A cycling rally and procession was held in Pekua, Cox’s Bazar, on Saturday to demand an end to fossil fuel use and compensation for countries bearing the brunt of climate change.
Carrying slogans including ‘Save the planet, not war’, ‘Stop fossil fuels’ and ‘Compensate climate-affected countries now’, participants expressed solidarity with the organisers of the global climate conference.
The programme was jointly organised by environmental group Dharitri Rokkhae Amra (Dhara) and several local organisations at the Grameen Bank premises on the Pekua Submarine Naval Base Road around 10:00 am.
Speakers said countries most affected by climate change must not be pushed into further debt in the name of adaptation. Instead, they should receive fair compensation and grants. Countries and multinational corporations with the greatest historical responsibility for the climate crisis should bear a fair share of the financial burden for addressing losses and damages suffered by affected countries and communities, they said.
The speakers, at a programme moderated by Delwar Hossain, Pekua upazila coordinator of Dhara, said industrialised countries and multinational corporations had made huge profits from fossil-fuel-dependent economies for decades.
Yet farmers, fishers, salt workers, coastal communities and other working people in vulnerable countries such as Bangladesh are bearing the greatest costs of climate change, they said.
Cyclones, tidal surges, river erosion, floods, salinity, drought and crop losses are damaging homes, livelihoods and farmland every year. At the same time, the speakers said, communities most affected by the climate crisis continue to receive inadequate support.
They called for climate finance to be provided through grants rather than loans, along with a fair and environmentally sustainable transition away from fossil-fuel-based economies. They also demanded stronger environmental protection, climate justice and public ownership in the energy sector.
Environmental activists also called for an end to wars, climate justice, grants instead of loans, a phase-out of fossil fuels and a transition to 100 per cent renewable energy.
Retired teacher Ruhul Amin, M Amjad Hossain, president of Nur Ayesha Khan Foundation, Jihadul Islam Jihad, coordinator of Pekua Planetious Club, Tamim Iqbal, relief, humanitarian service and publicity secretary of Shopno Chhoa Foundation, Abdul Gafur, coordinator of Pratyay Humanitarian Youth Development Organisation (PHYDO), and Towhidul Islam were among those present, along with leaders of various voluntary organisations and students.
The organisers said those most responsible for the climate crisis must take responsibility for addressing the losses suffered by affected people.
“Climate-affected countries need compensation and justice-based financing now, not more loans,” they said.
Pekua Correspondent
