Blog post: Don’t lock Bangladesh into poverty - protests today in London and Dhaka

Earlier today, WDM held a protest outside the Department for International Development to oppose the UK’s plans for how climate finance should be administered; plans that WDM are concerned would lock Bangladesh into further poverty.

Protest outside Dfid this morning - UK symbolically locking Bangladesh in chains

The protest, which bought together different groups, including Jubilee Debt Campaign and the Bangladeshi diaspora group, European Action Group on Climate Change in Bangladesh, was held in solidarity with campaigners in Bangladesh who were simultaneously creating a human chain outside the Bangladesh Development Forum in Dhaka, which the UK government is attending. The UK’s Department for International Development has said it wants Bangladesh to make a decision on the proposed deal, called the Multi Donor Trust Fund, during this meeting. However, the deal in its current form is being strongly resisted by Bangladeshi civil society and government because of concerns about how the money would be administered.

The Department for International Development is currently pushing for funds to go through the undemocratic, unaccountable World Bank, an institution that itself is responsible for funding high carbon projects that have caused climate change and that is also responsible for projects that have led countries like Bangladesh into further debt and poverty. The UK’s position is opposed by both Bangladeshi civil society and the Bangladeshi government.


Protest outside the National Press Club in Dhaka this morning

In Bangladesh, people from twenty one different civil society organisations gathered outside the national press club where the Bangladesh Development Forum is being held. They were calling for developed countries who were attending the meeting to pay their ‘carbon debt’. “Bangladesh is facing catastrophic climate change, which is the result of high carbon emissions historically by developing countries,” stated a spokesperson from the demonstration “Developed countries are indebted to the people of Bangladesh and should pay their carbon debt”.

Not only does the UK hold the historic responsibility for causing climate change, but it also continues to hold current responsibility - in just two weeks, the UK emits as much carbon as Bangladesh does in an entire year. In Bangladesh climate change is already causing a plethora of disasters that are costing people with their lives. For example, cyclone Sidr in 2007 caused the death of 4000 people and US$1.7 billion in economic damage.

Money from the UK for tackling climate change should be seen as compensation, meaning that we shouldn’t be imposing how it should be delivered – which is like trashing someone’s house, giving them a small amount of money to do it up, and then telling them which shops they go to buy new furniture.

What’s more, the UK is actually taking this money from Bangladesh’s already allocated aid budget, money that should be spent on vital services such as health, education and clean water, and re-naming it climate finance rather than giving any new money

So far, hundreds of people have joined WDM and Justice and Equity Working Group in Bangladesh in emailing Douglas Alexander. This has already pushed officials from the Department for International Development to meet with Justice and Equity Working Group In Bangladesh, who we’ve been campaigning together with, who told us that at the meeting seemed their “their major concern was to know about our campaign with WDM.” If you haven’t emailed Douglas Alexander already, please do so now.