As the climate changes, Bangladesh is also changing. This is most obvious in terms of biophysical changes — stronger hurricanes, harder rainfall and more salinity — but it is also affecting the government’s budget, institutional systems, and the way it manages its finances. The question is as climate change accelerates, can Bangladesh change fast enough? There are many changes from …

The world has been struggling against three “V”s or vulnerabilities to climate change, corruption and conflicts (four “C”s). However, before exhausting hope at the end of the tunnel, the world community have stood up and built the broad based global architecture in 2015 to protect the planet earth and its inhabitants. With the alarming progression of the climate risks, the …

Assessing the GCF’s performance on funding adaptation for the most vulnerable countries By the end of this year, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) — the main international fund designated to help countries address climate change — will have been active for six years. At this point, it would be a good time to reflect back and evaluate the progress of …

If we are going to tackle climate change, the world will have to work together As the COP22 winds down in Marrakesh, one of the low key but extremely important decisions made was setting up the Paris Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB). The committee will have the role of carrying out Article 11 of the Paris Agreement which is on …

The Paris Agreement to tackle climate change which was achieved at the 21st Conference of Parties in Paris, France last December has been ratified by well over fifty-five countries accounting for over 55% of global emissions (the two thresholds that need to be achieved for the agreement to go into force as international law). It thus went into force on …

(Originally published here) In the last week of April, nearly two hundred international participants from over forty countries, along with a hundred participants from Bangladesh, attended the 10th International Conference on Community Based Adaptation (CBA10) at the Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) in Dhaka. The four-day conference was preceded by three days of field visits by the international participants to see community-based …

(Originally published here) Over the last decade in Bangladesh, we have spent almost a billion US dollars on several hundred projects and activities to tackle climate change. Most of these projects have been on adaptation but a few have also been on mitigation. As tackling climate change is a new issue for us, there is no pre-existing methodology to follow, …

(Originally published here) Investors should consider how an aspirational 1.5C limit on global warming affects their portfolios, a top UN envoy said on Monday. Shareholders are already pressing fossil fuel majors to recognise the risk greenhouse gas emissions curbs could dampen demand for their products. To date, most analysis has focused on a 2C threshold. Rachel Kyte, CEO of Sustainable Energy for All, …

(Originally published here) Bangladesh is about to lose $50 million (about Tk400 crore) of climate funds because of tension between the World Bank and donors, and a lack of commitment on the government’s part. Even as the government is grappling to find funds for dealing with the climate change impacts, the donors have decided to pull the plug on Bangladesh …

(Originally published here) As Bangladesh and the world enters post-2015 era with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and Sendai Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) – all meant to be achieved by 2030 – it is time to think out of the traditional ‘development box’ and do some innovative thinking and planning going …