Climate
Small solutions, big impacts: How five community-based projects tackling climate
There are many small-scale, community-driven initiatives making a huge difference in people's lives and contributing to efforts to curb global warming.
In early April, 29 countries pledged more than $5 billion to the UN-backed Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The Fund said this was "record support, providing a major boost to international efforts to protect biodiversity and curb threats to climate change, plastics and toxic chemicals."
The GEF is a multilateral fund that serves as a financial mechanism for several environmental conventions – including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
It has its Small Grants Program (SGP) which grants up to $50,000 directly to local communities, including indigenous peoples, community-based organisations and other non-governmental groups investing in projects related to healing the planet.
The initiative is implemented in 127 countries by the UN Development Program (UNDP) which provides technical support to selected local projects that conserve and restore the environment while enhancing people's wellbeing and livelihoods.
Indigenous women solar engineers bringing light to rural Belize
China promotes coal in setback for efforts to cut emissions
China is promoting coal-fired power as the ruling Communist Party tries to revive a sluggish economy, prompting warnings Beijing is setting back efforts to cut climate-changing carbon emissions from the biggest global source.
Official plans call for boosting coal production capacity by 300 million tons this year, according to news reports. That is equal to 7% of last year’s output of 4.1 billion tons, which was an increase of 5.7% over 2020.
China is one of the biggest investors in wind and solar, but jittery leaders called for more coal-fired power after economic growth plunged last year and shortages caused blackouts and factory shutdowns. Russia’s attack on Ukraine added to anxiety that foreign oil and coal supplies might be disrupted.
“This mentality of ensuring energy security has become dominant, trumping carbon neutrality,” said Li Shuo, a senior global policy adviser for Greenpeace. “We are moving into a relatively unfavorable time period for climate action in China.”
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Officials face political pressure to ensure stability as President Xi Jinping prepares to try to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as ruling party leader in the autumn.
Coal is important for “energy security,” Cabinet officials said at an April 20 meeting that approved plans to expand production capacity, according to Caixin, a business news magazine.
The ruling party also is building power plants to inject money into the economy and revive growth that sank to 4% over a year earlier in the final quarter of 2021, down from the full year’s 8.1% expansion.
Governments have pledged to try to limit warming of the atmosphere to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the level of pre-industrial times. Leaders say what they really want is a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
Scientists say even if the world hits the 2-degree goal in the 2015 Paris climate pact and the 2021 Glasgow follow-up agreement, that still will lead to higher seas, stronger storms, extinctions of plants and animals and more people dying from heat, smog and infectious diseases.
China is the top producer and consumer of coal. Global trends hinge on what Beijing does.
The Communist Party has rejected binding emissions commitments, citing its economic development needs. Beijing has avoided joining governments that promised to phase out use of coal-fired power.
In a 2020 speech to the United Nations, Xi said carbon emissions will peak by 2030, but he announced no target for the amount. Xi said China aims for carbon neutrality, or removing as much from the atmosphere by planting trees and other tactics as is emitted by industry and households, by 2060.
China accounts for 26.1% of global emissions, more than double the U.S. share of 12.8%, according to the World Resources Institute. Rhodium Group, a research firm, says China emits more than all developed economies combined.
Per person, China’s 1.4 billion people on average emit the equivalent of 8.4 tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to WRI. That is less than half the U.S. average of 17.7 tons but more than the European Union’s 7.5 tons.
China has abundant supplies of coal and produced more than 90% of the 4.4 billion tons it burned last year. More than half of its oil and gas is imported and leaders see that as a strategic risk.
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China’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2060 appears to be on track, but using more coal “could jeopardize this, or at least slow it down and make it more costly,” Clare Perry of the Environmental Investigations Agency said in an email.
Promoting coal will make emissions “much higher than they need to be” by the 2030 peak year, said Perry.
“This move runs entirely counter to the science,” she said.
Beijing has spent tens of billions of dollars on building solar and wind farms to reduce reliance on imported oil and gas and clean up its smog-choked cities. China accounted for about half of global investment in wind and solar in 2020.
Still, coal is expected to supply 60% of its power in the near future.
Beijing is cutting millions of jobs to shrink its bloated, state-owned coal mining industry, but output and consumption still are rising.
Authorities say they are shrinking carbon emissions per unit of economic output. The government reported a reduction of 3.8% last year, better than 2020′s 1% but down from a 5.1% cut in 2017.
Last year’s total energy use increased 5.2% over 2020 after a revival of global demand for Chinese exports propelled a manufacturing boom, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Stimulus spending also might raise carbon output if it pays for building more bridges, train stations and other public works. That would encourage carbon-intensive steel and cement production.
China’s coal-fired power plants operate at about half their capacity on average, but building more creates jobs and economic activity, said Greenpeace’s Li. He said even if the power isn’t needed now, local leaders face pressure to make them pay for themselves.
“That locks China into a more high-carbon path,” Li said. “It’s very difficult to fix.”
Despite emissions growth slowing, window for climate action 'closing fast': UN body
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report shows growth in global emissions has slowed over the past decade.
But much more needs to be done, including halving global emissions by 2030, to keep the 'goal of 1.5C' within reach and avoid the worst impacts of global warming.
The IPCC’s independent report highlights the need for urgent action in decarbonising energy, industry, transport and making homes more energy efficient, to achieve the Paris Agreement’s central goal of keeping a global temperature rise this century to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5C.
The report also shows reasons for optimism with a trend showing a slowing growth of global emissions. It also details how economic growth can be achieved alongside ambitious emissions reductions and the falling costs of renewables. Since 2010, solar energy costs and lithium-ion battery costs have decreased by around 85%, and wind energy by around 55%.
The UK is calling on countries to deliver on the Glasgow Climate Pact, in which 197 countries agreed to revisit and strengthen their 2030 emissions reduction commitments (Nationally Determined Contributions) as necessary this year to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal and thereby limit the worst impacts of climate change.
Governments from around the world have spent a fortnight at a UK-hosted session examining climate scientists’ evidence for this report. The IPCC has concluded that to limit warming to 1.5C, global emissions must peak before 2025, and then be halved by early 2030s - in part by ending the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, including reducing use of unabated coal by three quarters by 2030.
COP26 President Alok Sharma, said this report makes clear that the window to keep 1.5 degrees alive is closing alarmingly fast.
"The warning lights are yet again flashing bright red on the climate dashboard and it is high time for governments to sit up and act before it is too late."
That is why it is absolutely vital that as agreed in the Glasgow Climate Pact all countries, especially the G20 nations which are responsible for 80 per cent of global emissions, revisit and strengthen their 2030 emission reduction targets this year as necessary to align with the Paris temperature goal if we are to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change.
But this report also gives hope that the rate of growth in emissions is slowing and that thanks to the falling cost of renewables and technological innovation it is possible to transition to a cleaner future.
"We know that a net zero economy presents huge opportunities for growth and the creation of good green jobs and so countries and companies need to accelerate that transition."
The UK has already committed to reducing carbon emissions by 68% by 2030 and by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels, before reaching net zero by 2050 as set out in the UK’s comprehensive Net-Zero Strategy.
It is calling on the global community to honour the commitment to provide at least $100bn a year to support developing countries take ambitious climate action.
UK Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change, Greg Hands, said the report is a reminder to the world of the grave threat of climate change.
"There is still a window of opportunity to act to reduce the effects. The UK is going further and faster to generate more cheap and clean renewable power. This will reduce our exposure to expensive global gas prices.
We call on the global community to seize the moment and join us in stepping up a green transition."
READ: COP26: India will reach net zero emissions by 2070, says PM Modi
The IPCC’s last report, published in February, warned that some of the impacts of global warming are “irreversible”, with more than 40% of the world’s population now highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events like floods and heatwaves.
Today’s report also highlights the economic opportunities from the transition to a net zero economy, with the falling costs of renewable energy, and comes six months after the UK published a comprehensive Net Zero Strategy.
This sets out how it will secure 440,000 well-paid jobs and unlock £90 billion in investment by 2030, by helping British businesses and consumers transition to clean energy and green technology. It included £1 billion investment in electric vehicles, £3.9 billion for insulating our homes, along with support for commercialising sustainable aviation fuel and help heavy industry move to hydrogen power.
This month the UK is starting to spend its £200 million pledged to support developing countries cut emissions through the new extension of the Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions (PACT) programme.
The UK will also soon publish a new International Climate Finance (ICF) Strategy, laying out its delivery plan for £11.6 billion of investment to help countries across the globe respond to the climate emergency.
The funding represents a doubling of support for communities worst affected by global warming.
The IPCC provides the most authoritative, cutting-edge, scientific assessment of climate change. Independent of politics, the IPCC provides Governments around the world with a totally impartial scientific evidence base for climate policy and UN climate negotiations.
Its scale of global scientific collaboration is unique, bringing together hundreds of world-leading authors from across the world.
This Working Group report on mitigation has been developed with 278 scientists from 65 countries, all who have volunteered their time and expertise to produce this report.
This latest report is the product of 7 years’ work with thousands of contributions from scientists, individuals and countries, through an extensive review and consultation process.
110 interventions proposed to address 14 climate hazards in 11 stress areas
The recently developed draft National Adaptation Plan (NAP) has proposed 110 interventions to turn Bangladesh into a climate-resilient country.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change organised a workshop on Saturday as part of NAP validation process.
The Ministry is implementing the Formulation and Advancement of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) in Bangladesh project with support from UNDP and funded by the Green Climate Fund.
The draft NAP has been developed based on the opinions and feedback from the stakeholders, including the climate-vulnerable people, communities, individuals, women, youth, public officials and climate change experts, said UNDP.
More than 30 consultations took place at the national, divisional, district and upazila levels in 11 climate stress areas in the most climate-vulnerable regions across Bangladesh.
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NAP identified 14 climate hazards that include extreme temperature, erratic rainfall, riverine flood, riverbank erosion, drought, cyclone and storm surge, sea-level rise, salinity intrusion, flash flood, landslide, cold snap, lightning, urban flood and ocean acidification.
Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin was present as the chief guest while Deputy Minister Habibun Nahar, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on the ministry Saber Hossain Chowdhury and Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP Van Nguyen were present as special guests at the event chaired by Secretary of the ministry Md Mostafa Kamal.
Dr Ainun Nishat, Professor Emeritus, made a presentation on adaptation strategies and interventions, while Malik Fida A Khan presented the draft NAP.
Shahab Uddin said they will seriously consider the opinions of the stakeholders in finalising the NAP. “For successful implementation of the NAP, the capacity enhancement will be our priority among others – our ministry will work closely with all the public and private institutions in the NAP process.”
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Van Nguyen said, “I am hopeful that NAP will strategise sustainable adaptation solutions for Bangladesh and mainstream it in the national development planning”.
She expressed her high hope that Bangladesh will leverage domestic and international financing options for its successful implementation.
Saber Hossain said, “Bangladesh does not have any risk index, which is critically important for designing sustainable resilience plan. We also need to develop country risk profile”.
“Furthermore, we must have a clear picture of the benefits against adaptation investment”, he added.
Efforts being made to improve country’s air quality, says minister
Bangladesh is striving to improve its air quality and address the near-term climate change through the reduction of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), said Minister for the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Md Shahab Uddin on Friday,
“In Bangladesh’s National Action Plan for Reducing SLCPs 11 priority mitigation measures have been identified - 5 of which target major methane emission sources,” he said in the virtual event on the 10-Year Anniversary Ministerial of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) held in Paris.
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The minister said Bangladesh wants to actively play its part in the global efforts in countering climate change with due diligence in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication.
The country submitted Updated NDC enhancing both unconditional and conditional contributions with ambitious mitigation targets, he added.
“Realizing the potential of SLCPs, our updated NDC targets include reducing household energy emissions by 18.55 per cent, brick kiln sector emissions by 46.54 per cent, and municipal solid waste and wastewater emissions by 7.93 per cent by 2030.”
Bangladesh’s National Action Plan on Reducing SLCPs will prevent 16,300 premature deaths, and reduce black carbon emissions by 72 per cent and methane emissions by 37 per cent by 2040 if it is fully implemented.
Reducing SLCPs is critical since global warming potential can be reduced by 0.6°C through widespread actions on SLCPs reduction.
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“However, adequate technical and financial support is a prerequisite for the full implementation of the NAP-SLCP,” he added.
US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation of Ghana Dr Kwaku Afriyie, CCAC Partner Ministers and Delegates were present in the meeting.
For climate migrants in Bangladesh, town offers new life
The 29-year-old Monira Khatun was devastated after her husband abandoned her suddenly. She returned to her father only to face another blow: He died soon after, leaving her to shoulder three other family members’ care. Without any work, she was worried about how she would feed them.
“I lost everything. There was darkness all around,” Khatun said. “My parents’ home was gone to the river for erosion, we had no land to cultivate.”
She ended up working at a factory in a special economic zone that employs thousands of climate refugees — like Khatun — in the southwestern town of Mongla, where Bangladesh’s second-largest seaport is located.
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Integrate NAP into national development planning: Speakers
Speakers at a dialogue on Mainstreaming the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) on Sunday emphasised integrating climate change adaptation into the national development planning process.
They also called for making the implementation local-led adaptation keeping in mind the local vulnerability factors.
The dialogue was jointly organised by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Economic Relations Division (ERD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with support from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
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Planning Minister M A Mannan spoke as the chief guest.
He assured of all possible support from the Ministry of Planning in integrating climate change adaptation in the development planning.
“The Project Executive Committees should prioritise adaptation for successful implementation of the NAP,” he said.
Deputy Minister of the MoEFCC Habibun Nahar said that the government is confident that it will be able to showcase the world the success in climate change adaptation. “NAP will be our blueprint of adaptation”.
Dr Ainun Nishat, Professor Emeritus, C3ER, BRAC University and Team Leader, NAP Formulation Consortium, made a presentation on mainstreaming while Malik Fida A. Khan, Executive Director, CEGIS, presented the draft NAP.
Economic Relation Division secretary Fatima Yasmin, Planning Division secretary and Member of Programming of the Planning Commission Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty, UNDP Resident Representative Sudipto Mukerjee were present as special guests.
MoEFCC Secretary Md Mostafa Kamal chaired the session.
Additional Secretary (Climate Change Wing) and National Project Director, NAP Md Mizanul Hoque Chowdhury said that an implementation roadmap is needed, which should be integrated in the development planning to realise the national development goals.
Dr Ainun said that NAP is complementary to the National development planning including the Delta Plan 2100, Five Year Plans to make our adaptation approach sustainable and effective.
“For successful implementation, every ministry should integrate climate change adaptation in their respective planning and financing process”.
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He emphasised making the NAP a legally binding reference for successful implementation of the NAP.
Fatima hoped that NAP will be a comprehensive strategy to adapt with the changing climate. She echoed with the need for the climate change act.
Sudipto mentioned that data management is very important in effective planning. Efforts should be there to make climate change data available for effective planning.
Pradip Ranjan said that adaptation efforts should consider the disaster impact assessment for successful planning of adaptation projects.
Md Mostafa said that for a climate-vulnerable country like Bangladesh, human displacement is a critical issue in climate change adaptation – NAP must address this issue to support the life and livelihood of the climate-vulnerable people.
According to a press release, NAP envisions reducing climate risks and vulnerability through effective adaptation strategies for fostering a resilient society ecosystem and stimulating sustainable economic growth.
In doing so, Bangladesh will materialise the NAP through the promotion of green growth strategies supported by sustainable nature-based solutions.
NAP is a locally-led process built upon ecosystem-based adaptation that will create a balance between economic growth and environmental sustainability.
The heat stays on: Earth hits 6th warmest year on record
Earth simmered to the sixth hottest year on record in 2021, according to several newly released temperature measurements.
And scientists say the exceptionally hot year is part of a long-term warming trend that shows hints of accelerating.
Two U.S. science agencies — NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — and a private measuring group released their calculations for last year’s global temperature on Thursday, and all said it wasn’t far behind ultra-hot 2016 and 2020.
Six different calculations found 2021 was between the fifth and seventh hottest year since the late 1800s. NASA said 2021 tied with 2018 for sixth warmest, while NOAA puts last year in sixth place by itself.
Scientists say a La Nina — natural cooling of parts of the central Pacific that changes weather patterns globally and brings chilly deep ocean water to the surface — dampened global temperatures just as its flip side, El Nino, boosted them in 2016.
Still, they said 2021 was the hottest La Nina year on record and that the year did not represent a cooling off of human-caused climate change but provided more of the same heat.
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“So it’s not quite as headline-dominating as being the warmest on record, but give it another few years and we’ll see another one of those” records, said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of the Berkeley Earth monitoring group that also ranked 2021 the sixth hottest. “It’s the long-term trend, and it’s an indomitable march upward.”
Gavin Schmidt, the climate scientist who heads NASA’s temperature team, said “the long-term trend is very, very clear. And it’s because of us. And it’s not going to go away until we stop increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
The last eight years have been the eight hottest on record, NASA and NOAA data agree. Global temperatures, averaged over a 10-year period to take out natural variability, are nearly 2 degrees (1.1 degrees Celsius) warmer than 140 years ago, their data shows.
The other 2021 measurements came from the Japanese Meteorological Agency and satellite measurements by Copernicus Climate Change Service i n Europe and the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
There was such a distinctive jump in temperatures about eight to 10 years ago that scientists have started looking at whether the rise in temperatures is speeding up. Both Schmidt and Hausfather said early signs point to that but it’s hard to know for sure.
“If you just look at the last the last 10 years, how many of them are way above the trend line from the previous 10 years? Almost all of them,” Schmidt said in an interview.
There’s a 99% chance that 2022 will be among the 10 warmest years on record and a 10% chance it will be the hottest on record, said NOAA climate analysis chief Russell Vose in a Thursday press conference.
Vose said chances are 50-50 that at least one year in the 2020s will hit 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming since pre-industrial times — the level of warming nations agreed to try to avoid in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
While that threshold is important, extreme weather from climate change is hurting people now in their daily lives with about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) warming, Vose and Schmidt said.
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The global average temperature last year was 58.5 degrees (14.7 Celsius), according to NOAA. In 1988, NASA’s then-chief climate scientist James Hansen grabbed headlines when he testified to Congress about global warming in a year that was the hottest on record at the time. Now, the 57.7 degrees (14.3 Celsius) of 1988 ranks as the 28th hottest year on record.
Last year, 1.8 billion people in 25 Asian, African and Middle Eastern nations had their hottest years on record, including China, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Iran, Myanmar and South Korea, according to Berkeley Earth.
The deep ocean, where most heat is stored in the seas, also set a record for warmth in 2021, according to a separate new study.
“Ocean warming, aside from causing coral bleaching and threatening sea life and fish populations, ... is destabilizing Antarctic ice shelves and threatens massive ... sea level rise if we don’t act,” said study co-author Michael Mann, a Pennsylvania State University climate scientist.
The last time Earth had a cooler than normal year by NOAA or NASA calculations was 1976. That means 69% of the people on the planet — more than 5 billion people under age 45 — have never experienced such a year, based on United Nations data.
North Carolina state climatologist Kathie Dello, 39, who wasn’t part of the new reports but said they make sense, said, “I’ve only lived in a warming world and I wish that the younger generations did not have to say the same. It didn’t have to be this way.”
Dhaka, Male’ to work together on climate change, regional security
Bangladesh and the Maldives on Saturday held the first-ever bilateral consultations reaffirming their commitment to work together in regional and multilateral fora, especially on issues of climate change and regional security.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen led the delegation at the bilateral consultations held in Male’ between Bangladesh and the Maldives. Foreign Secretary of the Maldives Abdul Ghafoor led the Maldives delegation.
The Maldivian sides sought support from Bangladesh for the recruitment of skilled human resources, including specialized doctors and nurses.
They also sought support from Bangladesh for specialized courses in higher education, especially the medical one.
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Both the Foreign Secretaries noted the excellent relations that exist between the two countries and reaffirmed to further strengthen that in the days to come.
Climate talks agree on 1.5 C cap efforts with last-minute compromise
U.N. climate talks closed Saturday with an agreement on efforts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels after a last-minute compromise on coal power.
Participants from nearly 200 countries also agreed that accelerated action is necessary this decade to address global greenhouse gas emissions, as they wrapped up the nearly two-week conference in Glasgow, which was extended by one day.
The agreement at the climate talks, known as COP26, was reached after India and other coal-reliant countries raised objections in last-minute negotiations, which watered down language to a commitment to the "phase-down" of coal power instead of "phase-out."
Alok Sharma, the president of COP26, said that confining temperature increase to 1.5 C above preindustrial levels is "a historic agreement" as it had been a major goal when Britain took on the role of the presidency-designate two years ago.
Read: Climate consensus appears near; India objects to coal plans
Still, "what this will be judged on is not just the fact that countries have signed up, but it will be judged on whether they meet and deliver on the commitments," he said.
Japanese Environment Minister Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, who attended the talks, said his country will maintain its policy of using coal power, though it will continue to promote the development of technology to reduce carbon emissions and "prioritize renewable energy as the main power source."
Japan has become more reliant on coal power after suspending nuclear power plants following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. It plans to generate 20 percent of total nationwide power through coal in fiscal 2030, in contrast to European countries' shift away from coal power.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who has urged world leaders to take immediate and drastic actions, tweeted, "The #COP26 is over. Here's a brief summary: Blah, blah, blah," adding, "the real work continues outside these halls."
Read: Climate talks resume, cautious coal phaseout still on table
The 2015 Paris accord sets out a global framework to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change by limiting global warming to "well below" 2 C, preferably to 1.5 C, compared with levels before the Industrial Revolution.
One of the goals of the COP26, the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, was to keep alive the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 C.
The participating countries must also review and strengthen their emissions-cut targets for 2030 by the end of 2022 under their agreement.