Environmental campaigners at a rally in Rajshahi on Thursday called for replacing the fossil fuel-based food system with green and sustainable energy-based alternatives to ensure environmental justice and food security.
The rally was organised by a number of non-governmental organisations, including We The 99, Fight Inequality Alliance, Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Barendra Youth Forum, at Lalon Shah Mukta Mancha in the city as part of the 鈥楪lobal Red Campaign鈥�.
Over one hundred youths, farmers, teachers and professionals participated in the rally.
The campaigners said that while the G20 countries represented only one per cent of the global population, they controlled 99 per cent of the world鈥檚 resources and were responsible for most of the environmentally destructive activities accelerating climate change.
They urged global leaders to shift towards a green and biodiversity-based food system.
Presenting a concept paper on the drought-prone Barind region, Shahidul Islam, researcher and regional coordinator of BARCIK, said that the forthcoming G20 and COP30 summits must address inequities in the current food and energy systems.
鈥楻educing fossil fuel use and ensuring equity in food production and distribution are among the most urgent challenges of our time,鈥� he said.
Social and cultural activist Wariur Rahman said that nature and indigenous culture were being destroyed in the name of development and called for locally rooted food systems.
Barendra Youth Forum president Sheikh Tasnim Jamal said that the youth wanted a safe planet where humans and all biodiversity could coexist peacefully.
Indigenous youth leader Sabitri Hebrom said that climate change was shrinking indigenous food systems and rights, for which rich nations must take responsibility.
Environmental activist Md Hasibul Hasnat Rizvi said that the policies of developed nations often harmed countries like Bangladesh and that such injustice must stop.
At the rally, FIA Rajshahi youth coordinator Atikur Rahman Atik announced a six-point demand to be raised at the forthcoming G20 and UN COP30 summits.
The demands include ending fossil fuel-dependent food production, promoting green energy and sustainable agriculture, empowering small and local farmers, implementing equitable and eco-friendly food policies, reducing fossil fuel subsidies, and ensuring that the world鈥檚 richest one per cent uphold the rights and justice of the global 99 per cent.
