Tag: Dr. Saleemul Huq’s article
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DEADLINE FOR GLOBAL ACTION
Can countries deliver on their climate change pledges?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.…
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We must agree on a global goal for adaptation to climate change
The historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change, agreed at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris, France in 2015, was a major outcome that all vulnerable developing countries, including Bangladesh, strongly fought for. We achieved an important target for the mitigation agenda with the…
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Developing multiple strategies as part of the National Adaptation Plan for Bangladesh
In last week’s column, I proposed that the Bangladesh National Adaptation Plan (NAP) that is now being developed should be innovative and not just a business-as-usual (BAU) report that will gather dust on a shelf, as many such plans have done in the past. I argued that we should focus on constructing the foundations for…
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We need to be innovative when developing Bangladesh’s National Adaptation Plan
Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), all countries are supposed to develop their respective National Adaptation Plan (NAP) according to a prescribed format provided by international experts. Many countries have already embarked on preparing their NAPs for some time, but Bangladesh has only just started its own. It is now imperative…
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Bangladeshi youth can carve a new path for the Global Youth Adaptation Network
Last week, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon jointly launched the new South Asian Regional office of the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA). This was followed by the launch of the GCA’s flagship Global Youth Adaptation Network (YAN) by Saima Wajed Hossain, who is the thematic ambassador for Vulnerability of the…
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Bangladesh takes another step towards tackling global climate change
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…
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We need a paradigm shift to deal with loss and damage from climate change
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…
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Four lessons from Covid-19 pandemic for tackling climate change
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…
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Why emission reduction and resilience are two sides of the same coin
Under the UN, reduction of emissions(mitigation) and resilience (adapting to climate change impacts) are often treated as two discrete areas. But as the world is already experiencing the impacts of climate change — such as the recent ‘super cyclone’ and flooding in Bangladesh, or the wildfires in Australia — we are going to have to…
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A ten year journey to achieve resilience to climate change
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…
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Worsening floods linked to human induced climate change
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…
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We must listen to the voices from the frontlines of the pandemic
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…