By now it is known that COP25, the latest UNFCCC conference of the parties (COP) and the longest in history, could not achieve its intended outcomes, as negotiators failed to agree on the core issues, thus pushing further away the implementation of the Paris Agreement. COPs that overrun, since it is now a standard practice to drag negotiations into overtime, …

The impacts of human-induced climate change are manifested through losses and damages incurred due to the increasing frequency and intensity of climatic disasters all over the world. Low-income countries who have contributed the least in causing climate change, and have low financial capability, are the worst victims of this. However, since the inception of the international climate regime under the …

The 25th Conference of Parties (COP25) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ended just days ago. Already, many reviews, mostly negative, have come out globally including in this newspaper. I called the COPs often a process of “active inaction” in my first book on climate politics published by Routledge in 2014. The zenith of its failure was …

The Bangladeshi scholar Saleemul Huq has been observing international climate negotiations from the start. In our interview, he assessed the EU’s role. In what sense is the EU important in climate talks? It is extremely important because it is a block of rich nations which are still willing to be ambitious. By contrast, the USA under President Donald Trump is …

(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) In Paris, the least developed country group was a key player in delivering this agreement — pushing relentlessly for a legally binding and effective agreement with universal participation, inclusion of the 1.5 degree target, loss and damage, and for the much-needed finance. Who will be the next executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change …

(Originally published here) The 21st Conference of Parties (COP21), which was successfully concluded in December 2015 with the adoption of the Paris Agreement, has set in train global actions by all countries to tackle climate change through both mitigation to reduce emission of greenhouse gases as well as adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change. The next milestone will …

(Originally published here) The next head of the U.N. process to tackle climate change should come from one of the world’s poorest countries, which led an ambitious drive to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the new Paris deal, a leading expert has proposed. With Christiana Figueres stepping down as executive secretary of the U.N. climate change convention …

(Originally published here) I spent the past week in Bangladesh, visiting the countryside on a fascinating and heartening trip from the country’s massive capital, Dhaka, to the south, a region being hammered by climate change. I came to give some speeches and took the opportunity to see for myself how foreign aid and local sweat and equity are being used …

(Originally published here) The Paris Agreement coming out of the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 negotiations gave breakthrough recognition to loss and damage, sorting through thorny discussions and politically charged negotiating positions. These positions revolved around liability and compensation, which developing countries called for but developed countries were unwilling to have included in the Agreement. The UN Framework Convention on …