Climate vulnerable forum to focus on common voice
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Xinhua, November 2, 2011
The two-day summit of global Climate Vulnerable Forum, slated for Nov. 13-14 in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, will focus on developing a common platform for member states to raise voice jointly in the Durban U.N. climate talks next month, officials said Tuesday.
Hasan Mahmud, Bangladesh's Minister of Environment and Forest, told reporters at a news briefing, "Dhaka summit will try to develop a common platform to raise voice jointly."
The forum was founded at the initiative of the Maldives when eleven vulnerable countries from across the world met in Male in November 2009 to highlight their challenges and seek international assistance. They are the Maldives, Kiribati, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda, Tanzania and Vietnam. The first summit of the forum adopted a declaration which expressed alarm at effects of human-induced global warming and sought international assistance to combat the dangers of man-made calamities.
Since inception, the forum has met with considerable success under the leadership of the Maldives and Kiribati in presenting of these countries as well as in creating an awareness and appreciation in the climate talks, said Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in a website post.
However, the forum's third summit in Dhaka, ahead of U.N. climate talks in Durban( the 17th Conference of the Parties), is expected to pave the way for the vulnerable countries to take more advantage of the positive momentum created after the Cancun meeting.
Bangladesh has invited U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, all the forum's members from vulnerable countries of Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific and observer states in the Dhaka Summit.
It is believed that the delegates including ministers and senior government and non-government officials would reach a consensus to issue a declaration with united political calls from vulnerable states for all required supports by the industrialized developed nations.
They are also expected to affirm their own determination to pursue green development and manifest moral leadership on low- carbon development.
Mahmud said per capita emission of Bangladesh is only 0.3 ton while it is 15 to 20 tons for industrialized developed countries and 1.6 tonnes for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) including Bangladesh.
"We'll not only adopt Dhaka Declaration during the summit but also try to formulate draft modalities to make the forum more efficient in future," Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said during the briefing.
The forum, according to the MoFA post, has currently 26 members, mostly from LDCs and Small Island Developing States.
Members of the forum include Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, the Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam. Apart from member states, the MoFA post showed seven more countries including Afghanistan, Gambia, Haiti, Madagascar, Myanmar, Nicaragua and Papua New Guinea, have been invited to attend the summit. Bangladesh will assume the chairmanship of the forum in November 2011 from Kiribati.
