 The least developed countries which are 48 of the poorest countries in the world most of them in sub-saharan Africa And a few in Asia including my country Bangladesh Have been negotiating in the negotiations on climate change in the under the Framework Convention on climate change as a group only from COP 6 in the Hague in 2000 and I have been associated with them as a supporter and an advisor ever since then and I mentioned three things that have changed over that period firstly they are now well organized They used to be very disorganized. They were not even though they're 48 countries They had very small delegations of a couple of people each They would all follow the same thing. They were not well coordinated Whereas once they got their act together with the 48 countries, they have a big group And if they divide tasks between them, they don't all have to follow the same thing So nowadays they're much better at Dividing tasks having team leaders following different aspects. They meet regularly every day to coordinate amongst them We have a very good chair at the moment. It's Angola Mr. Giza Martin from Angola and the group has become much more effective and organized and as a result of its capability has Enhanced very very considerably. It started off as a group that was defending its own interests They were the poorest countries and the most vulnerable countries So obviously they wanted support for adaptation and they spent a lot of their initial years Asking for it negotiating for it. They got a least developed countries fund that they had asked for and got They're asking for replenishment of that So to some extent it is defending their interests and pleading for their interests But in the last couple of years they have up their game. They are no longer Thinking merely about themselves. They are now thinking about what is a good agreement? That we need for the whole planet and they are pushing the developed countries like the US and Europe and even large Developing countries like China and India to do the right thing And so the least developed countries have become a voice for a global agreement That is good for the planet and in particular the in Paris that An element of that is the long-term goal the least developed countries together with the small island states in Africa Have been pushing for a long-term goal of one and a half degrees Instead of two degrees Which is what the developed countries and even the large developing countries had been supporting up till now and here in Paris from the very beginning of the cop We have been pushing for that one and a half degrees Against very high odds against very difficult circumstances, but it looks like we may well Get an agreement on the long-term goal being changed from two degrees to one and a half degrees Which is a massive achievement for a group of very poor very vulnerable countries to make decisions Change the attitude and decisions of very big rich countries like the United States and Europe and also big developing countries like China and India