No need for yearly climate summit: Prof Yunus

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, at the COP29 summit, today said the climate conference does not need to be held every year because the goals of such summits are known. He also urged the world to make a long-term plan for meeting those.

"We know what the world needs, and we should make a long-term plan for that. It should be country by country. And we have to make the plan for long-term mitigation," he said while speaking at an LDC high-level meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the COP29 in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku today.

"We don't need to meet here every year. Meeting every year to negotiate is time-consuming, wasteful, and humiliating," he added.

Leaders of five major climate-vulnerable least developed countries—Nepal, Malawi, Gambia, Liberia, and Bangladesh—joined the closed-door meeting.

The chief adviser called for a new approach to climate negotiations, as the current approach has largely failed to meet the needs of much of the world.

He said the world needs a new economic framework to tackle the climate crisis and create a new civilisation that works for the earth and people.

"We need a new economic framework that serves the planet and the people," the Chief Adviser said, adding that he backs the UN-sponsored Summit for the Future to create an economic order for the world's young people.

"We have created an economic framework based on consume, consume, and consume, and it only generates waste, waste and waste. We need to create a world of zero waste," Professor Yunus said.

Guterres said the LDCs faced the greatest injustice as far as climate change is concerned.

"We want to tell you that we care about you," Guterres said, adding that the LDCs need to do hard negotiations and "serious mechanism" to secure a bigger fund for climate adaptation and mitigation.