G-8 urged to give priority to

A coalition of local and international non-governmental organisations and experts on Friday called upon the G-8 nations to give priority to the environmental refugees for migration to the developed nations from the developing ones. Leaders of the alliance styled Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods also asked Bangladesh to start preparing list of its environmental refuges as the country, most vulnerable to natural disasters because of climate change, still lacks a credible statistics on such refugees. ‘The government should start the work at union level to see how many people are falling prey to natural calamities and their life and livelihood patters are changed because of them,’ Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, a researcher working for Centre for Global Change, told a press briefing in Dhaka. The briefing was organised to register the civil society’s concern from Bangladesh ahead of the summit of the G-8 leaders scheduled to be held from July 7-9 in Hokkaido of Japan. Global economy, climate change and development of Africa will be placed high on the agenda for the summit, and the decision and discussion on Bangladesh’s future development policy and strategies will also get importance in the summit, the researcher said. He said people in countries like Bangladesh unfortunately fall prey to the global greenhouse emission, caused mainly by the developed nations, and they should pay adequate compensation to the poor people living in the developing countries. The press conference, also addressed by the alliance chairperson Khushi Kabir and its member secretary Ziaul Hoque, put forward a set of recommendations which, they believe, should be taken into consideration for ensuring stability in life and livelihood of people living in rural Bangladesh. The alliance called upon the G-8 nations to allow the environmental refugees’ migration to their countries since they have much scope for it. It also asked for raising emergency fund for adaptation which should be on addition to the proposed fund under the Kyoto protocol. The alliance reminds those nations for measures for massive emission cut as the developed nations have breached their pledges made in line with the Kyoto protocol. On scarcity of food due to global price hike, the alliance observed that lack of access to food has multiplied food insecurity of the poor people across the world. Under the circumstances, the condition of the marginal poor in the poorest nati-ons has become ever deplorable. The alliance leaders observed with concern that the developed countries and multinational companies started using bio-fuels from food grain. The process would definitely have adverse effect on food availability. ‘We don’t want food for motor vehicles, we want food for human beings,’ said Khushi Kabir, urging the rich nations to refrain from pursing the policy on making fuels from food grain.