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Prime minister Sheikh Hasina spoke of the need for urgent action on climate change with her Swedish counterpart Fredrik Reinfeldt in Stockholm on Thursday, securing a climate fund pledge.
Reinfeldt responded to Hasina's concerns, saying Sweden would propose an adaptation fund of 5 to 7 billion euros, for nations most at risk from global warming, at the upcoming climate talks at Copenhagen in December.
Hasina said some 20 million people in Bangladesh could be affected by the adverse affects of climate change, and world leaders must rethink the threat to South Asia from global warming, her press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told bdnews24.com.
Hasina also met with European Commission chief José Manuel Barroso on Thursday.
She left for the Swedish capital Tuesday to join the 4th European Development Days conference, a three-day event aiming to strengthen global cooperation on Millennium Development Goals, focusing on the challenges presented by changing climate.
Reinfeldt, speaking at the launch of an international development summit in Stockholm Thursday, said his government was wholly behind global efforts to combat the affects of climate change.
Hasina joined the inaugural session in the morning and later met with the Swedish prime minister, EU chief, the speaker of the Swedish parliament Per Westerberg and Moroccan communications minister Khalid Nakiri.
Azad said the prime minister presented the programmes of her government in the talks with her Swedish counterpart.
"Hasina told him we are concerned about the adverse situation in Bangladesh and South Asia due to climate change.
"She said developed countries are responsible for this situation, not us. They've to come forward to fight the situation," Azad told bdnews24.com.
"The prime minister also asked for assistance of the Swedish government on regional food security," Azad said.
Azad said Reinfeldt voiced appreciation of Hasina's speeches in different international climate conferences.
"He also termed Bangladesh a country of possibilities with natural resources. He said the population, though high, is full of potential."
Terming Sweden one of the major development partners of Bangladesh Hasina thanked the European countries for their assistance in the Dec 2008 general elections.
Morocco's communications minister called on Hasina to convey the greetings of the King to the prime minister.
Meeting the speaker of the Swedish parliament, she said development is impossible without democracy.
Hasina said her government is working on democratic developments.
She said the Human Rights Commission, Information Rights Commission and the Anticorruption Commission have been strengthened.
The government has been working to empower women, increase literacy, achieve food security and some 18,000 community clinics are being set up, she said.
Westerberg welcomed the Bangladesh government's programmes, Azad said.
The Bangladesh delegation in Stockholm includes state minister for environment Hasan Mahmud, the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on environment Abdul Momin Talukder and the Bangladesh ambassador to Sweden Emtiaz Ahmed.
Source: bdnews24.com
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