Lack of proper frameworks to address challenges of climate change and how to analyze them has been glaringly missing from the past capacity building initiatives by development partners across the globe, particularly after the Paris Agreement which established the Paris Committee on Capacity Building under Article 11.

Under this scenario, the world’s wealthiest nations have been emitting more than their fair share of green-house gases. Resultant floods, sea-Level rise, cyclones, salinity intrusion, droughts, and other climate change impacts have continued to fall disproportionately on the world’s poorest people and countries, many of which are in Asia and Africa.

In addition, unpredictable rains, subsequent crop failures, rapid desertification, among other signs of global warming, are persistently changing the face of the globe.

However, a new book pioneers a new era in climate change capacity building under the 2016 Paris Agreement through commitments to analyze the end result of past capacity building in addressing climate change impacts.

According to Mizan Khan, the chief author of the book, titled, The Paris Framework for Climate Change Capacity Building, published in London by Routledge, presents “an alternative framework on how to build effective and sustainable capacity systems to meaningfully tackle the challenges of climate change.”

At the recent book launch in Dhaka, Khan said: “The book performs the foundational job of clarifying what was done in the name of capacity building during the last 15 years.

“The book begins with critical reviews of the UNFCCC initiatives and experiences of capacity building in several international [developmental} regimes, such as capacity building under disaster management, Montreal Protocol, human rights and trade regimes, as well as under several bilateral and multilateral agencies.

Further, “The book convincingly makes the case that universities, as the highest seats of learning and research in the developing countries, should be the central hub of such capacity building initiatives.

“Governments may play the coordinating role in the process, but universities as the most sustainable institutions which outlive the political governments should be put at the centre of supplying capacity out of demand-driven needs in our countries,” said Khan.

However, he noted that such a reframing of capacity building requires resources, itself being a crucial means of the implementation of the Paris Agreement and also of the Sustainable Development Goal 13 on climate change.

“So financing stands at the core, but the experience tells us that only national public money from development partners failed to build genuine partnerships, which resulted in lack of ownership by the developing countries.

“Therefore the book suggests mobilization of international public climate finance through the global application of the polluter-pays-principle,” said Khan.

The book also analyzed three case studies in Bangladesh, Uganda, and Jamaica, which also included capacity building efforts in selected universities of these countries.

Also speaking at the event Bangladesh Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Anisul Islam Mahmud said the book “will obviously steer debates on the subject of climate change capacity building under the Paris Agreement.”

“It is now time for all nations, Bangladesh included, to carry out rigorous evidence-based research on capacity building needs in their countries. There is so much we do not know, including costs for certain actions,” he said.

The ICCCAD Director Dr Saleemul Huq, said that finance stands at the core, but the experience tells us that only national public money from development partners failed to build genuine partnerships, which resulted in lack of ownership by the developing countries.

Therefore the book suggests mobilization of international public climate finance through the global application of the polluter-pays-principle.

The book launch was also attended by local journalists at a local Press Club in Dhaka.


Originally this article was published on September 24th, 2018 at Climate-Tribune (Dhaka Tribune). The author  Sherpard Zvigadza is visiting researcher at ICCCAD and completing his Master’s in Climate Change and Development at ICCCAD,IUB .
Email: szvigadza@gmail.com

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