IOM
will take place virtually between 25 and 27 May 2021 from 9:00 to 12:00 EST. Building on the 2008 and 2011 IDM meetings, this session focuses on “Accelerating integrated action on sustainable development: migration, the environment and climate change”. This comes at a time of increasing political urgency, and in view of the deep impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis linking climate and migration to current and future development issues.
Environmental change and disasters have always been major drivers of migration. However, climate change predictions for the 21st century indicate that even more people are expected to be on the move. Extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and storms, become more frequent and intense, and changes in precipitation and temperature patterns impact livelihoods and human security.
Contributed photo
QUEZON CITY, May 12 (PIA) Climate Reality leaders working on the development and deployment of energy in the country have expressed support to the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) plan to stop funding any coal-related projects and decommission coal-fired power plants in the Asia Pacific Region.
This plan was conveyed in the draft policy paper, entitled, “Supporting Low Carbon Transition in Asia and the Pacific,” which was released on the ADB website for public consultation. The said paper will be submitted to the ADB’s Board of Directors for consideration by October 2021.
Climate Reality Leader Sara Ahmed said that it is great to see that the ADB is finally following the global trend of clean energy transition. “Capital markets are shifting decisively towards cleaner investments. Over 145 globally significant financial institutions have coal exclusion policies and over 50 globally significant financial institutions are including oil and gas,” she note
Last week, I wrote in this daily about the need for Bangladesh to take a whole of society approach to international diplomacy on tackling climate change globally, rather than depending on the annual Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which meets only once a year for two weeks.
Climate change is now a global emergency which requires actions every single day, from all sectors of society, if we are to have any hope of averting its worst impacts. This is equally true at the national level, not just for Bangladesh, but for every country, especially the most vulnerable developing countries.
BenarNews
More than 1 million people will be displaced from low-lying areas along Bangladesh’s southern coast as sea levels rise, experts predict, although encroaching waters have already forced thousands to uproot permanently from their seaside homes.
Bangladesh is especially susceptible to sea-level rise because it is a low-lying country crisscrossed with rivers and already experiences frequent flooding during the summer monsoon season, a new study by the American Geophysical Union said. The study, based on mathematical models, predicts that 1.3 million people will be displaced by the year 2050.
“According to the new model, the districts in the south along the Bay of Bengal will be the first to be impacted by sea-level rise, causing a migration that will ripple across the country and affect all 64 districts. Some migrants will likely be rejected by the existing residents – or displace them – triggering further migrations,” said the report published in lat
One can argue that the issue of tackling climate change in Bangladesh has already achieved a whole-of-government approach, and is also rapidly moving towards a whole-of-society approach. However, our international diplomacy on tackling climate change also needs to develop both approaches.
What do these two terms mean, and how are they being rolled out? The whole-of-government approach means that not only ministries and departments, but also other branches such as local government, parliament, and even security and military apparatus, along with the judiciary, need to be involved. The whole-of-society approach means the additional inclusion of the private sector, media, academia, civil society and professional groups such as lawyers, doctors, planners and others.