POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE | The Daily Star

  • Are the climate change Conference of Parties still fit for purpose?

    Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), all governments of the nearly 200 countries that have ratified the treaty meet twice a year to review progress and make decisions about next steps.

  • On President Biden’s Climate Summit and John Kerry’s visit to Dhaka

    US President Biden’s first act upon being sworn in as President on January 20, 2021, was to officially notify the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that he was withdrawing former President Trump’s withdrawal letter from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and that the United States was rejoining the Paris Agreement.

  • Finance is vital for the success of COP26

    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.

  • Celebrating 50 years of British-Bangladesh relations

    As Bangladesh celebrated 50 years as an independent country this year, it also reached the 50th year of British-Bangladesh relations.

  • Science and solidarity are key for tackling climate change

    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.

  • Building resilient food systems

    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.

  • How do we tackle the injustices of climate change?

    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 under the presidency of the British government.

  • Dealing with loss and damage in COP26

    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.

  • Joining the global race to resilience against climate change

    In order to reach the globally agreed atmospheric temperature target of staying below 1.5 Degrees Centigrade, all the countries in the world have embarked on a race to reach net zero emissions of greenhouse gases as early as possible.

  • Bangladesh can lead the world on the journey towards climate resilience

    Two years ago, the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) was set up under the chairmanship of Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations, and with a number of eminent individuals as Commissioners, including Dr Muhammad Musa from BRAC.

  • 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 to tackle climate change every five years, with the expectation that the level of ambition would be enhanced at each five-year cycle.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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).

  • 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 Kingdom, who serves as the presidency of COP26 taking place in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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 resilience.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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).

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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 Countries (LDCs) and the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) countries.

  • 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.

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