BELÉM — Bangladesh electrified the climate summit on Friday, demanding a dedicated $5 billion loss-and-damage window for delta nations, as new data showed the Bay of Bengal swallowing an average of 26 kilometres of coastline a year.
'Every monsoon, a school I visited last year is gone. Every cyclone, a mother I met is a widow,' the delegation chief told a hushed plenary. 'We did not cause this crisis. We emit 0.3% of the world's carbon. Yet we pay with our land, our rivers, our dead.' The speech drew a standing ovation from small-island states.
Dhaka's proposal — backed by Vietnam, Egypt and the Netherlands — seeks direct-access grants (not loans) for embankments, salt-tolerant agriculture and planned relocation of 500,000 climate-vulnerable families by 2030.
Negotiators say a compromise text is emerging, with the EU signalling €800 million in seed funding. 'For the first time, polluters are not just applauding us — they are opening their wallets,' a Bangladeshi negotiator said.
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Reported by World Desk • Edited by the Daily Best News desk. Send corrections to [email protected].
