Climate Change
World News Day observed with focus on climate crisis
Bangladesh on Tuesday joined the global community of journalists in observing the annual World News Day, which aims to promote the importance of authentic journalism.
News organisations and media houses came together across the world on this fourth iteration of World News Day, choosing to highlight the critical importance of credible journalism in providing trustworthy information about the climate crisis and the planet's future.
With the involvement of 500 news organisations across the world, the campaign focuses on one point -- climate change, or as the terminology shifts, the climate crisis -- with 2021 on course to be declared as the hottest year on record amid the worsening consequences of global warming.
The flagship virtual event of this year's campaign is a 75-minute Web show titled “World News Day: The Climate Crisis”.
World News Day is an initiative driven by the Canadian Journalism Foundation and the World Editors Forum to raise awareness about the critical role of journalists in people’s lives. The very first World News Day was observed on September 28, 2018.
Read: Dickson lauds Bangladesh's efforts on climate front
Bangladesh: On the frontline of a planet in peril
Nowhere is the climate crisis more pressing or more potentially catastrophic than Bangladesh, for the simple fact that nowhere else do we see a greater swathe of humanity under threat from its worst effects.
According to the Environmental Justice Foundation, by 2050, with a projected 50 cm rise in sea level, Bangladesh may lose approximately 11% of its land, affecting an estimated 15 million people living in its low-lying coastal region.
It isn’t something the country brought upon itself. As a late comer to industrialisation, the country’s contribution to anthropogenic climate change, for which the Industrial Revolution that started in 19th-century Britain was a catalyst, has actually been minimal.
That is why as the current chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group of 48 countries that are most disproportionately affected by the consequences of global warming, it is working hard for a fair and equitable deal to be reached at the next UN-led conference on the issue (COP26), set to be held in Glasgow in December.
Experts have long bemoaned the fact that the wealthier, industrialised countries – the ones who have historically contributed the most to the depletion of the ozone layer – still put up a reluctant front when it comes to taking responsibility now for addressing the problem.
“Bangladesh has been hit hard with extreme weather caused by climate change for years. Climate change is a global phenomenon that needs a global solution through collective efforts,” noted climate expert Dr Ainun Nishat on the occasion of World News Day.
Dr Nishat said they have been talking about climate finance for several decades for combating climate change impacts, but sufficient funds have not been allocated globally.
“It’s necessary to sensitise global leaders regarding climate financing and keep their commitment to reducing carbon emission. The upcoming COP-26 Summit will create an opportunity to do this,” he said.
World News Day is being observed in Bangladesh as elsewhere across the world today (Tuesday), highlighting the critical importance of credible journalism in providing trustworthy information about the climate crisis.
Environment experts said about 700,000 people in Bangladesh become refugees every year due to the natural disasters which are said to be intensifying with climate change.
They point out that per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in Bangladesh is 0.46 tonne per year while it is about 10 to 15 tonnes per year in the developed countries.
Alongside reducing carbon emissions, the analysts said developed nations must help Bangladesh with mitigation and adaptation efforts, necessary funds, resources and technology to prepare it for the inevitable losses of lives, livelihoods, habitable land, and the resulting human migration.
Read: Dickson lauds Bangladesh's efforts on climate front
Small islands caught between tourism economy, climate change
Come visit the Maldives, its president entreated the world at this year’s United Nations General Assembly, moments before switching to an impassioned plea for help combating climate change. The adjacent appeals illustrated a central dilemma for many small island developing states: their livelihoods, or their lives?
The United Nations recognizes 38 member states, scattered across the world’s waters, as small island developing states grouped together because they face “unique social, economic and environmental challenges.”
This bloc is particularly vulnerable to climate change. This bloc is also particularly dependent on tourism — a significant driver of climate change, accountable for 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions alone, according to sustainable tourism expert Stefan Gössling — and an industry devastated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The predicament these islands find themselves in is essentially recursive: Attract tourism for economic survival, which in turn contributes to climate change, which in turn bleaches the colorful reefs and destroys the pristine beaches that attract tourists. As is, by the end of the century, these low-lying islands could drown entirely.
“The difference between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees is a death sentence for the Maldives,” President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih told the U.N. General Assembly last week.
READ: China, US unveil separate big steps to fight climate change
The annual summit is an opportunity for each of the international body’s 193 members to step into the spotlight on the world stage. But the Maldives — perhaps best known globally as an Indian Ocean playground for moneyed honeymooners and Bollywood celebrities — had a particularly high-profile platform this year. Its foreign minister is serving as the General Assembly’s president and Solih was speaking third overall — just after U.S. President Joe Biden.
But the climate change appeals are nothing new, made year after year as these islands are pummeled by storms and the seas rise like a “slow-moving killer,” as Colgate University’s April Baptiste puts it.
Baptiste, a professor of environmental studies as well as Africana and Latin American studies, researches environmental justice in the Caribbean region. She says the island states’ appeals had gone ignored for years because they were essentially seen as “dispensable.” With little land, political power and financial capital, it was easy to overlook their plight. These are also islands with a history of exploitation that dates back centuries and states whose full-time residents — not tourists — are primarily Black and brown.
“You have that layer of race, racism, marginality to take into consideration,” she said. “I absolutely believe that’s at the heart of the conversation as to why small island developing states are not taken seriously.”
People and governments have taken matters into their own hands over recent years.
READ: Vaccine equity, Rohingya, climate change on top of Hasina’s UNGA agenda
One man from the island nation of Kiribati sought refugee status in New Zealand on the basis that climate change posed an existential threat to his homeland, though he was eventually deported. This past week, Vanuatu announced it would seek to bring climate change before the International Court of Justice. Although largely symbolic — any ruling would not be legally binding — the move, as intended by the government, seeks to clarify international law.
Hasina seeks a resilient global food system; places suggestions
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has put forward a five-point suggestion for ensuring a resilient food system globally as it will be crucial in the coming days amid the falling food production due to the climate change and growing global population.
Hasina came up with the proposals while addressing the "United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021" in her prerecorded speech.
UN Secretary General António Guterres convened the event on Thursday.
Describing the proposals, the Prime Minister said first there should be research, investment and advanced technology sharing for agricultural development, and then there should be increased funding for developing countries for achieving a sustainable food system.
Read: Want actions, not words: Hasina to global community over Rohingya crisis
Dickson lauds Bangladesh's efforts on climate front
British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson on Wednesday recognised Bangladesh's leadership role in the realm of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and applauded the tremendous achievements of Bangladesh that it will present at COP26.
Addressing a webinar, the High Commissioner highlighted four individual aspects of tackling climate change - coal, cash, cars, and trees.
Regarding coal, he stated that Bangladesh’s contribution to emission reduction has been exemplary.
Read: Climate crisis no longer a looming crisis: Mia Seppo
Dickson was impressed by the government’s Mujib climate prosperity plan and believes Bangladesh can achieve a net-zero carbon emission target by 2050.
In light of the COP26, the Centre for Governance Studies arranged the webinar titled “Addressing the Goals of COP-26 in South Asian Context: Pitfall and Explications” focusing on both the COP26 and current climate issues in Bangladesh and South Asia.
Dr Atiq Rahman, Executive Director, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Ar Mubasshar Hussain, President, Institute of Architects Bangladesh, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Chief Executive, Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA), Professor Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, Chair, IUCN National Committee in Bangladesh, Architect Iqbal Habib, Member Secretary, Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA), and Dr Manjur A.Chowdhury, Chairman, Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) spoke at the webinar moderated by Zillur Rahman, Executive Director of CGS.
The British High Commission has been working with the government to form a long-term strategy towards net-zero emission.
China, US unveil separate big steps to fight climate change
The two biggest economies and largest carbon polluters in the world announced separate financial attacks on climate change Tuesday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country will no longer fund coal-fired power plants abroad, surprising the world on climate for the second straight year at the U.N. General Assembly. That came hours after U.S. President Joe Biden announced a plan to double financial aid to poorer nations to $11.4 billion by 2024 so those countries could switch to cleaner energy and cope with global warming’s worsening impacts. That puts rich nations close to within reach of its long-promised but not realized goal of $100 billion a year in climate help for developing nations.
“This is an absolutely seminal moment,” said Xinyue Ma, an expert on energy development finance at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center.
Read: Biden aims to enlist allies in tackling climate, COVID, more
This could provide some momentum going into major climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, in less than six weeks, experts said. Running up to the historic 2015 Paris climate deal, a joint U.S.-China agreement kickstarted successful negotiations. This time, with China-U.S. relations dicey, the two nations made their announcements separately, hours and thousands of miles apart.
“Today was a really good day for the world,” United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the upcoming climate negotiations, told Vice President Kamala Harris.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has made a frenetic push this week for bigger efforts to curb climate change called the two announcements welcome news, but said “we still have a long way to go” to make the Glasgow meeting successful.
Depending on when China’s new coal policy goes into effect, it could shutter 47 planned power plants in 20 developing countries that use the fuel that emits the most heat-trapping gases, about the same amount of coal power as from Germany, according to the European climate think-tank E3G.
“It’s a big deal. China was the only significant funder of overseas coal left. This announcement essentially ends all public support for coal globally,” said Joanna Lewis, an expert on China, energy and climate at Georgetown University. “This is the announcement many have been waiting for.”
From 2013 to 2019, data showed that China was financing 13% of coal-fired power capacity built outside China – “far and away the largest public financier,” said Kevin Gallagher, who directs the Boston University center. Japan and South Korea announced earlier this year that they were getting out of the coal-financing business.
With all three countries pulling out of financing coal abroad “that sends a signal to the global economy. This is a sector that’s fast becoming a stranded asset,” Gallagher said.
Read: Climate crisis no longer a looming crisis: Mia Seppo
'Walton ahead of others in protecting ozone layer'
Walton is ahead of other private sector players in protecting the environment, speakers said this at a seminar in the capital Saturday.
The Department of Environment and Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited jointly organised the seminar to mark the "World Ozone Day," celebrated internationally on September 16 every year to raise awareness against ozone layer depletion and global warming.
This year's theme for the international day was "Montreal Protocol – keeping us, our food, and vaccines cool."
Read Walton Digital Campaign Season 14: Two more customers get Tk20 lakh rewards
Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin attended the seminar as chief guest and Walton Hi-Tech Industries Chairman SM Nurul Alam Rezvi and Vice-Chairman SM Shamsul Alam as special guests.
Speakers at the event said the ozone layer is a blessing for the world and animals. It is the filter of the earth. But the use of harmful chemicals and gases has been depleting the layer.
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was signed in 1987. Bangladesh is one of the signatories to the protocol.
Read EPB assures Walton of support to boost electronics, electrical products exports
Under the protocol, the country is working on controlling the use of about 100 ozone-depleting substances.
Speaking as the chief guest, Shahab Uddin appreciated the various initiatives taken by Walton to protect the ozone layer.
Deputy Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Begum Habibun Nahar said, "Walton is ahead of others in protecting the ozone layer and the environment."
Read Walton brings Arc CPU liquid coolers
Walton Hi-Tech Industries Chairman SM Nurul Alam Rezvi urged the government to make the star rating system mandatory for all locally produced as well as imported air conditioners to ensure an environment-friendly atmosphere through the use of energy-efficient products, according to a media statement.
Hasina places six proposals to make world more liveable
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday put forward six proposals to make the world more liveable by bringing down carbon emissions and tackle the people being displaced across the globe due to climate change.
She placed her proposals while delivering the pre-recorded speech in the ‘Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate’, convened by US President Joe Biden.
The Prime Minister, in her first proposal, asked the major carbon-emitting countries to take action to reduce their emissions to keep the global temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In her second proposal, Hasina renewed her call for fulfilling the commitment of an annual 100-billion-dollar climate fund by the developed countries and distributing it 50:50 between adaptation and mitigation.
The Prime Minister, in her third proposal, advised the developed countries to come forward with the most effective energy solutions along with technology transfer to the developing countries.
Also read: Hasina places 4 suggestions to deal with climate challenge
Vaccine equity, Rohingya, climate change on top of Hasina’s UNGA agenda
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to focus on the issues relating to equity in vaccine sharing, sustainable recovery, climate change and Rohingya crisis at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
"Covid-19 vaccines should be a public good without any discrimination," said Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday sharing the key engagements of the Prime Minister.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen were, among others, present at the press conference.
Prime Minister Hasina leaves here on Friday morning on a two-week official visit to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York and other engagements with a stopover in Helsinki, Finland.
The theme of this year’s UNGA is “Building resilience through hope-to recover from Covid-19, rebuild sustainably, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people, and revitalize the United Nations.”Dr Momen said the Prime Minister will address the UNGA on September 24 in Bangla and in-person.
The Prime Minister will highlight Bangladesh’s impressive development journey, inclusive economic development, and success in the health sector, said the Foreign Minister.
He said Bangladesh will host a side event on the Rohingya issue titled “Rohingya crisis: Imperatives for a sustainable solution” where many countries are expected to voluntarily join.
Read: Vaccine inequity undermining global economic recovery
The OIC, ASEAN and European countries have already responded positively.
Dr Momen said there will be a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the UNGA.
The Prime Minister will deliver a speech at a programme titled “UN Common Agenda: Action to achieve Equality and Inclusion.”
Out West, Biden points to wildfires to push for big rebuild
President Joe Biden on Monday used his first Western swing in office to hold out the wildfires burning across the region as an argument for his $3.5 trillion rebuilding plans, calling year-round fires and other extreme weather a climate change reality the nation can no longer ignore.
“We can’t ignore the reality that these wildfires are being supercharged by climate change,” Biden said, noting that catastrophic weather doesn’t strike based on partisan ideology. “It isn’t about red or blue states. It’s about fires. Just fires.”
With stops in Idaho and California, Biden sought to boost support for his big rebuilding plans, saying every dollar spent on “resilience” would save $6 in future costs. And he said the rebuilding must go beyond simply restoring damaged systems and instead ensure communities can withstand such crises.
“These fires are blinking ‘code red’ for our nation. They’re gaining frequency and ferocity,” Biden said after concluding an aerial tour of the Caldor Fire that threatened communities around Lake Tahoe. “We know what we have to do.”
The president’s two-day Western swing comes at a critical juncture for a central plank of his legislative agenda. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are working to assemble details of the infrastructure-plus plan — and how to pay for it, a concern not just for Republicans. A key Democratic senator said Sunday that he will not vote for a package so large.
Read: Biden to survey wildfire damage, make case for spending plan
In California, Biden took an aerial tour of land charred by the Caldor Fire after getting a briefing from officials at the state emergency services office. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces a recall vote Tuesday, joined Biden for the briefing.
Newsom joked that the emergency center had become his office because fire season has “just kept going,” as he amplified Biden’s message.
“This has been a hard year and a half,” Newsom said.
During an earlier briefing in Boise at the National Interagency Fire Center, which coordinates the government’s wildfire response, Biden noted that wildfires start earlier every year and that this year they have scorched 5.4 million acres. “That’s larger than the entire state of New Jersey,” Biden said.
“The reality is we have a global warming problem, a serious global warming problem, and it’s consequential, and what’s going to happen is, things are not going to go back,” he said.
Biden, who visits Denver on Tuesday before returning to Washington, aimed to link the increasing frequency of wildfires, drought, floods and other extreme weather events to what he and scientists say is a need to invest billions in combating climate change, along with vastly expanding the nation’s social safety net.
The president argued for spending now to make the future effects of climate change less costly, as he did during recent stops in Louisiana, New York and New Jersey — all states that suffered millions of dollars in flood and other damage and scores of deaths after Hurricane Ida.
Read: Lake Tahoe residents relieved homes spared from wildfire
Biden also praised firefighters for the life-threatening risks they take, and discussed the administration’s recent use of a wartime law to boost supplies of firehoses from the U.S. Forest Service’s primary supplier, an Oklahoma City nonprofit called NewView Oklahoma.
In deep-red Idaho, several opposing groups leveraged Biden’s visit as a way to show resistance to his administration. GOP gubernatorial candidates, an anti-vaccine organization and a far-right group were among those urging people to turn out against the president.
More than 1,000 protesters did so, gathering in Boise before Biden arrived to express displeasure with his coronavirus plan, the election and other issues.
Chris Burns, a 62-year-old from Boise, said, “I’m against everything Biden is for.” Burns was especially displeased with a sweeping new vaccine mandate for 100 million people that Biden announced last week. “He’s acting like a dictator,” Burns said.
The White House is trying to turn the corner after a difficult month dominated by a chaotic and violent U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the surging delta COVID-19 variant that have upended what the president had hoped would mark a summer in which the nation was finally freed from the coronavirus.
Biden acknowledged his polling numbers have dipped in recent weeks, but argued his agenda is “overwhelmingly popular” with the public. He said he expects his Republican opponents to attack him instead of debating him on the merits of his spending plan.
Besides the Republican opposition in Congress, Biden needs to overcome the skepticism of two key centrist Democrats in the closely divided Senate. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have expressed concerns about the size of the $3.5 trillion spending package.
Read:California wildfire dangers may be spreading south
Manchin said Sunday, “I cannot support $3.5 trillion,” citing his opposition to a proposed increase in the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and vast new social spending envisioned by the president. Manchin also complained about a process he said feels rushed.
In California, Biden appeared to respond to those concerned about the plan’s size, saying the cost “may be” as much as $3.5 trillion and would be spread out over 10 years, a period during which the economy is expected to grow.
The 100-member Senate is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Given solid GOP opposition, Biden’s plan cannot pass the Senate without Manchin or Sinema’s support.
The climate provisions in Biden’s plans include tax incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles, investments to transition the economy away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources such as wind and solar power, and creation of a civilian climate corps.
The Biden administration in June laid out a strategy to deal with the growing wildfire threat, which included hiring more federal firefighters and implementing new technologies to detect and address fires quickly. Last month, the president approved a disaster declaration for California, providing federal aid for the counties affected by the Dixie and River fires. He issued another disaster declaration for the state just before Monday’s visit aimed at areas affected by the Caldor Fire.