A successful submission to the United Nations will secure exclusive rights and access to potentially lucrative natural resources

The Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh will become the latest country to receive assistance from the Commonwealth Secretariat in preparing a claim to the United Nations for additional areas of seabed, known as continental shelf under international law.

To date, the Secretariat has helped 14 countries to lodge submissions for additional areas of continental shelf covering, in total, over two million square kilometres of seabed.

In order to claim additional areas, Bangladesh must make a submission to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

“Forty one years ago, in the city of Cleveland, people watched in horror as the Cuyahoga River – choked with debris and covered in oil – caught on fire.

Images of the burning Cuyahoga shocked a nation, and it led one Wisconsin Senator the following year to organize the first Earth Day to call attention to the dangers of ignoring our environment.

In the four decades since, we have made remarkable progress. Today, our air and water are cleaner, pollution has been greatly reduced, and Americans everywhere are living in a healthier environment. We’ve passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and founded the Environmental Protection Agency. And in Cleveland, the Cuyahoga River is cleaner than it’s been in 100 years.

The need for a new global climate deal is "greater than ever", according to developing country delegates speaking at the opening of UN climate talks.

Blocs representing the poorest nations called for intensive talks during the year, leading to agreement on a legally binding treaty in December.

The EU backed the call, re-stating that the conclusion of December's Copenhagen summit had not met its ambitions.

But other industrialised countries do not appear so keen for a new treaty.