Category: Daily Star Article

Enter ‘global boiling’

July was the hottest month ever recorded on our planet. It marks a clear turning point from the previous era of talking about global warming as something that will happen in the future to recognising that it is happening already. This is evident all over the globe; from heat waves in North America and southern…
We need a loss and damage report from the IPCC

The global activities to address climate change is divided into two major institutions and activities under the United Nations. The first is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), jointly run by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which deals with the latest scientific evidence on different aspects of climate…
Our world has entered its hottest days. What now?

Over the last few months, I have been saying at different meetings that 2023 will see the beginning of the era of losses and damages from human-induced climate change. I have also been saying that every new day, week, month, and year will bring more climate change impacts, and no country is prepared for what…
Looking back at London Climate Action Week 2023

London has the potential to become a global leader in harnessing the insurance sector to tackle climate change at scale. Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has been holding an annual weeklong London Climate Action Week (LCAW) in summer every year since he was elected mayor five years ago. The week consists of a series…
Key takeaways from the Paris summit on climate finance

Recently, I had the privilege of being invited to the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, hosted by President Emmanuel Macron of France, alongside over 20 heads of government. Bangladesh was represented by Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and Climate Envoy Saber Hossain Chowdhury. I was invited to speak at three events during the…
Advancing the Glasgow Dialogue on funding to address Loss and Damage

One of the outcomes of the COP26 held in United Kingdom’s Glasgow in November, 2021 was a decision to hold a series of three annual Glasgow Dialogues on funding to address Loss and Damage, with each dialogue to be held in Bonn at the annual pre-COP event. I just attended the second annual Glasgow Dialogue,…
Understanding the game of COP

Almost everyone who keeps an eye on climate change policy at the global level is by now familiar with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its annual Conference of Parties (COP), which are held every November or December and on a different continent each year. This year’s COP28 will be hosted…
Understanding the concepts of adaptation and loss and damage

A major prediction has come out of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) this week, which says the world will almost certainly cross the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius of global atmospheric temperature rise within the next five years or so. This confirms that the world has already entered the era of losses and damages attributable…
Bangladesh doesn’t need new pilot projects to tackle climate change

FILE PHOTO: REUTERS Over the last decade, government agencies, civil society bodies and the private sector have initiated literally hundreds of pilot projects to deal with climate change-related issues, ranging from mitigation and adaptation to loss and damage. For every aspect of climate action, someone, somewhere has already implemented pilot projects that have resulted in…
Making a university great, with climate action

Today’s column is in response to the thought-provoking series of articles in The Daily Star on “What makes a great university” by Dr Syed Saad Andaleeb, Dr Ahrar Ahmad, and Dr Halimur R Khan. I would suggest not changing the entire university sector in Bangladesh, but rather to develop a world-leading effort in research and teaching to…
Time to make climate funds part of mainstream finance

The problem of global climate change has already gone through two eras and has now entered the third era. The first was the era of mitigation; the second was the era of adaptation; and now we are in the era of loss and damage from human-induced climate change. Mitigation and adaptation are still prevalent issues,…
More heatwaves are coming our way. Are we prepared?

[quotes quotes_style=”bquotes” quotes_pos=”center”]While Bangladesh has a lot of experience in tackling cyclones and floods, we have not taken heat stress into consideration until now.[/quotes] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently completed its sixth assessment report (AR6), with the Synthesis Report coming out in March. The Synthesis Report carries some key messages about the…