(Originally published here) The next head of the U.N. process to tackle climate change should come from one of the world’s poorest countries, which led an ambitious drive to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the new Paris deal, a leading expert has proposed. With Christiana Figueres stepping down as executive secretary of the U.N. climate change convention …

(Originally published here) As the implications of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change of 2015 become clear, financing of actions to tackle climate change on both the global and national level in every country will play a key role. These will, in turn, be influenced largely by the global and national political economy. In this article, I will try to …

(Originally published here) Money for fighting climate change was in focus at the closing session of Gobeshona – an annual Conference for Research on Climate Change in Bangladesh. The conference provided the opportunity for international and multi-stakeholder participants to engage with a wide range of Bangladesh-specific climate change research. John Timmons Roberts, Ittleson Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at …

(Originally published on Dhaka Tribune here) As a developing country and member of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group, Bangladesh is used to receiving development assistance from rich countries since our independence over four decades ago. This development assistance is received under what is commonly called Official Development Assistance (ODA). This has amounted to the tune of several billion dollars …

(This article originally published here) Ahead of the Paris climate summit (COP21), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board will decide which of the submitted proposals will receive the first round of funding at its 11th board meeting in Livingstone, Zambia (PDF) (2-5 November 2015).   But while there is a clear need for balancing decentralised solutions with traditional large-scale infrastructure projects, not …

(Article originally published here) As we approach the Paris climate summit in December the topic of climate finance is becoming more pressing. It was a major topic of the recent IMF meeting in Lima, Peru and will require the involvement of ministers of finance rather than environment to make decisions. The good news is that a political commitment of $100 …

(Article originally published on The Daily Star here) The recent Champion of the Earth award conferred upon Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was, significantly, a recognition of the struggle against climate change of the government and people of Bangladesh. Achim Steiner, the head of UNEP, in his citation mentioned both the Bangladesh Climate Change …

As the largest pot of climate funding available to developing countries, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) holds huge promise. As it enters into operation, national institutions, including government, can apply to access GCF’s resources ‘directly’. But the rigorous accreditation process appears a barrier to many, which coupled with unclear benefits is likely to undermine the zeal for direct access in …

(Article originally published on The Daily Star here) The recent award of Champion of the Earth conferred upon Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is a fitting recognition of her personal achievements, as well as that of the government and people of Bangladesh, in being a pioneer among nations in tackling climate change in particular. …

(This article was originally published here)   ‘The last pillar is the Lima-Paris agenda, also called the agenda of solutions’ The Conference of Parties, the COP, is the United Nations framework for Climate negotiations. In December 2015, Paris will host the next COP: COP21. COP21 is not “one more COP,” because humanity is at a turning point regarding climate risk. …