The  historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which was agreed by all the countries that were part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2015, had two major outcomes. The first was to try to keep global atmospheric temperature to below 2 degrees Centigrade and, if possible, below 1.5 degrees. The second major agreement was …

Covid-19 has hit all countries of the world, both rich and poor, but the low income countries (LICs) are hit hardest, and half of them are at high risk of or are already in debt distress. Although in April this year, the G20 Finance Ministers endorsed a Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) to grant temporary relief to the LICs to …

During July last year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina hosted the Global Commission on Adaptation meeting in Dhaka attended by the co-chairs of the Commission, former Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and Kristalina Georgiva, head of the International Monetary Fund. During the bilateral discussion between the Prime Minister and Ban Ki-moon, she offered to host the regional centre …

In the international negotiations on climate change impacts under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the issue of loss and damage has always been a politically sensitive topic—it brings up issues of liability and compensation, which many developed countries regard as taboo topics. Nevertheless, after much concerted effort from the most vulnerable developing countries, there was some …

The global Covid-19 pandemic is now just over half a year old and arguably still in its early stages. However, there are already a few key lessons that are emerging when evaluating the responses of different countries to this public health emergency, which are relevant for tackling the much longer-term and much bigger emergency of climate change. The first lesson …

In January 2021, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh will be holding the 7th annual Gobeshona conference with an overall theme of starting a ten year journey to promote locally led adaptation towards resilience in Bangladesh, as well as in other vulnerable developing countries, including the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the Climate …

As Bangladesh is inundated by severe floods not long after being hit by super cyclone Amphan, we are seeing the adverse impacts of human induced climate change in reality. It is therefore time to deal with this loss and damage from climate change more seriously, both at home as well as internationally. At the international level, over the years, the …

Recently, quite a number of reports have been published in both national and foreign media outlets about how two healthcare providers in Bangladesh issued fake Covid-19 certificates. Obviously, the negative coverage has tarnished the image of our nation abroad. We have had reports that the foreign minister had chaired a high-level, inter-ministerial meeting to discuss the immediate ramifications of these …

One of the distinguishing features of the global Covid-19 pandemic has been to expose who the frontline workers around the world are and who the frontline victims of the pandemic are, both from the public health perspective and as a result of the impact of lockdown measures. In the developed countries, it has been the health workers in hospitals and …

The adverse impacts of human induced climate change are already occurring around the world, including in Bangladesh. It is incumbent on all countries to gear up their ability to be better prepared for the impacts before they occur through enhancing adaptive capacity, and to also be prepared to deal with the loss and damage after the impacts occur. There are …