Abul Kalam Azad, former Principal Coordinator (SDG’s) and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office, has been appointed as Special Envoy for the United Nations Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF).
The appointment was made jointly by CVF Managing Partner, Global Centre on Adaptation Board President and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and CVF President and Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina on Sunday.
Prior to becoming the special envoy, Abul Kalam Azad served as Principal Secretary to the PM and was appointed as the Principal coordinator for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) at the PM Office in 2016. Before that, he was the secretary of the Department of Economic Relations and the Department of Power. Azad has also signed on to qualify for the World Bank's Least Developed Countries (LDCs) programmes.
Besides, as deputy commissioner (DC) of Manikganj and the director of the PM Office, he also served in more than one office at different times. He is currently the President of Bangladesh Scouts and Bangladesh Roller Skating Federation.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has been appointed for the second time as the chairman of the CVF Vulnerable Twenty (V-20) group of finance ministers of countries at risk of climate change.
CVF, a high-level international forum comprising 48 countries, works to address global warming as well as those affected by climate change. The Maldives established the CVF in 2009 before the United Nations Climate Change Conference, with the aim of highlighting the countries at risk of global warming and climate change.
Getting new responsibilities, Abul Kalam Azad said, “Bangladesh as a vulnerable country has done a lot of exemplary work of which Cyclone Amphan is one. In 1970, a cyclone killed more than five million people in the country, but now we have succeeded in dealing with the floods caused by Amphan. The recognition of our ability is Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s becoming as the President of CVF for the second term. Our responsibility is to support other countries, including the South Corporation, on climate issues.”
"Another big challenge for us is global warming. We need to restrain the temperature from raising more than 2 degrees, which is 1.5 degrees. So that we can take better steps at reducing global warming on behalf of other vulnerable countries,” he added.