Collective efforts needed to combat climate change

No single nation, rich or poor, developed or underdeveloped, or even a region, can combat climate alone. This is a global problem and has to be dealt with globally through the collective efforts of nations. This point got due emphasis in the speech of President Abdul Hamid at the two-day ‘South Asian Judicial Conference on Environment and Climate Change’ organized by the Bangladesh Supreme Court, with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in the capital.
But the comity of nations which is trying to uphold the painfully-reached Paris Agreement shocked to see that the US president-elect Donald Trump has little seriousness over this great environmental concern. In his election campaign, Trump called climate change a ‘hoax’ perpetrated by China and he would withdraw US commitment from the Paris agreement if he was elected to power. The Paris agreement is not a binding treaty but individual nations, including US led by Barack Obama, here committed to keeping global temperature below two degree Celsius. 
Now if Donald Trump remains true to election campaign promise, materialization of hard-earned Paris Agreement would be in jeopardy. But contrary to what Donald Trump thinks climate change has become a burning problem for nations like Bangladesh which have little resources but already become victims of climate change. In Bangladesh super cyclones like Aila and Sidr, unusual floods and droughts have become frequent. And these natural vagaries are causing huge destruction to Bangladesh. Moreover, by 2050, experts are predicting that the large swaths of this deltaic region may go under water because of sea-level rise.
Bangladesh has little resources like other least developed countries—which have ironically little or no contribution to global warming—to combat the destructiveness of these climate-change-induced natural disasters. But it is one of the first countries that signed and ratified the Paris Agreement and also the first country to set up a Climate Change Fund of USD 400 million from its own resources. 
However, a US withdrawal from Paris agreement may make uncertain the UN climate change adaptation fund. That is why it is necessary that poorer countries like Bangladesh must make concerted efforts so that all nations work out the Paris Agreement in its letter and spirit.
On the individual front, Bangladesh should continue to make environment-friendly policy decisions. Despite all the positive steps Bangladesh has taken so far to combat climate change, it is very unfortunate that it has lamentably failed to bring back the naturalness of the country’s worst-polluted rivers including Buriganga, Shitalkhya and Turag, and successfully shift 
tanneries from capital’s Hazaribag to Savar. The rivers here are dying and the precious forest covers are being denuded. These must stop.        

 

Collective efforts needed to combat climate change

No single nation, rich or poor, developed or underdeveloped, or even a region, can combat climate alone. This is a global problem and has to be dealt with globally through the collective efforts of nations. This point got due emphasis in the speech of President Abdul Hamid at the two-day South Asian Judicial Conference on Environment and Climate Change organized by the Bangladesh Supreme Court, with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in the capital. But the comity of nations which is trying to uphold the painfully-reached Paris Agreement shocked to see that the US president-elect Donald Trump has little seriousness over this great environmental concern. In his election campaign, Trump called climate change a hoax perpetrated by China and he would withdraw US commitment from the Paris agreement if he was elected to power. The Paris agreement is not a binding treaty but individual nations, including US led by Barack Obama, here committed to keeping global temperature below two degree Celsius. Now if Donald Trump remains true to election campaign promise, materialization of hard-earned Paris Agreement would be in jeopardy. But contrary to what Donald Trump thinks climate change has become a burning problem for nations like Bangladesh which have little resources but already become victims of climate change. In Bangladesh super cyclones like Aila and Sidr, unusual floods and droughts have become frequent. And these natural vagaries are causing huge destruction to Bangladesh. Moreover, by 2050, experts are predicting that the large swaths of this deltaic region may go under water because of sea-level rise. Bangladesh has little resources like other least developed countrieswhich have ironically little or no contribution to global warmingto combat the destructiveness of these climate-change-induced natural disasters. But it is one of the first countries that signed and ratified the Paris Agreement and also the first country to set up a Climate Change Fund of USD 400 million from its own resources. However, a US withdrawal from Paris agreement may make uncertain the UN climate change adaptation fund. That is why it is necessary that poorer countries like Bangladesh must make concerted efforts so that all nations work out the Paris Agreement in its letter and spirit. On the individual front, Bangladesh should continue to make environment-friendly policy decisions. Despite all the positive steps Bangladesh has taken so far to combat climate change, it is very unfortunate that it has lamentably failed to bring back the naturalness of the countrys worst-polluted rivers including Buriganga, Shitalkhya and Turag, and successfully shift tanneries from capitals Hazaribag to Savar. The rivers here are dying and the precious forest covers are being denuded. These must stop.