The world leaders who are responsible for emitting most of the greenhouse gases are not willing to take the requisite actions at the scale and pace that is required.
We are at the halfway point of this time frame; if we review the current situation, the progress is not good.
Macron first told us that he had had a one-on-one conversation with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina already in which he’d offered assistance from France to Bangladesh to work on an energy transition partnership.
While Bangladesh has been doing quite well in adapting to climate change, there is still a long way to go with not much time to waste. Serious actions need to be taken urgently to boost the country’s resilience.
Leaders who attend COP28 will have to rise to the occasion with the sense of urgency that the climate change crisis requires today.
Last month the PM Sheikh Hasina appointed Saber Hossain Chowdhury, member of parliament, as her climate envoy.
“The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”
A special report on loss and damage will capture the significant amount of scientific research being carried out now on different aspects of tackling climate change.
The principles of equity, justice and fairness are fundamental to understanding and addressing the challenges of global climate
The bottom line seems to be that we have already entered the era of the anthropocene, in which, human activities have cumulatively resulted in changing global weather patterns as well other global phenomenon such forest fires and sea level rise.
The private sector around the world is already making profits by delivering renewable energy which is fast becoming cost-competitive compared to fossil fuels.
A truly civilised country is one in which abiding by laws and good practice is seen as a personal responsibility of each and every citizen rather than for authorities to enforce. It may seem like a far-fetched idea for Bangladesh at this point in time but it is worth retaining that aspiration as part of our long-term plans.
What remains a concern however is whether the local people living in the Bagda-growing areas have really benefited as they can no longer grow rice and even other vegetation is being decimated by salinity intrusion.
Bangladesh and the Marshall Islands are jointly responsible for developing the partnership strategy for the V20 and a delegation from the Marshall Islands is expected in Dhaka soon to hold bilateral talks with Bangladesh to develop the plan of action for the V20 countries.
The objectives of the LUCCC are to implement Article 11 of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change which focuses on the need to develop in-country capacity-building systems in each and every country to enable them all to tackle climate change by 2030.
Now that the challenge of tackling global climate change has been universally accepted by all countries and people (with the notable exception of Mr Trump and his cronies in the White House and Federal US government) through the Paris Agreement, it is important for all countries, companies, NGOs, universities and other relevant stakeholders to share knowledge and hard technology for mitigation as well as adaptation across countries both North-to-South, South-to-South, and perhaps even, South-to-North.
I want to focus on a little known Article of the Paris Agreement, which may well come to haunt the US and will be an unintended consequence of the US withdrawing from it.
On that note, today, I will try to make the case why every new diplomat from Bangladesh needs to be climate literate, if not a climate expert.
