Climate Change
Honour COP26 commitments, double provisions for adaptation by 2025: PM Hasina writes
“Never has there been more at stake for us on this planet we call home, and for every species we share it with,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has written in an opinion piece.
Published in Politico on November 6, 2022, Sheikh Hasina’s write-up calls for urgent action to fulfill the promises made at COP26 — to assist nations like Bangladesh in facing the brutal realities of climate change.
Excerpts from PM Hasina’s opinion piece:
Rousing speeches and inspiring language are but hollow sentiments now — just empty rhetoric and fine-spun nothings in the absence of the robust action that scientists have long been urging.
For the people of Sylhet in Bangladesh, facing the worst floods in a century, words aren’t close to enough. Words didn’t prevent flash floods from carrying away their homes, destroying their livelihoods, killing their loved ones. And tweets of support or small aid packages aren’t nearly enough for the 33 million affected by the floods in Pakistan last month.
Instead, what I am calling for today is action — action to fulfill the promises made last year at COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, to assist nations like mine in facing the harshest realities of a warming planet. And as world leaders prepare to gather once again, this time Sharm El-Sheikh, I call upon my esteemed colleagues to find the means to honor the commitments they made, and to at least double the provisions for adaptation as well as finance by 2025.
Read: COP27 climate talks begin as world grapples with multiple crises
This pledged financial support from developed countries should be considered a moral obligation — and it is vital to climate vulnerable countries such as mine. This can’t be left to some future date either. If it is to protect against the wide-ranging consequences of climate change that we have been battling, and continue to battle at this very moment, assistance needs to be immediate.
Bangladesh currently contributes 0.56 percent to global carbon emissions, and yet, the proportion of damage inflicted upon our nation from climate change is overwhelming.
Rising sea levels, coastal erosion, droughts, heat and flooding will all continue to take a serious toll on our economy. They will wreak havoc on our infrastructure and agricultural industry as we face considerable challenges in averting, minimizing and addressing the loss and damage associated with climate change impact, including extreme and slow onset events.
COP27 climate talks begin as world grapples with multiple crises
Envoys from around the globe gathered Sunday in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for talks on tackling climate change amid a multitude of competing crises, including the war in Ukraine, high inflation, food shortages and an energy crunch.
Negotiators spent a frantic two days ahead of the meeting discussing whether to formally consider the issue of loss and damage, or reparations, to vulnerable nations suffering from climate change. The issue, which has weighed on the talks for years, was agreed just hours before the meeting officially opened.
In an opening speech, the head of the U.N.’s panel of climate scientist highlighted the urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the effects of global warming.
“This is a once in a generation opportunity to save our planet and our livelihoods,” said Hoesung Lee, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The outgoing chair of the talks, British official Alok Sharma, said countries had made considerable progress at their last meeting in Glasgow, including on setting more ambitious targets for cutting emissions, finalizing the rules of the 2015 Paris agreement and pledging to begin phasing out the use of coal — the most heavily polluting fossil fuel.
“We kept 1.5 degrees (2.7 Fahrenheit) alive,” he said, referring to the most ambitious goal of the Paris pact, to keep temperature increase since pre-industrial times under that threshold.
Read: Health must be at the centre in COP27 climate change negotiations: WHO
Yet now those efforts were being “buffeted by global headwinds,” he warned.
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s brutal and illegal war in Ukraine has precipitated multiple global crisis, energy and food insecurity, inflationary pressures and spiraling debt,” said Sharma. “These crises have compounded existing climate vulnerabilities and the scarring effects of the pandemic.”
However even the most optimistic scenarios assuming countries do everything they have pledged put the world on course for 1.7 C of warming (3.1 F), he warned.
“As challenging as our current moment is, inaction is myopic and can only defer climate catastrophe,” said Sharma. “We must find the ability to focus on more than one thing at once.”
“How many more wake up calls does the world to world leaders actually need,” he said, citing recent devastating floods in Pakistan and Nigeria, and historic droughts in Europe, the United States and China.
His successor, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, said his office would “spare no effort” to achieve the goals of the Paris accord.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi wrote on Twitter that Egypt, as host country, was seeking to move from the “pledges phase to the implantation phase with concrete measures on the ground.”
The U.N.’s top climate official also appealed to countries both to engage constructively in the negotiations and take the necessary action back home.
“Here in Sharm el-Sheikh, we have a duty to speed up our international efforts to turn words into action,” he said, adding that “every corner of human activity must align with our Paris commitment and pursue our efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.”
More than 40,000 participants have been registered for this year’s talks, reflecting the sense of urgency as major weather events around the world impact many people and cost billions of dollars in repairs. Egypt said over 120 world leaders will attend, many of them speaking at a high-level event on Nov. 7-8, while U.S. President Joe Biden was expected to arrive later in the week.
But many top figures including China’s President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India were not planning to come, casting doubt on whether the talks in Egypt could result in any major deals to cut emissions without two of the world’s biggest polluters.
Read: Is it too late to prevent climate change?
Rights groups criticized Egypt on Sunday for restricting protests and stepping up surveillance during the summit.
New York-based Human Rights Watch, citing Egyptian media, said authorities had also arrested dozens of people for calling for protests.
“It is becoming clear that Egypt’s government has no intention of easing its abusive security measures and allowing for free speech and assembly,” Adam Coogle, the group’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch said it had had joined about 1,400 groups from around the world urging Egypt to lift the restrictions on civil society groups.
Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a prominent imprisoned pro-democracy activist from Egypt, escalated his hunger strike Sunday in the first day of the COP27, according to his family. Abdel-Fattah’s aunt, award-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif, said he went into a “full hunger strike,” and stopped drinking water at 10 a.m. local time. Concerned that he could die without water, she was calling for authorities to release him in response to local and international calls.
Health must be at the centre in COP27 climate change negotiations: WHO
The climate crisis continues to make people sick and jeopardizes lives and health must be at the core of these critical negotiations, the World Health Organization issued the grim reminder on the eve of the pivotal climate talks at COP27.
WHO believes the conference must conclude with progress on the four key goals of mitigation, adaptation, financing and collaboration to tackle the climate crisis.
COP27 will be a crucial opportunity for the world to come together and re-commit to keeping the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement goal alive.
Read more: COP27: UN experts for complete integration of human rights standards, principles into negotiations
The WHO welcomed journalists and COP27 participants to join WHO at a series of high-level events and spend time in an innovative health pavilion space.
Focus will be placing the health threat from the climate crisis and the huge health gains that would come from stronger climate action at the centre of discussions.
Climate change is already affecting people’s health and will continue to do so at an accelerating rate unless urgent action is taken, WHO said in a message from Geneva.
“Climate change is making millions of people sick or more vulnerable to disease all over the world and the increasing destructiveness of extreme weather events disproportionately affects poor and marginalized communities,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“It is crucial that leaders and decision makers come together at COP27 to put health at the heart of the negotiations,” he added.
Read more: COP27: Bangladesh to reiterate call to materialize $100bn pledged for developing countries
Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress, according to WHO.
The direct damage costs to health (i.e., excluding costs in health-determining sectors such as agriculture and water and sanitation), is estimated to be between US$ 2–4 billion per year by 2030.
The rise in global temperature that has already occurred is leading to extreme weather events that bring intense heat waves and droughts, devastating floods and increasingly powerful hurricanes and tropical storms.
The combination of these factors means the impact on human health is increasing and is likely to accelerate.
But there is room for hope, particularly if governments take action now to honour the pledges made at Glasgow in November 2021 and to go further in resolving the climate crisis.
WHO is calling on governments to lead a just, equitable and fast phase out of fossil fuels and transition to a clean energy future.
There has also been encouraging progress on commitments to decarbonization and WHO is calling for the creation of a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty that would see coal and other fossil fuels harmful to the atmosphere phased out in a just and equitable way.
This would represent one of the most significant contributions to climate change mitigation.
Investment in clean energy will yield health gains that repay those investments twice over. There are proven interventions able to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, for instance applying higher standards for vehicle emissions, which have been calculated to save approximately 2.4 million lives per year, through improved air quality and reduce global warming by about 0.5 °C by 2050.
The cost of renewable sources of energy has decreased significantly in the last few years, and solar energy is now cheaper than coal or gas in most major economies.
WHO is custodian to 32 Sustainable Development Goal indicators, 17 of which are impacted by climate change or its drivers, and 16 of which specifically impact the health of children.
Is it too late to prevent climate change?
Global average temperatures have risen and weather extremes have already seen an uptick, so the short answer to whether it’s too late to stop climate change is: yes. But there’s still time to prevent cascading effects, as every degree of additional warming has exponentially disastrous impacts, experts say.
A 2021 report by the top body of climate scientists provided new analysis of the chance the world has to cap warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) or 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times in the coming decades, in line with global climate goals.
Although scientists estimated it’s still possible to stay within these limits, they said it would require immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. It’s more likely that global temperature will reach or exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, the report said.
Without major action to reduce emissions, the global average temperature is on track to rise by 2.5 to 4.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100, scientists say.
And researchers warn that the situation will get very serious before then: Once the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold is reached, there will be increasing heat waves, longer warm seasons and shorter cold seasons. When the 2 degrees Celsius mark is crossed, critical tolerance levels for agriculture and health will be reached.
Read more: UN, ADB to support Bangladesh's fight against climate change
But all hope is not lost, they urge.
At the time of the report’s release, Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College of London, said achieving the 1.5-degree goal “is still possible from a physical science point of view.”
“If we reduce emissions globally to net zero by 2040 there is still a two thirds chance to reach 1.5 degrees and if we globally achieve net zero emissions by the middle of the century, there is still a one third chance to achieve that,” she said.
If all human emissions of heat-trapping gases were to stop today, Earth’s temperature would continue to rise for a few decades but would eventually stabilize, climate scientists say. If humans don’t emit any additional planet-warming gasses, then natural processes would begin to slowly remove the excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and global temperatures would gradually begin to decline.
Read more: Bangladesh a key player in fight against climate change, says British envoy
“There is a direct relation between delay and warming, and between warming and risk of what we would call extreme impacts,” said Ajay Gambhir, a senior research fellow at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, based at Imperial College London. “ Unfortunately, we’re already seeing all these extreme impacts — whether it’s extreme heat waves, increased risk of crop failures, forest fires or bleaching coral reefs— already happening.”
Climate Change: Int’l community must act with fund and solutions to help most vulnerable nations
Climate expert Prof Dr Saleemul Huq says that the international community must act and support the worst affected and least responsible nations with "funding and solutions" to deal with climate change impacts.
Climate change unequally impacts vulnerable nations and indiscriminately creates global crises causing chaos, new poverty and violation of human rights.
“COP27 must make good on this agenda,” said Prof Saleemul, Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) expert advisory group, speaking at a report launching event on Wednesday.
The flagship report entitled “Climate Vulnerability Monitor, 3rd edition: A Planet on Fire”, commissioned by the CVF and the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group of Ministers of Finance of the CVF presented stark proof that climate change impacts generate loss and damage, globally creating crises for society, human health and development.
Prof Saleemul said the Climate Vulnerability Monitor provides them with the anatomy of the loss and damage the world now lives with because of decades of insufficient climate inaction by rich, powerful and responsible countries.
He said the detailed impact data and evidence presented by the CVM3 provides sobering reading on just how bad the situation already is, and how much worse it will become with fast rising global health risks, extreme heat events, and economic shocks, to name a few.
Read more: Bangladesh to be voice of climate vulnerable countries: FM
“Loss and damage have become the biggest risk to global prosperity in the present age,” Prof Saleemul quoted as saying in a message received from Accra, Ghana.
Disclosing comprehensive new data on the impact of climate change, the report also highlighted the asymmetric consequences for society which deepen global inequalities with poorer and more vulnerable nations the hardest hit.
Ban Ki-moon, Chairman of the Board of Global Center on Adaptation and 8th UN secretary-general, said with this third edition “CVM” they see clearly just how much humanity finds itself at the crossroads. Sadly, we have become a “Planet on Fire”, as the report’s title highlights.
Read more: "Loss and damage has become the biggest risk to global prosperity in the present age"
“If we do not act now, by the end of the century, millions of lives would be lost every single year because of scorching heat,” said the former UN secretary general.
"Loss and damage has become the biggest risk to global prosperity in the present age"
Climate change impacts generate loss and damage, globally creating crises for society, human health and development, says a new report released on Wednesday.
Disclosing comprehensive new data on the impact of climate change, the report also highlighted the asymmetric consequences for society which deepen global inequalities with poorer and more vulnerable nations the hardest hit.
The flagship report titled “Climate Vulnerability Monitor, 3rd edition: A Planet on Fire”, commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group of Ministers of Finance of the CVF presented the stark proof.
Ban Ki-moon, Chairman of the Board of Global Center on Adaptation and 8th UN secretary-general said with this third edition “CVM” we see clearly just how much humanity finds itself at the crossroads.
"Sadly, we have become a “Planet on Fire”, as the report’s title highlights. If we do not act now, by the end of the century, millions of lives would be lost every single year because of scorching heat," he said.
Read more: Bangladesh a key player in fight against climate change, says British envoy
Prof. Dr. Patrick V. Verkooijen, CEO of Global Center on Adaptation said this report reaffirms that the impact of climate change is asymmetric, particularly today, particularly with respect to health, jobs, food and development for poor and vulnerable communities in developing countries.
"The shocking finding of this global assessment is that some of the world’s richest and most powerful economies will also see their economic growth compromised throughout the 21st century, not just lowering incomes but also increasing inflation and interest rates. It is now crystal clear that every economy, every government, and every community must take action to analyse, monitor and respond to these risks.”
Prof. Dr. Saleemul Huq, Chair of the CVF Expert Advisory Group said the Climate Vulnerability Monitor provides them with the anatomy of the loss and damage the world now lives with because of decades of insufficient climate inaction by rich, powerful and responsible countries.
The detailed impact data and evidence presented by the CVM3 provides sobering reading on just how bad the situation already is, and how much worse it will become with fast rising global health risks, extreme heat events, and economic shocks, to name a few, he said.
"Loss and damage has become the biggest risk to global prosperity in the present age. The international community must act and support those worst affected and least responsible with funding and solutions. COP27 must make good on this agenda," Huq added.
The CVM3’s full online data set with global coverage at national level portal will be released via a dedicated portal on 10 November 2022 at UNFCCC COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
The third edition of the Climate Vulnerability Monitor (CVM3), a research program into the impact of climate change publicly released today, is the product of a multi-year research program involving a multi-organization science consortium led by the Global Center on Adaptation, Climate Analytics, the Lancet Countdown and finres, as well as 14 regional partner organizations.
The Monitor consolidates the latest research from the scientific literature on the attribution of climate change in 32 distinct indicators of socio-economic and environmental change and impact phenomena.
Read more: UN, ADB to support Bangladesh's fight against climate change
The Monitor projects and compares how, for a wide range of countries, these impacts evolve throughout the 21st century under a climate and socio-economic scenario that limits warming to 1.5°C, versus a below 2°C scenario, and a high emissions scenario without climate action to reduce emissions or mobilize additional adaptation efforts.
The CVM3 findings illustrate the significant extent to which limiting warming to 1.5ºC could contain otherwise enormous losses and damage for the world this century.
The CVM3 and its scenarios and modeling are informed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest Sixth Assessment Report.
The 32 individual climate impact indicators for the time periods of 2030, 2050 and 2090, are as follows:
19 indicators of the impact of climate change in biophysical terms including temperature changes, drought, precipitation and runoff/discharge, windspeed, soil moisture and crop yields.
10 indicators of the impact of climate change on human health, including through infectious disease and exposure to risks like heat, wildfires and food insecurity.
3 indicators of the economic impact of climate change on GDP per capita growth, inflation and interest rates.
Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana Minister for Finance and Economic Planning and V20 chairman said climate-fueled risks have driven up the cost of capital and debt to unsustainable levels, especially across climate vulnerable economies, worsening already horrific financial protection gaps.
"Such measures can lower the impact of climate change, make vulnerable country economies more resilient, safeguard sustainable development, and protect the lives and livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people.”
Key findings of the CVM3 report include that:
Annual global heat deaths among vulnerable groups could reach 3.35 million by end of century if insufficient climate action is taken: 91% of the increase in heat deaths could be avoided if global warming is limited to 1.5ºC
As much as over 10% of economic growth lost every single year in the long-term for key world regions: Africa, Asia, Europe
Fast-growing cumulative economic losses are already lowering incomes worldwide and raising inflation and interest rates across all regions in a negative impact that would more than double if warming exceeded 1.5ºC and reached 2ºC
20-year extreme drought events will increase 4-8 fold during the decade ahead (at 1.5°C) and 8-12 times under a below 2.0°C scenario
Extreme wildfire risk to increase by 8.5% in the coming decade (at 1.5ºC) and to triple by end-of-century under a no climate action scenario
Decreases in staple crop yields could reach 30-40% by end of century, but could be reduced to 5-10% if global warming is limited to 1.5ºC
Henry Kokofu, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency and Special Envoy of the CVF Presidency of Ghana said the vulnerable nations have been working all year towards a decisive outcome from COP27 on loss and damage.
"With this landmark CVM3 report, we are reminded of the scale and breadth of the climate calamities being visited upon poorer and vulnerable nations that lack responsibility for the climate crisis. I hope all delegations to COP27 will study the findings of the CVM3 and that the rich, powerful and responsible nations will be convinced to extend necessary support for addressing the stark injustice of loss and damage.”
UN, ADB to support Bangladesh's fight against climate change
The United Nations and Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide all necessary assistance to Bangladesh to combat climate change, including the implementation of Bangladesh's National Adaptation Plan (NAP).
United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Gwyn Lewis and Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Representative Edimon Ginting said this in two separate meetings with Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin at the secretariat on Tuesday.
The minister said, Bangladesh needs 230 billion US dollars until 2030 to implement the National Adaptation Plan.
Read more: Bangladesh a key player in fight against climate change, says British envoy
"We expect cooperation from international organizations like the United Nations and ADB," were his final words.
The minister said that a specific financing mechanism must be determined for the most vulnerable countries. In this regard, the 8.8 to 9.9 trillion US dollars required for developing countries by 2030 should be taken into consideration. He also said that the global community must work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030 to save the planet.
Gwyn Lewis expressed his special interest in helping climate refugees as a result of climate change.
Bangladesh is a role model in the world in dealing with climate change, said Edimon Ginting, country representative of ADB.
Read more: "Bangladesh should not have to carry the burden of climate change alone"
Various programs undertaken by Bangladesh are followed by other countries of the world. ADB is assisting Bangladesh in various projects and it will financially help the projects' proposal to address climate risk if the government sends, he added.
Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the meeting Dr. Farhina Ahmed, Additional Secretary (Administration) Iqbal Abdullah Harun, Additional Secretary (Development) Mizanul Hoque Chowdhury, Joint Secretary Zakia Afroz, ADB Country Specialist Soon Chang Hong, ADB External Affairs Team Leader Gobinda Bar and other senior officials of the Ministry were also present at the meeting.
COP27: Bangladesh to reiterate call to materialize $100bn pledged for developing countries
Global leaders are preparing for the COP27 next month — to take action towards achieving collective climate goals set under Paris Agreement and the Convention.
The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or ‘COP27’, will build on the outcomes of COP26 to deliver action on an array of issues critical to tackling the climate emergency.
These are: urgently reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience and adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, and delivering on the commitments to finance climate action in developing countries.
Also read: Dhaka calls for implementation of climate financing pledges ahead of COP27
Bangladesh will reiterate its call to materialize the pledge of providing US$ 100 billion funds per year to developing countries at the earliest, officials said.
Bangladesh will also highlight the importance of “enhanced funds” for climate change mitigation and adaptation at the conference that will take place from November 6 to 18 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Nations are expected to demonstrate at COP27 that they are in a new era of implementation by turning their commitments under the Paris Agreement into action.
Read V20, G7 reach agreement on financial protection against climate change loss
Heads of states and governments will attend the Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Implementation Summit on November 7 and 8 while a high-level segment primarily attended by ministers will take place from November 15-18.
The Vulnerable 20 (V20) and Group of 7 (G7) will jointly launch the Global Shield Against Climate Risks at COP27 in a wider effort to accelerate pre-arranged financing at speed and scale.
The V20 membership stands at 58 economies representing some 1.5 billion people including Bangladesh.
Read Climate Change: IOM DDG calls for redoubling efforts ahead of COP27
The Vulnerable 20 Group of Finance Ministers from climate vulnerable economies and the G7 Presidency have already announced they have reached agreement on a financial protection cooperation that responds to loss and damage as a contribution to the Paris Climate Treaty.
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has called for implementation of climate financing pledges commensurate with the principles of loss and damage ahead of the climate conference going to take place in Sharm El Sheikh next month.
State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam has said Bangladesh firmly believes that climate change is a security issue and it must be discussed at a regular interval at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Read UN Resident Coordinator stresses urgency of fighting climate change
Bangladesh has been a significant player in global climate diplomacy and during the presidency of CVF, Bangladesh emerged as a bold voice in the climate change negotiations under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladesh has launched the “Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan” with the aim to put her on a journey from climate vulnerability to resilience to climate prosperity. The government sees it as one of the landmark policy guidelines for climate vulnerable countries.
As government representatives begin to finalize the agenda for the COP27 climate change conference in Egypt next month, the UN chief told journalists in New York that the work ahead is “as immense as the climate impacts we are seeing around the world”.
“At COP27, I will launch an action plan to provide early warning systems for all within five years,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He urged the governments, international financial institutions and civil society to support it.
Read Bangladeshi youths join Global Climate Strike
“We came out of Paris, COP21, with a historic agreement which set out a framework of what needs to be done, and then in Glasgow last year, an agreement on how to do it,” said Simon Stiell, the sixth Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) or UN Climate Change.
2022 marks seven years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change - a landmark international treaty to tackle the climate crisis.
The agreement calls for limiting global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. To get there, the world needs to halve its carbon emissions by 2030.
Read What can COP27 do for climate vulnerable countries?
V20, G7 reach agreement on financial protection against climate change loss
The Vulnerable 20 (V20) and Group of 7 (G7) will jointly launch the Global Shield Against Climate Risks at COP27 in a wider effort to accelerate pre-arranged financing at speed and scale.
The Vulnerable 20 Group of Finance Ministers — from climate-vulnerable economies — and the G7 Presidency have announced they have reached an agreement on financial protection cooperation that responds to loss and damage as a contribution to the Paris Climate Treaty.
V20 Chair Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister of the Republic of Ghana, and Svenja Schulze, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, from the G7 Presidency met in Washington DC to conclude the final details of the Global Shield, according to a joint media release received from Washington DC early Saturday.
Read Dhaka calls for implementation of climate financing pledges ahead of COP27
The V20 membership stands at 58 economies representing some 1.5 billion people including Bangladesh.
The Group of 7 (G7) consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA.
The European Union also participates in G7 meetings.
Germany took on the presidency of the Group of 7 from the United Kingdom on 1st January this year. The presidency lasts for one year.
Read US, Egypt launch group to prepare for COP27 climate summit
Ofori-Atta said they are pleased that the G7 Presidency of Germany has partnered with the V20 on the Global Shield Against Climate Risks.
It is obvious that their socio-economic losses are compounding due to the increased severity and scale of climate-fuelled risks, said the Minister.
V20’s debt service payments alone are half a trillion US dollars over the next four years, and on top of that, the Group is facing inflation and currency depreciation against the dollar.
Read Civil Society calls for protecting climate vulnerable women and girls
Pre-arranged funding and the efficient delivery of subsidies for insurance through the V20 Trust Fund is critical to ensure that we do not increase our debt burdens.
It is important to recognize that we do not ask for charity. What we need is stronger economic cooperation through Climate Prosperity Plans between the developed world and the climate vulnerable countries of the world.
"We need new investments enabled by protection instruments under the Global Shield to fortify our economies, supply chains and communities against these accelerating climate risks. I am pleased that Ghana is part of the pathfinder countries under the Global Shield and look forward to expedited action so we can scale up this intervention across the African continent and the rest of the developing world,” Ofori-Atta said.
Read Cabinet sends back National Adaptation Plan on climate change for modification
Schulze said climate change is already a dramatic reality and it is no longer a question of whether climate change-related loss and damage will happen, it is only how often it will occur – and how fierce and how expensive it is, and most importantly, who is affected most.
"To stop the climate crisis from becoming worse, we need to drive global climate action with even greater commitment," said Schulze.
"This includes that we must acknowledge that there is climate-related loss and damage and that the most vulnerable countries, in particular, need our solidarity in dealing with it," said the German Minister.
Read Bangladeshi youths join Global Climate Strike
"This is where we want to build bridges for the upcoming global climate conference in Egypt by putting forward concrete solutions. The world needs concrete action more than words in order to deal with loss and damage," Schulze said.
Together with the most vulnerable developing countries, Schulze said, they have taken a big step in this regard.
"The decision to build together a Global Shield against Climate Risks will offer millions of vulnerable and poor people financial and social protection after climate disasters.”
Read UN experts alarmed by restrictions on civil society ahead of climate summit
The Global Shield includes the following:
Strengthened coordination within the global climate and disaster risk finance and insurance (CDRFI) architecture across G7, V20, and other climate-vulnerable economies to ensure coherence of different institutions’ and donors’ efforts at the global, regional and national levels.
A global, flexible, and collaborative financing structure to mobilise and pool respective donor and other funds and enable a more systematic global approach to closing protection gaps.
Sustained protection in the face of increasing climate risks by scaling up existing successful CDRFI programmes, including social protection schemes, and preparing country-specific, needs-based CDRFI support packages, including the scaling up of smart premium and capital support to address affordability barriers.
Read CSOs demand Bangladesh put loss, damage finance on COP27 agenda
Formed in 2015, the V20 Group of Finance Ministers is dedicated cooperation of economies systematically vulnerable to climate change.
Currently chaired by the Republic of Ghana, V20 Group members are also states of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF).
The Global Shield builds on the InsuResilience Global Partnership which the V20 and G20 previously introduced with a goal of insuring 500 million people in climate-vulnerable countries by 2025.
Read Climate Change: IOM DDG calls for redoubling efforts ahead of COP 27
The Global Shield Against Climate Risks at COP27 is a wider approach that encompasses an acceleration of these efforts including social protection schemes, with V20 and G7 members.
Climate change: Shrimp farming endangered in Khulna
Producers and exporters in Khulna are worried about falling production of shrimps, affecting exports from the region, for hurdles mainly stemmed from climate-induced changes in temperature.
In FY2021-22, only 33,271 tonnes of shrimp were exported from Khulna, a sharp fall from 42,489 tonnes in FY2011-12.
Industry operators say water bodies are losing their navigability, salinity level is fluctuating because of weaker force of natural high tides caused by moon’s gravitational pull, affecting the shrimp cultivation in the region.
Read: Shrimp farmers in Bagerhat stare at starvation
Humayun Kabir, Vice President of Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters’ Association (BFFEA), told UNB that it seemed good days are gone for the shrimp industry.
He said shrimp farming in Bangladesh began in the 1960s, and by the 1980s it grew up to an industry as commercial shrimp production led to the export of this fish species.
“But it seems like the heyday of the shrimp business is coming to an end. Production is getting lowered, while demand and prices are also falling. All in all, the situation is really dire for those associated with the shrimp industry,” he said.
Humayun also pointed out some reasons behind the decline in shrimp production including a shortage of shrimp minnows in the market.
“The few minnows that farmers can manage die due to high temperature of water. Minnows are very sensitive. They can’t survive without proper water, food and environment,” he said.
“Besides there are regular outbreaks of various diseases. That’s why the mortality of shrimps has increased manifold,” he added.
Read: Chandpur: Coast Guard seizes 1MT shrimps inflated with jelly
Golam Kibria Ripon, General Secretary of Khulna Division (Shrimp) Fry Trading Association, also said that salinity in the rivers in Khulna has become a major headache.
“Usually the water in the rivers of Khulna region becomes saline in January. Last year, salinity of the rivers was delayed to February. Lack of saline water during the harvesting period is affecting shrimp farming badly,” he said. “Although the rate of salinity used to be 16-18 ppt in May-June period, it has come down to 8-10 ppt nowadays.”
He said previously 60 to 70 percent of minnows survived after releasing them in hatcheries, but now protecting even 15-20 percent minnows has become a big challenge.
Ripon said that dredging of the rivers is a must to keep them navigable.
“As the water bodies are drying up due to climate change, finding water for shrimp farming is getting tough. Various species of shrimp minnows used to enter the enclosures during tidal surges in the past, which isn’t the case anymore,” he said.
He said the quality of soil beneath the rivers may have degraded too.
“All of these issues are making it hard for us to continue shrimp production,” Ripon added.
Joydeb Kumar, Fisheries Officer of Khulna District, highlighted various measures that the government has taken to protect shrimp farming.
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“We’ve advised the farmers to increase the depth of their enclosures to keep water temperature normal. We’re also conducting drives to prevent the injection of harmful substances into the shrimps. Besides, we’re also conducting awareness-raising campaigns with cooperation from the shrimp farmers and manufacturers,” Joydeb said.
Dr Mostafa Sarwar, a noted climate expert and Head of Urban and Regional Planning department of Khulna University of Science and Technology (KUET), provided a scientific explanation behind the death of shrimp minnows.
“There is a difference between mature shrimps and their minnows regarding heat enduring capacity. Minnows can’t grow naturally in high water temperatures. Farmers release minnows to their enclosures in January-February when water temperature remains around 25 degrees Celsius. In March, water temperature rises to 27 degrees Celsius, which kills a large portion of the minnows,” Mostafa said.
Mostafa added that rising water temperature is also responsible for viral infections.
“The life cycle of viruses depends on temperature. Viruses present in the air are making hot water their new home, thus infecting minnows and killing them in droves”, Mostafa said.