I had an opportunity to address a meeting of Bangladeshi parliamentarians, under the leadership of Speaker of the House Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, organised by the UNDP, on the outcome of COP27 and the role of parliamentarians going forward. Let me share some of my remarks to the parliamentarians and also some of the outcomes of the event. The main …

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 significant lessons on combating climate …

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 tackle climate change – not …

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, and now we have to …

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 impacts of climate change and the actions needed to avert the worst of them. The first new message in the AR6 report came from Working Group I, according to …

Last week, at the general assembly of the United Nations in New York, a resolution was adopted by consensus to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an advisory opinion on whether impacts of human-induced climate change are a violation of international human rights. This resolution was put forward by the government of Vanuatu with the support of the …

  Last week, my young colleagues at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) spent seven days at a hotel in Dhaka hosting the third annual Gobeshona Global Conference on locally led adaptation (LLA) and resilience. This is now a well-established, fully online conference that takes place round the clock, for seven days, with three eight-hour sessions each …

This week, the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), together with the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), launched a global initiative in Dhaka to address loss and damage from human-induced climate change. The initiative, called the Alliance for Locally-Led Approaches for Transformative Action on Loss and Damage (ALL ACT on LnD), is aimed at supporting …

I have just returned from a visit to the Khulna region, both Khulna city and the Sundarbans. With the Padma Bridge cutting down the journey between Dhaka and Khulna to just a few hours means that the Khulna region is already seeing development at a much faster rate than before. This has both positive and potentially negative results – if we don’t …

The world has entered the third era of loss and damage from human-induced climate change. In the first era, the experts were focused on completely avoiding the potential losses and damages from climate change by stopping – or at least drastically reducing – greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which caused the global temperature to rise. This understanding came from the scientific …