The United Kingdom—as the incoming President of the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to be held in Glasgow, Scotland in November—held a ministerial meeting on March 31 to discuss the issue of raising adequate funds for enabling developing countries to tackle climate change. The COP26 Presidency invited ministers from about …

As Bangladesh celebrated 50 years as an independent country this year, it also reached the 50th year of British-Bangladesh relations. This was marked last week by statements from Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth of England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles. There were also many celebrations in the United Kingdom to mark the occasion, such as the lighting up of …

As we are now well into the second decade of this century, it is widely acknowledged that this coming decade is our last opportunity to keep the increasing rate of the global atmospheric temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius and prevent the catastrophic impacts of human-induced climate change from occurring around the world. This is a very clear message from the …

Bangladesh is planning to adapt to the adverse impacts of human-induced climate change and aiming to become a resilient country by 2030, as both the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change goals are supposed to be achieved by that year. At the same time, we are looking forward to graduating out of the Least Developed …

As the Padma Bridge nears completion, the south western region of Bangladesh is poised for greater development as the bridge will connect it to Dhaka. The south western region of Bangladesh also contains the Sundarbans mangrove forest, which is the biggest mangrove forest in the world and is a World Heritage Site. Hence, our responsibility to protect the Sundarbans is …

The Covid-19 crisis has demonstrated a number of ways in which the world, as currently functioning, is not fit for purpose and is certainly not at all as resilient as we would like it to be. One of the vulnerabilities that have been exposed is food production, processing, trade and consumption in practically every country. In light of this vulnerability …

What will Bangladesh look like in 2050? A layman’s projection allows us to draw a picture of its basic parameters. In terms of population, Bangladesh can reach a number of 230-240 million, with an average growth rate of 1.2 percent/year. The density of population will be around 1700/sq.km, the highest ever in the world. Considering a consistent economic growth rate …

  In a desperate move to inoculate from Covid-19, we are witnessing a kind of vaccine nationalism worldwide, which has manifested in a race to procure vaccine doses, particularly by those having the means and power to do so. The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) called this situation a “catastrophic moral failure” in sharing Covid vaccines. He …

Last week, I wrote about the rather esoteric issue of loss and damage from human-induced climate change and how this issue has been discussed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) over the years, and what might be the possible outcomes at the upcoming 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to be held in November in Glasgow, Scotland …

Loss and damage from human induced climate change is an issue that has emerged in recent years, as the adverse impacts of climate change are becoming more and more visible around the world, ranging from more severe cyclones to super wildfires and frequent floods, as well as heat waves and droughts. In Bangladesh and West Bengal last May, we suffered …