development: inclusive economic growth, poverty reduction, and governance and justice, and environmental sustainability.
“The UN's four issues cover almost all issues those the Citizens Forum is campaigning for.”