Bangladesh issued a sharp call for urgent, grant-based climate finance at COP30, warning that Least Developed Countries face irreversible impacts. Delegation head Farida Akhter said the credibility of global climate diplomacy now depends on delivering justice-driven funding under the new finance goal.
Bangladesh issued a forceful call for urgent, justice-driven climate finance at the UN Climate Summit on Saturday, warning that millions across the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are already confronting irreversible climate impacts.
Speaking at the High-Level Ministerial Dialogue, Bangladesh’s head of delegation and Fisheries and Livestock Adviser, Farida Akhter, said the poorest nations were paying the steepest price for a crisis they did little to cause.
“Bangladesh speaks today as part of the Least Developed Countries Group, representing communities whose lives, homes and futures are already being reshaped by the climate crisis,” she said. “For us, climate finance is not a matter of negotiation, it is a matter of survival, justice and human dignity.”
She stressed that LDCs had not come to COP30 merely to restate grievances but to press for solutions proportionate to the scale of destruction facing vulnerable nations. Bangladesh, among the world’s most climate-exposed countries, continues to grapple with sea-level rise, salinity intrusion, cyclones and river erosion.
At a later press conference in the Bangladesh Pavilion, Akhter highlighted the growing climate-induced threats to the country’s iconic Hilsha fish, citing shifting river patterns and habitat degradation. The species, central to Bangladesh’s culture and economy, faces increasing risks as river ecosystems change.
Akhter also praised the rising youth leadership within Bangladesh’s COP30 delegation, saying young negotiators and activists were injecting “clarity, courage and new energy” into the global climate process.
Addressing gender concerns, she urged countries to close the gender gap in climate policy and ensure women’s voices, knowledge and leadership are fully reflected in negotiations and national plans. “Women are paying the highest price of climate impacts, yet they remain central to resilience,” she said.
As negotiations in Belém enter a critical phase, Bangladesh reiterated that the credibility of the global process now hinges on whether countries with historical responsibility deliver predictable, grant-based finance and firm commitments under the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG).
At the press conference, speakers included Mohammad Navid Shafiullah, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; AKM Sohel, Additional Secretary of the Economic Relations Division; Ziaul Haque, Additional Director General of the Department of Environment; Mirza Shawkot Ali, Director (Climate Change and International Conventions); and M. Hafizul Islam Khan, Founder and Director of the Center for Climate Justice Bangladesh, among others.
