The devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas over the last week or so has illustrated quite clearly that even though the Caribbean has a well-developed early warning system for hurricanes and is also a part of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), that deals with the residual impacts of such hurricanes, it was not immune to the …

This month, from September 20 to 27, the world will observe a Global Climate Week with events taking place all over the world. The key events will take place in New York, USA around the Global Climate Action Summit called by the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. A major focus of this year’s climate week is to change the narrative …

Last week the Green Climate Fund (GCF) held a weeklong Global Programming Conference at its headquarters in Songdo, Korea, with over five hundred participants from all over the world. The GCF has recently appointed a new Executive Director, Yannick Glemarec, and is also developing its new strategy and seeking replenishment after the first tranche of USD 10 billion runs out …

The developed countries of the world had agreed under the Paris Agreement to provide USD 100 billion each year, starting from 2020 onwards, to support mitigation as well as adaptation projects in developing countries. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was set up with its secretariat in Songdo, Korea to handle a significant part of that amount. The GCF was launched …

Under the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), rich countries have promised to provide, collectively, USD 100 billion every year to support the developing countries tackle climate change, both by mitigation and adaptation. The UNFCCC also set up the Green Climate Fund (GCF) with its headquarters in Korea to handle a significant part of …

Earlier this month, during the London Climate Action week, my organisation, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, together with the UK’s Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and the Bangladesh High Commission in London, organised a major event with several hundred Londoners, including many British Bangladeshis, themed “Learning lessons from Bangladesh”. The speakers included myself; Saida Muna Tasneem, High Commissioner …

Finding solutions to the global problem of climate change Last week, Bangladesh hosted a major global climate change meeting in Dhaka, hosted by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with Ban Ki-moon, former secretary general of the United Nations, Chief Executive Kristalina Georgieva from the World Bank, and President Heine of the Marshall Islands present. The visiting dignitaries all praised the role …

This year marks a clear break with the past in terms of the climate change problem now becoming a “climate change crisis” with the adverse impacts of human-induced climate change getting visible across the world. The most recent manifestation of it was the unprecedented heatwave in Europe, which was several degrees higher than normal. This also means that all countries …

Last May, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was invited to the annual leaders’ high-level meeting in Munich, Germany, to speak on the growing concern about the global security threats due to climate change. On July 10, Bangladesh will be hosting President Heine of the Marshall Islands who heads the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF)—which is a group of nearly 50 of the …

People migrating from one place to another—whether within the same country or across international borders—is a complex phenomenon, in which pull factors (such as job-seeking) and/or push factors (such as environmental degradation) can play important roles. Recently, the impacts of climate change have been included in this hypothesis, as a major environmental push factor, which has drawn a great deal …