The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed 30 years ago at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by all the governments of the world. The first annual Conference of Parties (COP1) was held in Berlin, Germany, with the then Environment Minister of Germany, Angela Merkel, as COP President in 1995. Since then, there …

For too long the issue of addressing Loss and Damage has remained in the margins of climate negotiations. The Warsaw International Mechanism and the Santiago Network have begun to assist with knowledge exchange and capacity building, yet distinct finance for addressing Loss and Damage has remained largely off the table while progress was made at COP26 with the establishment of …

Despite loss and damage from human-induced climate change getting attention at COP26, there has been little action to avert, minimize, and address the loss and damage experienced by those bearing the brunt of climate change. Climate change impacts everyone, but people will not all face this challenge in the same way, as its impacts are unevenly distributed. We need to …

The concept of human-induced climate change originated from the scientific community based on the periodic assessment reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was then picked up by policymakers at global levels. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was set up as a global treaty under which countries pledged to tackle climate change, initially …

As climate change hits farmers and those who depend on them, creating a smarter food system is now critical Each year the country presiding over the UN Climate Summit – which this year is Egypt – can choose key areas in which to raise ambition through the ‘presidency programme’. The news that Egypt has chosen to add an ‘adaptation and …

Climate change is a global concern in today’s time, and its impact on the vulnerable population such as women, children, indigenous people, and people with disabilities (PwD) exacerbates their existing social and economic challenges. For instance, the indigenous communities are more susceptible to extreme weather events compared to the non-indigenous groups as many of them live in climate-sensitive areas, and …

Sand mining can be regarded as a silent threat to the global ecosystem, having a significant impact on climate change, if it is not done appropriately. Unsustainable sand mining could result in riverbank collapse, deepening of river beds, sinking deltas, and coastal erosion as well as biodiversity loss, especially when coupled with the impacts of dams and climate change. Illegal, …

At the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow last November, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, speaking on behalf of 55 vulnerable developing countries under the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), put forward a demand to set up a facility to finance loss and damage from human-induced climate change. This demand was included in the draft of the Glasgow …

Responding effectively to climate crisis requires strong science-policy links to be put in place. Past research on the research-policy interface indicates long standing challenges that have become more acute in the case of climate science, since this requires multi-disciplinary approaches and faces distinctive political challenges in linking knowledge with policy. What can be learned from the experiences of university-based researchers …

Every year International Women’s Day (March 8) honours women’s accomplishments, while also raising awareness on the issues they face. The day calls for the celebration of inclusion, and gender diversity, recognizing women and girls in all walks of life who are leading the charge to break free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination to forge women’s equality. In the year 2021, …