Tag: Dr. Saleemul Huq’s article
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Climate change ambitions at the end of 2020: Good news and bad
One of the major outcomes of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change—agreed by all countries at the end of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Paris, France in December 2015—was that every country would prepare and submit their respective plans to take action…
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A crucial decade for tackling climate change
As we welcome the new year of 2021, we also enter a new decade that will culminate with 2030, a year that marks an end point for some very important goals and milestones for the world. For one, it will mark the final year for all the countries to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals…
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Can Bangladesh become a knowledge economy?
As we say goodbye to the terrible year of 2020 and enter not just a new year in 2021 but a new decade to 2030, it is time to look ahead with some sense of optimism for our country over the coming decade. Bangladesh has the opportunity and potential for becoming a significant knowledge-based economy…
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Entering the Anthropocene era in a befitting manner
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been a pioneer in terms of developing the Human Development Index (HDI), which is a more balanced way of measuring human development that goes beyond traditional, simple economic indicators of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). They have also been publishing an annual Human Development Report (HDR) which tracks every…
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Where is the $100 billion to tackle climate change?
On December 12, 2020, it was the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the occasion was marked by a Climate Ambition Summit hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United…
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What can we expect from the new US climate czar?
President-Elect Joe Biden of the United States of America recently announced his national security and foreign policy team including a significant new position of a “climate envoy” who would sit on the National Security Council, choosing former Senator John Kerry for that position. So what does this appointment mean for the US and the world…
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Why Bangladesh should submit its Nationally Determined Contribution by December 31
At the time of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change which was approved by all countries in 2015, every country submitted it’s intended Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in which they made pledges and commitments for mitigation by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. They also agreed that each country will update and submit their revised NDC…
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Transforming the Future: Supercharging Action at the UN Food Systems Summit
In a time of many seemingly insurmountable challenges, there is something that we can fix. One thing, which if changed could simultaneously accelerate the end of hunger, ensure everyone has access to a healthy diet, dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reverse biodiversity loss, and make societies and economies more equitable and resistant to devastating pandemics…
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America returns to the Paris Agreement on climate change
The election of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States of America has brought a great sigh of relief to everyone around the world who wants to see global action to tackle the threat of climate change. It is undoubtedly true that another term for Trump would have caused almost irretrievable harm…
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Postponing COP26 cannot postpone climate action
The 26th annual Conference of Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was supposed to have been held this week in Glasgow, Scotland under the chairmanship of the government of the United Kingdom. It has now been postponed until November 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is very…
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Climate Vulnerable Forum can change the paradigm on dealing with climate change
The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), consisting of nearly 50 of the most climate vulnerable developing countries, which was set up a decade ago on the basis of their common vulnerability to climate change, has now evolved into a more robust group of countries who are no longer only emphasising their vulnerability but rather moving towards…
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Taking a ‘whole of society’ approach to tackling climate change
The scale of the global climate change emergency that is emerging in 2020 has already made it clear that nothing short of a “whole of society” approach is needed if we are going to be able to tackle it effectively over the coming decade, which is the crucial time window we have left. While this…