A decade ago, developed countries pledged to provide developing countries with USD 100 billion each year, from 2020 onwards. The year 2020 came and went and the USD 100 billion was not delivered even in 2021. At COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021, the developed countries apologised for their failure to keep their promise and pledged again to fulfil it. …
Time to Focus on the Global Goal on Adaptation
During the negotiations that led to the historic Paris Agreement at the 21st UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in 2015, the climate vulnerable countries argued for and succeeded in getting the global goal on mitigation of staying below two degrees Celsius—and if possible, below 1.5 degrees Celsius. This was indeed a remarkable achievement for the vulnerable countries at that time. …
Climate action: We’re running out of time
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a United Nations (UN) body set up to commission major assessments of the state of science on climate change and issue their assessment report every five or so years. It has three Working Groups (WGs): WG I is for climate science, WG II for vulnerability impacts and adaptation, and WG III for …
Adaptation strategies must be bottom-up
There are two major outcomes and messages on adaptation to climate change that have been mentioned in the recently published Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of Working Group II (WG2) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The first one says that the impacts of climate change are evident all around the world—in both poor countries and rich—necessitating a much …
Developing countries are leading climate actions
The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) was launched over 10 years ago, by then President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, and has been operating since then with a different head of government in charge of it for a two-year tenure. The current chair of CVF is Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, whose term is scheduled to end later this year, …
Making our voices heard
Bangladeshi scientists continue to be missing in leading publications on climate change
On February 28, the sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report (AR6) for Working Group II (WGII) was released, serving as the new basis for global policy-making on how to adapt to climate change. As one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and a global leader in adaptation, Bangladeshi scientists should be at the forefront of …
Another grim warning on climate change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a global body under the United Nations (UN), has been conducting periodic reviews (every six or seven years) of the state of scientific knowledge on climate change for the last 30 years. The agency is currently in the process of publishing its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) in three parts. The first part was …
Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons from Bangladesh
The latest IPCC report makes it clear that countries rich and poor have to forcefully adapt to a warming world
Human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases have raised global temperatures, causing major impacts on Earth’s ecosystems and human society, as the first installment of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made unequivocally clear in August. The second installment of that report, released on February 28, makes the stark and game-changing revelation that these adverse impacts will …
The world needs to support the victims of climate change
In the last few weeks, three separate cyclones hit the island of Madagascar and then Mozambique, causing loss of life and damage to infrastructure. Even in the UK, Storm Eunice caused much damage. These are just a few examples of the loss and damage attributable to human-induced climate change, and in every such incident, it is the victims who are …
Locally led adaptation: We can lead the world
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) was set up with its headquarters in the Netherlands a couple of years ago, and has already developed into a major platform focusing on supporting countries to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change. It has already set up regional centres in China and Africa, and is about to launch the regional centre …