The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) has started in Glasgow, Scotland on October 31.

A pavilion of Bangladesh was inaugurated in the official venue of COP26 on November 01. BGMEA's official delegation to the COP26 headed by its President Faruque Hassan attended the inaugural ceremony. 

Honorable State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam, MP, Honorable State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid MP, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, Chairman Standing Committee, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Principal Secretary to the Honorable Prime Minister Dr. Ahmad Kaikaus, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen were present at the Bangladesh Pavilion on the occasion.

The BGMEA delegation also included Vice President Miran Ali, Directors Asif Ashraf and Abdullah Hil Rakib, and Shams Mahmud, Managing Director of Shasha Denims Ltd. 

One of the objectives of BGMEA was to showcase all the good works of the RMG sector on sustainability and highlight green revolutions and commitments. 

BGMEA presented its Sustainability Reporting 2020 made based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) along with its SDG Reporting on 47 member factories. Besides, a video presentation on the sustainability strides of Bangladesh’s RMG industry is also being showed in the Bangladesh Pavilion. 

A good number of visitors including many brands and international media visited the pavilion and praised the achievements of Bangladesh’s apparel industry in the area of environmental sustainability. 

Bangladesh is home to the highest number of green garment factories in the world with the Leadership in Environmental and Energy in Design (LEED) certification given by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). 

Bangladesh has 150 LEED Green factories, of which 44 are Platinum rated and 93 are Gold rated. Moreover, 40 out of top 100 green factories of the world belong to Bangladesh while 500 more are in the process of getting certification. It proves the focused drive of the industry in the area of environmental sustainability.

The COP26 summit aims to bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The COP26 is very significant and crucial for global climate policy, against the backdrop of the likelihood of the global mean temperature rise by 2.7 degree Celsius compared to the pre-industrial levels by the end of this century due to massive human-induced GHG emissions. Therefore, it has huge implications for climate vulnerable economies like Bangladesh.