September 27, 2024
NEW YORK – Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has taken shelter in India, should be extradited if she has committed crimes, said Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus.
“Why shouldn’t she? If she has committed crimes, she should be extradited and brought to justice,” he said responding to a question at the New York Times Climate Forward summit on Wednesday.
Prof Yunus said he did not have a timeframe for when Bangladesh would hold elections.
Several commissions that were formed are expected to provide their reform recommendations in the coming months, after which the country will set a date for polls.
Asked if he has any plans to run for office, Prof Yunus responded in the negative. “Do I look like someone who would run?”
Turning to the climate issue, he said the Paris Agreement, the global accord for limiting the effects of climate change, won’t work as long as the world sticks to the current economic system, according to The New York Times.
That system, he said, is centred on maximising profits, creating wealth for a tiny group of people and generating massive waste.
“The economic system we have built is key to the destruction of this planet,” said Prof Yunus, adding that humans had created a “self-destructive civilisation.”
No matter what changes were made to the agreement, it would not make a difference until the world’s underlying systems were redesigned, he said.
Developing countries like Bangladesh should not have to bear the burden of the climate damage done by their wealthier counterparts.
“Why should we carry the burden of all the destruction that you put on us? You are the cause; we are the result.”
He added that individuals should also bear the responsibility of producing less waste and shrinking their fossil fuel footprint.
Jane Goodall, a celebrated British scientist; Vicki Hollub, president of Occidental Petroleum; Mohamed Irfaan Ali, president of Guyana; Kevin D Roberts, president of Heritage Foundation; and Ali Zaidi, President Biden’s climate adviser, spoke at the event among others.