North must pay ecological debts to south

The southern countries are suffering from the global climate change impacts and the northern countries should compensate them for the ecological degradation speakers said in a panel discussion  on 'Climate justice towards CoP 15 Copenhagen, ecological debts: We are the creditors' jointly arranged by EquityBD, Jubilee South-Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development, Philippines, Media Foundation for Trade and Development, SUPRO, VOICE and Unnayan Onneshan at the National Press Club on 27th of July 2009, Dhaka.

Lidy Nacpil, convenor of Jubilee South-APMDD, a regional network in the Philippines, referred the example of the Bolivian government which formally placed the demand of ecological debt to UNFCC in its Bonn conference in June.She said the north has exploited the rights of all human beings who have equal shares to the global commons which include ozone layer, air and on natural resources. These global commons should be utilised in equitable and sustainable way. The north has exploited those and also created negative consequences like present climate crisis.

Recognition of ecological debt should be a part of climate justice. We are demanding what they owe and this is a feasible political process. They exploited us, took away more than their fair share of resources and caused severe damage to the ecology she added.
Director Dr Sarba Raj Khdaka of LDC Watch, an international civil society organisation based in Nepal, mentioned that all the debts in the low-income countries accumulated as a part of neo-colonial exploitation. All these are illegitimate and these should be cancelled.He also said that we are not going to solve the outstanding problems unless there is a radical change in global governance.

Dr. Piash Karim, professor Brac university, contended that the call for repayment of ecological debt was democratic and said, let us articulate it.
Ahmed Swapan Mahmud said Rich people, and big cities, took up a lot for their survival and growth. They were running up ecological debts. Conservative estimates suggest that the OECD still spends around $70-80 billion per year on subsidizing fossil fuels and fossil fuel-based activities – roughly $20 billion more than the total development assistance given to poor countries in the year 2000.

He demands the international recognition of the illegitimacy of external debt as made evident by ecological debt
Presenting a keynote paper, Sayed Aminul Haque of EquityBD said during colonial period, its master Britain repatriated resources from the Indian subcontinent and increased their gross national product (GNP).The rights leaders said they would organise a countrywide awareness and mobilisation programme up to December 2009 in line with the conference of parties (CoP) to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The rights leaders said they would organise a countrywide awareness and mobilisation programme up to December 2009 in line with the conference of parties (CoP) to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Mohiuddin Ahmed moderated the programme where Uma Chowdhury, Iqbal Ahmed, AHM