IN WAR WITH THE CLIMATE

One of the biggest threats our planet is facing right now is climate change. Even though, leading organisations of the world have been fighting this cause for a very long time, we are still in a very devastating position, especially developing countries. 

The United Nations Frame Work Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been trying to achieve a legally bound universal agreement on climate change with a yearly conference named Conference of the Parties (COP). For the 21st time, this COP21 will be arranged in Paris this year. To help with the agenda, a roundtable was organised all over the world so that people from all sectors can have a say. Department of Development Studies, Dhaka University and Integrated Community and Industrial Development Initiative in Bangladesh (INCIDN) jointly arranged a daylong seminar called World Wide Views on Climate Change, representing Bangladesh in this world wide seminar. The event took place at Senate Bhaban, Dhaka University.

Candidates from all over the country came to join this seminar. The seminar was arranged to bring awareness to the participants of the seminar, and help find suitable solutions for the problems through a voting system. 

 The seminar started off with opening remarks from the chief guest Akhter Hossain, Pro VC, Dhaka University. He congratulated the department for taking such a wonderful initiative. The special guest of seminar was French Ambassador, Sophie Aubert. She talked about how devastating the world would get if we don't step up to fight climate change. "This is the time to fight. We are all here, let's make a change before it's too late," said the ambassador during her speech.

The participants were divided into groups. The groups were given a topic on climate change on which they discussed and later voted. One of the major features of this seminar was that all the groups represented different working sectors. From a child who works in a tea stall to professors, almost every occupational person was there.  "I didn't know much about this problem until I came here. Now this actually scares me. I really hope we can come up with a solution," says Rakibullah, a tea stall worker. 

The groups were analyzing every topic they received which led to some well casted votes. "We gathered participants like this so that we can actually see everybody's mind set on climate change. We think we will get a good response from the participants, which we can show to the authorities and representatives of COP21," says Maruful Islam, Associate Professor and one of the main organisers.