Jamaat demands corruption-free use of $30 million climate fund pledged at COP31

The delegation of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the main opposition party in the Jatiya Sangsad, taking part in COP31 has welcomed the five demands raised by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman at the world climate conference. But they demanded that the pledged allocation of 30 million US dollars for Bangladesh be ensured to reach people affected by climate change.

They also demanded that it be ensured that the money from this fund is used completely free of corruption.

Barrister Mahbubul Alam Salehi, a member of the standing committee on environment, forest and climate change and MP for Kurigram-3, made the demands at a press conference held in front of the Bangladesh Pavilion at the COP31 venue in Antalya, Turkey, on Saturday afternoon (14 November).

He said there had been widespread irregularities and corruption in spending international funds that came into the climate fund in the past. He therefore demanded that regular tracking reports be published publicly to stop corruption in the allocation to come.

At the press conference, Salehi presented Jamaat's Three Zero vision on protecting the environment, mentioning Zero Floods, Zero Waste and Zero Environment Degradation. He said the vision had been presented by Jamaat at various side events.

Jamaat also called on world leaders to protect Bangladesh and the world from climate change and to protect the environment.

Salehi said Bangladesh is in no way responsible for climate change, yet its worst negative effects fall on Bangladesh. But the amount of funding received from past climate conferences is less than 9 percent of what was promised, and most of it was received as loans. He therefore urged the government to emphasise grant-based funding over such loans in future.

He said climate change and environmental protection are not a political, religious or regional issue, and called on the government to work with all parties together to secure the expected funding.

Answering reporters' questions, Salehi said the press conference had been pre-scheduled for 1:30 pm inside the Bangladesh Pavilion, but the pavilion authority appointed by the environment ministry did not cooperate in holding it there. He said the pavilion press conference had been confirmed in advance directly with the state minister for environment and the additional secretary in charge of the pavilion.

Calling the incident regrettable, he said Jamaat had come to the climate conference mainly to cooperate with the government and unitedly present Bangladesh's position on environmental protection, but the government's climate conference representatives did not cooperate in that.

Dr Mahmudul Hasan, coordinator of the COP31 Jamaat delegation, was among those present at the press conference.