The multi-million-dollar finance packages vary for each country, from $183 million for Barbados to $1.4 billion for Bangladesh, and recipients have different ideas of how they will spend the money.

The RST fund, set up last year, was aimed at redistributing affordable finance from rich to poorer countries, along with policy support to manage macro-economic climate risks. The IMF believes it can also catalyse essential private sector financing to boost climate action and to decarbonise financial markets.

Experts hailed the move as “pivotal” in helping vulnerable nations address the triple crises of debt, Covid and climate change, and said it could fill a gap in climate finance architecture.

Commenting on Jamaica’s $764 million agreement, Bo Li, deputy managing director and acting chair of the IMF board, said the funding would create incentives to “switch to renewables, reduce energy consumption, develop green financial instruments, and require proper management of climate risks in the financial sector”.

US backs Ajay Banga to lead World Bank in climate fight

But there was concern that the strings attached would exclude many nations in need. Countries need to show they can repay the loan to the IMF, present a package of policy measures for how they would use the support, such as carbon-cutting and adaptation measures, and already have a programme of policy reforms with the IMF.

‘Major accomplishment’

Ronan Palmer, clean economy director for think-tank E3G, took “great heart” from the fact that RST money had so far been approved for a diverse range of countries, including fossil producers such as Barbados, and countries at significant physical risk from climate change such as Bangladesh.

“This shows that the trust does have capacity to reach across the issues in climate,” he said.

He said Jamaica’s loan could help protect it against climate risk “so vital in a country at increasing risk of Caribbean storms” and its economy from the risks of transition.

“A small economy like Jamaica will be very exposed to the kind of price and exchange rate pressures that could come as the world moves on from fossil fuels, or changes production patterns, [for example] in the shift to EVs from internal combustion engines.” 

John Hicklin, non-resident fellow of the Center for Global Development and a former senior IMF official, wrote in a blog that getting this far was a “major accomplishment”.

But he said the conditions built into the loans would not necessarily help in their aim of helping countries become more resilient to external shocks and grow sustainably.

Austerity measures

Anaitee Mills, a sustainable development expert who helped develop Jamaica’s disaster risk financing policy, said the approval of that policy was one of the milestones it had to achieve to be able to draw money from the RST.

Other conditions, such as liberalising domestic power sectors or imposing strict public spending austerity measures, are more problematic.

Lara Merling, senior policy advisor at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center, said the RST does not resolve existing structural problems with IMF funding. According to its own report, only about a third of IMF programmes are ever completed.

“All of these programmes are fiscal consolidation, austerity-based programmes,” said Merling. “So it’s not exactly the type of programme that creates an environment that’s favourable to more investment and climate investment.”

World Bank backs mega dam threatening to displace thousands in Mozambique

The IMF hoped to lend $30 billion initially through the RST, increasing to $50 billion in the medium term. The first five packages approve about $3.4 billion of loans.

As of the end of February, however, no money had yet been disbursed, because it is contingent on the completion of other IMF programmes.

One expert told Climate Home News there had been low uptake for the RST so far because it had not been designed with the interests of the countries that really need it. It is not available to those without existing IMF programmes and the quota system means smaller countries have little to gain.

Furthermore, it can add to the underlying debt burden. This, the IMF itself recognises, exacerbates a country’s vulnerability to climate impacts because “debt problems reduce fiscal space for climate mitigation and adaptation investments”.

‘Vicious cycle’

A recent UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report warns against “a vicious cycle of perpetual vulnerabilities and economic stagnation” across indebted economies on the front lines of climate change, saying the two issues have to be tackled in tandem.

Merling said it was not clear how the fund would be evaluated in terms of climate resilience.

She noted that some countries have detailed ideas of how they will spend the money. Costa Rica, for example, plans to issue guidelines for climate budget tagging so that it can better integrate climate risks into its fiscal planning.

By comparison, Rwanda and Barbados refer to vaguer World Bank country climate development recommendations.

“No one will be upset about the idea of having cheaper long-term loans and climate is macro critical,” said Merling. “But how are they actually going to follow this type of conditionality and know if it really helping or not?”

Building global resilience

Critics also note that the sums involved are a drop in the ocean when compared to the huge amount required to build global resilience. UNEP estimates $340 billion will be needed every year for adaptation, but only about 7% of climate finance flows are currently spent in that direction.

Merling believes it is not enough for the IMF to sideline climate into one discrete fund, adding that all economic policy measures must allow countries to invest in climate resilience and emissions reductions.

“You can’t really have this little climate fund on the side and then in your main projects and operations just ignore climate or do things that leave countries behind from being able to finance their transition,” she said.

Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), a liberal Washington-based think tank, has a bolder suggestion to reform the IMF; give more decision-making powers to countries most affected by climate change and those that contributed least to the problem.

The post IMF approves first batch of climate resilience loans appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Beijing-headquartered development bank is considering support for a 584MW gas plant in Narayangonj on the outskirts of Dhaka. A report from the Bangladesh Power Development Board shows the plant will be fuelled by LNG.

Dwindling domestic gas resources, efforts to shift away from coal and phase out polluting diesel plants and the lack of renewable capacity has led Bangladesh to increasingly rely on LNG to meet its energy needs.

But soaring prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have left the South Asian nation priced out of the market and facing regular power outages.

“There’s no gas to supply this new power plant. It’s not justified and ridiculous,” Hasan Mehedi, secretary of the Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt, an alliance of 43 local organisations, told Climate Home News.

UAE plans to have it both ways as Cop28 climate summit host

Standard Chartered Bank is lead lender on the $613 million project, which is under construction. AIIB’s proposed contribution is a $110m loan.

To build the plant, project developer Unique Meghnaghat acquired 21 acres of agricultural land from local villages, affecting 343 landowners and fishers, according to project documents.

The fast-tracking process allows the bank’s president to greenlight support without going through the board. He could make the decision this month.

Paris alignment

AIIB found the project to be in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Petra Kjell Wright, a development finance campaigner at Recourse told Climate Home this was the first time the bank had mentioned a Paris alignment assessment. But it has not published its methodology.

The bank has pledged to fully align its operations with the Paris goals by July 2023. According to E3G analysts, it has work to do to get there.

The International Energy Agency has warned that “a huge decline in the use of fossil fuels” is needed to limit warming to 1.5C – the more ambitious end of the Paris Agreement’s goals.

Brazil’s incoming government set to scrap gas pipelines and power plants

The project documents show that renewable alternatives were barely considered. They state that renewable energy “remains a niche area that does not have the capacity to provide the power delivery at the scale and reliability in view of the existing power deficit scenario”.

Land scarcity, high initial cost and the lack of infrastructure for large-scale generation are listed as barriers.

Kjell Wright described the assessment as “very weak” and with “loopholes so big that a gas-power plant can jump through them”.

“This is public finance and taxpayers money and it should play a role in the trajectory towards renewable. Public finance should help countries leapfrog to renewables and not pull them back to the fossil fuel economy,” she said.

A spokesperson for AIIB said the project will help the government avoid using more polluting and less efficient plants and complement the development of renewable energy.

‘Clever framing’

Multilateral development banks, including AIIB, have been working on a joint framework to assess projects against the goals of the Paris Agreement.

A draft from November 2021 rules that mining or burning coal isn’t aligned with the Paris deal but it doesn’t explicitly exclude support for oil and gas. Instead, banks are asked to answer a series of broad questions to determine whether the project is Paris-compatible.

“With a bit of clever framing and number crunching, there are ways of showing that nearly every project apart from coal and peat is Paris-aligned,” said Sonia Dunlop of think tank E3G.

The approval of the Narayangonj gas project could set a precedent for how other MDBs assess similar project, she added. “This is hugely concerning”.

Last month, AIIB approved an updated energy strategy restricting financing for coal and oil projects and gas drilling. But it allows funding for gas infrastructure and power generation in certain circumstances, including if it displaces more polluting fuels and doesn’t displace clean ones.

Delaying the energy transition

More than half of Bangladesh’s electricity generation comes from gas, while grid-connected solar accounts for just over 1% of the mix.

To keep up with growing electricity demand, Bangladesh’s LNG imports have surged. A recent analysis by Ember found that, based on current plans, Bangladesh could spend $11 billion on spot market LNG between 2022 and 2024. Investments in solar power could have reduced this by a quarter and saved up to $2.7bn.

EU agrees law to crack down on deforestation in supply chains

Shafiqul Alam is the lead energy finance analysts for Bangladesh for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (Ieefa).

He told Climate Home: “Given high LNG prices on the international market and the fact Bangladesh is already facing a gas shortage… this is an opportunity for Bangladesh to transition and design a clear pathway for renewable energy.” Growing the fossil fuel pipeline will only delay that transition, he said. “The government should keep space for renewables and not invest in new LNG-based plants apart from the ones are under construction.”

As of August 2021, AIIB had invested $605m in the energy sector in Bangladesh. According to analysis by the Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt, none of this went to solar or wind projects.

Mehedi, of the working group, said Bangladesh had installed nine grid-connected solar plants. “Solar is bankable and profitable so why are we going for LNG?”

The post AIIB finds gas plant in Bangladesh compatible with Paris goals appeared first on Climate Home News.

Heavy rain began in northern Bangladesh and north-east India on Saturday, killing at least 32 people and forcing millions to flee from their homes.

The intensity of the rain took aid agencies and residents by surprise. “The flood caught us off guard because the extent was enormous,” WaterAid’s Bangladesh director Hossain Adib told Climate Home News.

“This is monsoon season but what climate change has resulted in is more than normal rainfall,” added Sudipto Mukerjee, Bangladesh representative at the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

A family in Sylhet sit in their flooded home (Photo: WaterAid/Drik/Sultan Mahmud Mukut)

Both Adib and Mukerjee told Climate Home that the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine had diverted funds away from their budgets.

UNDP’s disaster response and recovery facility, whose biggest funders are the UN, Sweden and Canada, had a budget of $11m in 2020. This fell to $7.5m in 2021 and $6.8m in 2022.

The dwindling funds are stretched increasingly thin. They have been used to provide protective equipment for Covid-19 and respond to the Rohingya refugee crisis as well as weather-related disasters.

The budget of the UNDP’s disaster response and recovery facility (Photo: UNDP/Screenshot)

With limited cash, mobile communications disrupted and the airport’s runway flooded, the Bangladeshi government and aid agencies are struggling to respond quickly to the emergency. Local community groups, including young climate activists affiliated to Fridays for Future, have stepped into the gap.

Siyam Afzal said he and other activists from YouthNet for Climate Justice launched an online appeal and used the money to buy food, medicine and drinking water to give people in overcrowded shelters. The intensity of the floods has left even designated ‘flood shelters’ flooded, meaning only a few are safe for people to us.

Hospitals too have flooded, making it harder for injured people to find medical care. Afzal met one child whose injured leg was splinted with a piece of bamboo and some plastic yarn.  “He was crying badly,” Afzal said.

An injured boy has a leg splint made from bamboo and plastic yarn. (Photo: Syed Afzal Siyam)

At the UN climate talks last week in Bonn, Germany, developing countries argued that the humanitarian aid system was inadequate to respond to climate disasters.

They pushed for a facility to be set up that would source funds from rich countries to help poorer ones respond and recover to climate disasters which they had a disproportionately small role in causing.

Developing countries pushed to get the issue on the formal agenda for the talks but were defeated by rich nation opposition.

In the wake of the floods, climate campaigners and humanitarian workers in Bangladesh called for developed countries to deliver loss and damage finance. Mukerjee, of UNDP, explained that Bangladesh has a good track record of rolling out measures that have minimised deaths from floods. But communities still suffer from losses and damages to infrastructure, including houses, schools, hospitals and roads.

“If there is a direct link between a disaster and climate change…there is a need for the global community to be able to help countries like Bangladesh deal with the consequences of climate change,” he said.

The post Ukraine and Covid leave aid agencies struggling to respond to Bangladesh floods appeared first on Climate Home News.

Loss and damage refers to harms and destruction caused by climate change impacts that cannot be avoided through mitigation or adaptation. It has been on the agenda of UN negotiations for many years, but the discussions on how to take action has been polarised in a way, which has prevented significant progress.

The Danish delegation visited Satkhira district to engage in dialogue with local people living on the front line of climate change. Broken embankments, salt water flash floods that wash away houses, salt intrusion in drinking water, low yields due to severe droughts or water logging after cyclones are increasingly a challenge.

The district of Satkhira is not alone. A recent report from DanChurchAid illustrates how poor households in southeast Asia must take loans when their belongings are washed away by flash floods, river erosion or the like.

Many have already migrated to slums in cities, as rebuilding and reconstruction is not an option. In Bangladesh, more than 50 million people are expected to be affected by climate change over the next 40 years, putting pressure on natural resources, biodiversity, and local communities.

Philippines inquiry finds polluters liable for rights violations, urging litigation

The economic impact of climate related disasters is huge. Studies indicate that costs related to loss and damage will rise to between $290 billion and $580 billion a year by 2030.

Other effects cannot be counted in money. People risk losing culture, history, and even identities, as climate change becomes a driver for displacement and migration. Entire regions will become uninhabitable. It is clear that there is a problem that we need to find joint solutions to.

While we all recognise the need for urgent action, a constructive dialogue on how to address the issue of loss and damage is still largely missing. We need to unlock the deadlocks in the climate negotiations and avoid discussions becoming even more polarised.

And in partnerships between governments, civil society and other sectors we need to find practical ways to address the risk of loss and damage facing millions of people globally. We must work towards making the Glasgow Dialogue on financing arrangements for loss and damage result in something concrete and deliverable.

The bill for loss and damage too often ends up being footed by the public budgets of the worst affected countries. The Climate Vulnerable Forum – which Bangladesh now chairs – announced last month through its V20 ministerial that it will pioneer its own international loss and damage financing mechanism to direct funds to communities hardest hit by climate disasters.

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up for free to get our weekly newsletter and occasional extra bulletins

The Santiago Network for Loss and Damage can also help catalyse support for loss and damage. We are all keen to get it up and running soonest.

This is why Denmark hosted the international UN Climate Change workshop on the operationalisation of the network in Copenhagen last week and it is why we all engage actively in the debate.

This is also the reason why Denmark has pledged a contribution to its technical assistance fund. We are confident that the workshop helped paved the way for making the network operational at Cop27.

Furthermore, Denmark will together with Egypt and UK, host a ministerial meeting about the implementation of the Glasgow Climate Pact this week in Copenhagen. The aim is to identify “deliverables” on the existing agreements, including on loss and damage – and to make sure that the results from the negotiation rooms are turned into results on the ground.

We need to get everyone on board if we want to halt climate change. We need constructive dialogue and concrete solutions. And we need to foster new innovative partnerships across sectors.

Only through dialogue, cooperation, and sharing of ideas, information, and experiences, we will be able to advance concrete initiatives that can help people, communities, and countries at risk. Our goal is to turn dead-end discussions into cooperation and action helping us all to manage climate induced loss and damage.

AK Abdul Momen is Bangladesh’s foreign minister, Flemming Møller Mortensen is Denmark’s minister for development cooperation and Birgitte Qvist-Sørensen is general secretary at DanChurchAid.

The post Why Denmark and Bangladesh are urging support for victims of climate disaster appeared first on Climate Home News.

The country’s power secretary Habibur Rahma decided to axe the planned coal-fired power plants with a combined power capacity of 7,461 MW at a monthly review meeting of the power sector, Bangladeshi newspaper the Daily Sun reported this week.

Analysts told Climate Home News that a number of factors have contributed to this decision, ranging from the high cost of imported coal to the drop in financial support from overseas investors. 

They said that exact details of Bangladesh’s transition away from coal are expected this summer, when the government outlines its power sector master plan. 

Bangladesh’s energy minister Nasrul Hamid told the Daily Sun that procuring coal had become a major problem after China struck a three-year supply deal in November to buy nearly $1.5bn worth of thermal coal from Indonesia — Bangladesh’s main coal supplier. 

And Bangladesh currently generates far more electricity than it needs. 

According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (Ieefa), Bangladesh used just 40% of its power plants’ capacity in the year 2019-2020, down from 43% the previous year. Even if it does not use the energy, Bangladesh’s Power Development Board has to pay costly subsidies to the power plant operators. 

“Increased reliance on LNG and coal imports will drive up the cost of power generation. That will lead to higher power tariffs for consumers or more unsustainable fossil fuel subsidies,” Simon Nicholas, an energy finance analyst at Ieefa, told Climate Home News. 

Fragile countries call for investment in rooftop solar to expand energy access

Bangladesh’s coal prospects have also been damaged by major financiers distancing themselves from dirty fossil fuel projects. The Asian Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have both signaled they will move away from backing coal. 

The region’s biggest coal financiers, Japan and South Korea, have started to curtail their support for overseas coal projects under mounting international pressure.

Several of South Korea’s biggest financial institutions have announced they will no longer provide support for overseas coal projects. Japan has said that in principle it will not fund any new coal plants, but campaigners say a host of exemptions suggest few actual changes to existing coal policies. 

“Foreign private companies and financial institutions are not interested in financing more coal power projects in Bangladesh due to their reputational risk,” Yuki Tanabe, programme director at the non-profit Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society, told Climate Home. 

“Bangladesh’s move will accelerate the end of coal-fired power projects in developing nations, built and financed by Japan and South Korea,” said Nicholas, of Ieefa. 

One of the coal projects that could be scrapped is a proposed 1,200 MW plant developed by Japanese energy company Sumitomo in Matarbari, south-eastern Bangladesh, according to the Daily Star report. The government has not yet disclosed the list of projects to be axed.

Mauritius oil spill: questions mount over ship fuel safety

Bangladesh’s role as chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a coalition of 48 developing countries on the frontlines of climate change, will have contributed to its decision to move away from coal, said Khondakker Golam Moazzem, research director of the Bangladeshi think tank Centre for Policy Dialogue. 

As chair of the forum, Bangladesh has called on vulnerable nations to set an example for big emitters by submitting ambitious climate goals. 

“As president of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, Bangladesh has committed to promoting renewable energy both at domestic and international levels,” Moazzem told Climate Home. “[It] would be unacceptable if it continues promoting coal-fired power plants at home.”

Just 1.5% of Bangladesh’s total energy mix is currently generated from domestic renewable sources, according to Moazzem. “Investment in renewable energy based grid power generation is slow… most of the ongoing projects are being delayed,” he said, adding that the government needs to introduce more financial incentives for renewables. 

Central America: Hit by hurricanes and Covid, millions go hungry and plan to migrate

News reports and previous government statements have suggested that Bangladesh may swap coal for LNG. Analysts say this is a risky strategy given the volatility of LNG pricing.

Bangladesh has already began building LNG import infrastructure and it could be about to double down on the fuel, Nicholas said. “Bangladesh has only just come through a period of very high LNG prices during which it was unable to secure cargoes or unwilling to pay high prices,” he added.

LNG is an unsustainable long-term solution for Bangladesh’s energy sector, analysts warn. Methane gas is commonly touted as a cleaner fuel than coal, because it emits around half the carbon dioxide when burned for energy. But methane, which can leak into the atmosphere during gas extraction or transport, contributes significantly to global warming. 

“It is environmentally polluting which is being ignored with the argument that it is less polluting compared to coal,” said Moazzem. 

The post Bangladesh scraps nine coal power plants as overseas finance dries up appeared first on Climate Home News.

Known until recently as “bunos” or jungle-clearers, the Munda people came to the country from Bihar state in India to help reclaim land for agriculture for zamindars (landowners) and dig lakes and ponds. They number around 5,000 in the coastal districts of Khulna and Satkhira.

In a region suffering from climate change impacts, the Munda are doubly disadvantaged by their minority status, lacking access to microfinance, benefits and employment opportunities available to others. An initiative to help them find alternative livelihoods has been shelved due to lack of funds.

Cyclone Amphan made landfall in western Bangladesh in May, triggering a tidal surge that overtopped the embankments and left fields flooded with saltwater for months. Over recent years, sea level rise and reduced river flow had made the soil increasingly salty, so rice could only be grown during monsoon season. After the storm, even that one annual crop became unviable across much of the region.

31-year-old Doyal Kumar Munda has fallen back on gathering resources from the forest, mainly crabs and fish.

“It is not enough for a balanced livelihood,” he told Climate Home. “Thirty years ago, my family had 20 acres of arable land. Now, we have only a homestead of 0.3 acres. Everything went as my parents sold land to meet the family’s needs.”

Doyal Kumar Munda catching fish in the shrimp land close to his house (Credit: Abu Siddique)

According to a 2015 study published by the Department of Environment, sea levels have been rising 6-20mm a year along the country’s coastline.

Between 1973 and 2009, 223,000 hectares of land has been affected by the intrusion of saline water, the Bangladesh Soil Resource Development Institute reports, a trend that continues today.

The impact can be seen in rice production data. There are three different growing seasons for rice in Bangladesh: Boro, Aman and Aush.

Between 2000-01 and 2014-15, Boro paddy cultivation in Khulna district fell from 210,000 acres to 121,000, a 42% drop, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Aush acreage fell nearly three quarters from 31,000 to 8,000. Aman, the most important crop, went from 851,000 to 247,000 acres, a 71% decrease over the same period.

As the sea encroaches on farmland, many are turning to fish, shrimp and crab farming, or rearing goats. Others migrate in search of seasonal work. But the Munda face extra barriers to these adaptation strategies.

Mangrove revival: How tree-planting is financing women’s businesses in Kenya

Varoti Munda and her husband Robindro Munda tried to lease some land to cultivate shrimp a few years ago, but were refused a loan by local micro-credit organisations.

Like Doyal, they are dependent on the mangroves, venturing into the forest two or three times a week for resources they can sell to support their three children.

Seeking anonymity, a manager of a local micro-credit lender said the Munda people often had no assets to guarantee repayment of a loan. “Creating opportunities for the poor and developing their living standard are our objectives,” the manager said. “At the same time, we need to get back our money from the borrowers.”

Munda have no representation in local or national government bodies. They often lack awareness of social security entitlements and are not selected by local administrators to benefit from government-run work programmes such as road maintenance.

As a 75-year-old widow, Razu Bala Munda is eligible for a widow allowance of 500 taka ($6) a month and an old age allowance of 800 taka ($9), but receives neither. “When there is an emergency like a cyclone, we receive some relief,” she tells Climate Home. “But I have no idea about widow or old age allowance.”

Doyal Kumar said: “We only receive such benefits after the mainstream people, who are part of the vote banks of the authority.”

Nurul Islam, chairman of Uttar Bedkashi Union, the local authority, acknowledged the community sometimes missed out, “which should not be”, he said.

Moving to the cities for work is not easy either. Samaresh Munda, 25, found a job three years ago at a factory making plastic items in Dhaka. He says he is paid 2,000 taka ($24) less than others for the same work and was initially refused accommodation in shared houses. “I struggled to make people understand that I am not different.”

Local campaign group Initiative for Right View (IRV) launched a project a few years ago to boost the Munda’s prospects, but it has been put on hold because the funding from Swiss donor Heks/Eper ran out.

“We tried to provide some alternative livelihood options like goat rearing and training on how to make compost fertilizer from household waste,” said Marina Juthi, programme coordinator of  Initiative for Right View (IRV). “However, we have lost the funding.”

This article is part of a climate justice reporting programme supported by the Climate Justice Resilience Fund.

The post In Bangladesh, the marginalised Munda face extra barriers to climate adaptation appeared first on Climate Home News.

At a virtual Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) event on Wednesday, Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina called on countries on the frontlines of climate change to set an example to big emitters.

Last month Hasina took over as chair of the forum, a coalition of 48 developing countries vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. It is her second time chairing the committee – she previously held the position between 2011-2013.

At the event, Hasina stressed the importance of submitting increased climate targets, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), to the UN by midnight on 31 December 2020.

“The time to act is not tomorrow but today. We are destroying the support systems that are keeping us alive. This is a clear point of no return,” Hasina said. 

South Korea pursues Vietnamese coal plant, drawing international criticism

Low-lying Bangladesh is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change and sea level rise. Last month the country suffered severe flash floods, following its heaviest rain in almost a decade.

Hasina said Bangladesh opened a global climate adaptation office in its capital Dhaka last month to bolster climate resilience in the region. The country spends around $2 billion, 1% of its GDP, each year on climate adaptation programmes, including planting millions of trees and flood-resistant crops.

Despite her call to action, Hasina did not announce when Bangladesh would deliver its updated climate plan.

Under the Paris Agreement, signatories are expected to update their climate pledges every five years, starting in 2020. To date, 13 have delivered, covering 3.6% of global emissions.

The Marshall Islands, the former chair of the climate forum, was the first CVF nation to submit an updated NDC in November 2018, setting a goal of slashing emissions 58% below 2010 levels by 2035, on a path to net zero in 2050. 

“I see the pandemic as a testament of our ability as humans to adapt and to also give us the opportunity to build back better. Better though is an empty promise, unless we put a fight against climate change within the response and recovery,” president of the Marshall Islands David Kabua said during the event on Wednesday.

Saudi-led G20 energy statement backs fossil fuel bailouts

Rwanda and Vietnam have also submitted new NDCs over the past two years. This leaves 45 CVF countries that still need to update their targets.

Matthew McKinnon, lead advisor on the Climate Vulnerable Forum at the Global Center on Adaptation, told Climate Home he did not know when other members planned to submit their updated plans.

Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon told the forum that global emissions need to be cut by 7.6% a year over the next decade for the toughest 1.5C temperature limit of the Paris Agreement to remain within reach. 

“We need to redouble our efforts before we pass the point of no return,” he said “If the poor and most vulnerable [countries] are acting then so can any nation.” 

The NDCs set out by countries in 2015 will collectively lead to a 2-3C rise in global warming and must therefore be updated, Ban said. He added that cities such as Bangladeshi capital Dhaka “will simply cease to exist in a three-degree world.”

The post Bangladesh urges countries to ramp up climate ambition by 2020 deadline appeared first on Climate Home News.

Bangladesh’s minister of power, energy and mineral resources, Nasrul Hamid, surprised energy watchers recently when he said the country is planning to ‘review’ all but three of 29 planned coal plants.

“We are keeping the three coal-fired power plants that are under construction. At present, we are aiming for [40 to 41GW of total generation capacity], where only 5GW is coal based,” said Minister Hamid during a webinar run by the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

“We are reviewing how we can move from coal-based power plants.”

Bangladesh has one of the largest coal power pipelines in the world, a total of 29 power plants amounting to 33.2GW of capacity, according to a 2019 study by an Australian organisation that tracks fossil fuel investment.

If the minister’s comments become government policy, up to 26 power plants accounting for 28GW of capacity could be put under review. That’s 90% of the coal pipeline.

Climate wins in court – Climate Weekly

“It would dramatically swing the nation’s power development away from coal,” said Simon Nicholas, energy finance analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

“Coal power is no more a cheap option and it’s becoming more expensive for imported coal. Hence, the government is reconsidering its earlier plan on coal-power generation in its energy mix”, Mohammad Hossain, director general of the ministry’s research body, Power Cell, commented in the webinar, echoing Minister Hamid’s suggestion to review coal power plans.

The costs of renewables have been undercutting coal for years and recent price crashes in oil and gas mean that these two fossil fuels are now also price competitive with coal.

Bangladesh’s coal power dream would also be highly dependent on imports of both equipment and coal, an expense and a liability in the age of Covid-19-induced lockdowns and supply chain disruptions.

In addition, Bangladesh’s Power Development Board must also pay costly subsidies to operators of underutilised power plants in the form of “capacity payments”.

With a coal power utilisation rate of just 43%, from 2018-19 the government reportedly burned US$1.1 billion in payments to power plant operators. One third of the energy ministry’s budget has been allocated to capacity payments for idle power plants in the 2020-2021 financial year.

Analysis: For all its green talk, the IEA still gives comfort to oil and gas producers

With the IMF predicting that GDP growth in Bangladesh could slip to just 2% this year, compared to a pre-Covid forecast of 7.4%, power demand is expected to be lower, meaning capacity payments will continue to rise unless steps are taken to revise plans for new capacity.

Power Cell’s Hossain also acknowledged in the webinar that the government will need to review the country’s power system masterplan considering the radically changed outlook for the economy and power demand.

The 29 coal power plants currently in Bangladesh’s pipeline are at varying stages of development.

The three that Minister Hamid suggested will continue as planned – Rampal, Matarbari and Payra – have entered construction and are nearing completion.

Their financiers include Chinese, Japanese and Indian export credit and international cooperation agencies. Other projects have signed engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deals, equity investment deals or are only at the stage of memoranda of understanding.

Coal power was seen as a solid investment that could deliver stable returns from operating plants. But Minister Hamid’s comments last month will be of concern to investors and contractors.

EPC companies could lose out on a lot of business in one of their most promising markets, although they may be eligible for partial compensation under force majeure and other insurance clauses.

Equity investments in coal plants that do not reach the commissioning stage will also suffer losses.

Insurers will also feel the ripple effects, according to Wang Yan, an independent researcher in environmental, social and governance performance of companies. The minister’s comments “are like a red light” to these companies, warning them that “coal power plants are not a comfortable and profitable deal anymore”, she said.

The companies who have signed the most EPC deals for coal power plants in Bangladesh include Power China, China Energy Engineering Corporation, and First Northeast Electric Power.

Air travel to bounce back faster in domestic markets, industry forecasts

Though of a much larger scale than elsewhere, Bangladesh’s potential pivot from coal is not an isolated incident this year. In June, the 700MW Qasim coal power project in Pakistan was cancelled, in large part due to lack of demand.

A number of Vietnam’s coal power projects, long plagued with financing and construction start problems, are also looking increasingly unfeasible in the post-Covid world.

In a consultation session held earlier this month, Vietnam’s Energy Institute suggested that the country’s next decade-long power plan due to come into force next year could see up to 9.5GW of planned coal capacity cancelled and 7.5GW postponed until at least 2030, about half of the country’s total planned coal power.

IEEFA’s Simon Nicholas notes that these shifts on the demand side also raise huge uncertainties for the region’s number one coal exporter, Indonesia, which has been banking on growth markets in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Pakistan as the Chinese and Indian markets shrink.

The review of coal power review may not be all good news for the climate though.

Guterres confronts China over coal boom, urging a green recovery

Firstly, three large coal power plants, amounting to 5GW of capacity, will still be connected to the grid, increasing Bangladesh’s carbon emissions and requiring costly capacity payments.

Secondly, as indicated by Minister Hamid in the Centre for Policy Dialogue webinar, the government is likely to turn from coal to liquid natural gas (LNG), a fossil fuel that is more or less equal to coal in terms of greenhouse gas emissions when accounted for on a whole-lifecycle basis.

Given current overcapacity in the power sector, LNG plants would also likely lie idle and be a drain on the ministry’s budget.

Some Bangladeshi researchers and advocacy groups, such as Transparency International Bangladesh and Waterkeepers Bangladesh, are pushing for an alternative power sector development path that would radically expand renewables.

There is some interest in developing renewables in the country and from foreign investors. Last month, Power China signed an EPC contract to develop 500MW of solar and wind energy in Bangladesh, the largest ever addition of renewable capacity in the country.

However, on paper the government remains cautious about renewables expansion, with their 2016 forecast signalling a negligible role for renewables through to 2041.

Minister Hamid’s comments at the end of June, echoed by several high-level energy officials, may signal a huge shake-up in the Bangladeshi energy sector.

For now, though, the government needs to be clearer about how it is “reviewing” coal power plans, how many of the 29 plants may be on the chopping board, and what it proposes to do instead.

Tom Baxter works on climate communications and research at China Dialogue. Tweets @TomBaxter17

The post Bangladesh considers scrapping 90% of its coal power pipeline appeared first on Climate Home News.

Yet in its fourth year in operation, it is becoming increasingly clear that its promises to take action against climate change have been left unfulfilled.

As the bank’s annual meeting kicks off in Luxembourg this week, the accolades have silenced, and instead a murmur of protest against its fossil fuels heavy portfolio is becoming louder.

The numbers speak for themselves. Out of just over $8 billion investments approved to date, the AIIB has put 20% into fossil fuels against just 8% for renewables. This excludes indirect financing through so-called financial intermediaries, such as private equity funds, which if included, would increase the fossil fuel numbers.

China scrubs its coal projects from ‘world heritage in danger’ decision

Low-lying and coastal, Bangladesh is on the front line of sea level rise and other climate change impacts. As a founding member of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, the country has been at the forefront of efforts to advocate for a recognition of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels as the maximum ‘safe’ limit to global temperature increases.

The government is also acting at home. For example, in 2008 it set a target to supply 10% of its energy from renewable energy sources by 2020.

A tenth of AIIB’s approved projects to date are in Bangladesh, all in the energy sector. But despite the country’s laudable ambitions to tackle climate change, the AIIB has so far not invested in a single renewable energy project.

A new report by Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network (Clean), NGO Forum on ADB and BIC Europe reveals that the AIIB’s portfolio in Bangladesh instead is clearly biased towards fossil fuels.

Much of this is support for natural gas, including for Bhola IPP, a greenfield gas power plant, and indirect support through a financial intermediary goes to heavy fuel oil plants, too.

Climate news straight to your inbox? Sign up here

In its 2017 energy sector strategy, the AIIB argues that gas is a key component for some countries’ transition towards a low-carbon economy. Disturbingly, despite its ‘green’ rhetoric, the strategy does not actually rule out support for any type of fossil fuel, even coal.

With no renewable energy projects in its Bangladesh portfolio, the heavy focus on gas can’t just be explained as a ‘transition fuel’ – in fact it has become a dangerous distraction. Power purchase agreements between power plants, such as Bhola, and the Bangladesh government often stretch over at least 20 years. This goes well beyond 2030, when global greenhouse gas emissions should be cut at least 45% from 2010 levels to avoid “long-lasting or irreversible changes” to our planet, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The AIIB points to challenges with supporting renewable energy in Bangladesh, such as limited land availability and a lack of bankable projects. While the AIIB can only choose between projects put forward by the host country, it needs to do more to signal its interest in funding renewables and energy access for the poor to encourage the Bangladeshi government to propose these types of projects and not fossil fuel infrastructure.

Green Climate Fund removes veto power over climate projects

Other multilateral development banks have done things differently. While there is still a long way to go, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank support a renewable energy initiative which has installed almost 5 million solar home systems in the country. The programme has also helped women by training them as technicians for after sales services.

The review of the AIIB’s Bangladesh portfolio reveals other problems, too. Some of the local people have been pushed off the project sites, with little or no compensation. Project information has been difficult to access and some has been strewn with errors. Local communities have expressed significant concerns for the projects’ impacts on the local environment.

It would be easy to blame China, as home of the bank and the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. But Europe and other countries around the world play a part too. The annual meeting in Luxembourg, the first to be held outside of Asia, is a testament to this. European governments hold 22% of shares in the AIIB. Many of these governments have stringent commitments to move away from fossil fuels and some, such as the UK, have declared a climate emergency.

It is therefore not surprising that as delegates arrive, many European civil society activists are joining hands with their Asian counterparts, to send a loud and clear message that the AIIB must steer a clear path away from fossil fuels and start tackling the climate crisis.

Petra Kjell is campaigns manager at Bank Information Center Europe

The post AIIB must stop backing gas in climate-hit Bangladesh appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Green Climate Fund’s (GCF) hefty paperwork demands pose a major barrier to finance bodies in developing countries, experts said.

Only one Bangladeshi institution, Infrastructure Development Company Limited (Idcol), has won accreditation to partner with the GCF so far. It had to upload 188 documents in a process that took almost two years, according to a government official.

“This is one of the biggest problems with the GCF,” said Mohammad Iftekhar Hossain, who has responsibility for coordinating GCF activities in the country. “It doesn’t matter that we are one of the most vulnerable countries [to climate change]… it is still hard to get the money.”

Another Bangladeshi body, Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation, is hoping to get accredited in November. A third, the Local Government Engineering Department, is receiving “readiness” support from the GCF to prepare it for applying in future.

Out of 54 institutions the GCF has signed up to receive cash, 24 are national entities. Most of these are only entrusted with handling small or micro projects.

Report: Sick of waiting, poor countries prepare to fight climate change alone

This leaves people exposed to rising seas, flood, drought and intensifying tropical storms reliant on big multilateral funders to deliver the bulk of support. Yet even established development banks have been slow to get money moving.

An $80 million project led by Germany’s KfW to build disaster shelters in coastal Bangladesh was among the first to get GCF approval in October 2015. Not a penny has yet been disbursed.

Meanwhile, Hossain said, other sources of development finance in the area are drying up in anticipation of the GCF scheme.

Then there is a bid led by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to provide clean drinking water in places affected by saltwater intrusion. It was withdrawn before the GCF board could reject it last December, after some members questioned its climate credentials. UNDP is reviewing the proposal.

Some at the conference, organised by Transparency International Bangladesh, advocated bypassing the UN bureaucracy.

“If you have engaged with people and do not come back to them within 6-8 months, you have lost their trust already,” said Sandeep Roy Choudhury, head of climate finance at VNV Advisory Services in India. “You talk to a farmer about an adaptation project in 2014, you come back in 2017 and say ‘we are ready to do it’, he has already lost five crop cycles.”

VNV is finding finance for community-based adaptation projects, 80% of it from the private sector, said Choudhury: “Let the different policy players do what they do… but there is a huge space still left at the mid- and the micro-level project. And that can make a huge difference, in my opinion.”

Report: Cash begins trickling out of Green Climate Fund

Others said that while the GCF process might seem onerous, in the longer term institutions would benefit from raising their reporting standards.

“It is quite a challenge meeting the requirements of the GCF,” said Firdaus Ara Hussain, climate finance governance advisor at GIZ, a German development bank. For example, the GCF asks for financial statements. Bangladesh’s environment department, which wants to be able to disburse GCF money, does not routinely produce that information.

But she added: “Through the GCF, we are in a climate-resilient development pathway. If we did not have the GCF, we might not have got so far in the process. Through the experience of the GCF, we are also gaining the scope of applying to other international funds.”

Responding to the criticisms, GCF spokesperson Michel Smitall said the process was intended to uphold fiduciary principles and environmental and social safeguards.

“The fund will continue to maintain these high standards, while recognising the ongoing dynamic between speedy administration and due diligence,” he said. At the board’s latest meeting in July, it took decisions to “streamline” the process, Smitall added.

Comment: Climate adaptation cash is failing to reach the poorest; here’s how to fix it

Set up alongside the Paris climate agreement as a symbol of solidarity and cooperation, the GCF has particular political significance. Developed and developing countries are equally represented on the board, deciding how to spend its pledged $10 billion starting capital.

Yet a lack of institutional capacity remains an obstacle to poorer countries pushing their priorities.

The poorest countries are most concerned with with adaptation: protecting citizens from a hostile climate they did little to create. A third of Bangladesh was this year flooded by particularly heavy monsoon rain, destroying an estimated 100,000 homes. The country’s GDP growth over the past four decades has been suppressed 0.5-1% a year by repeated weather-related disasters, the World Bank estimates.

Donor governments, on the other hand, tend to be more interested in mitigation: putting the developing world on a clean energy path so it does not make the problem worse for everyone. The private sector also skews towards carbon-cutting ventures, which offer more opportunities for profit.

To date, 27% of the $2.2bn committed by the GCF is purely focused on adaptation. Another 32% claims to be cross-cutting. That figure includes a controversial hydropower refurbishment project in Tajikistan, on the basis that it will prepare the facility for greater variation in river flow.

Mizan Khan, professor at Dhaka’s North South University and climate finance negotiator, said it was important to show how adaptation benefitted the international community. “We need to reconceptualise adaptation as a global issue if we are going to get the funding,” he said.

The post Climate-hit Bangladesh struggling to access UN green funds appeared first on Climate Home News.

Rice paddies have been filled in with silt to create a base for Rampal power station, 14km from the Bangladeshi Sundarbans, a vibrant mangrove forest and world heritage site. Construction has yet to start.

The government of Bangladesh is claiming victory over green activists after Unesco last week conditionally dropped its opposition to the 1,320MW plant.

In 2016, Unesco urged the authorities to relocate the power station, saying it threatened the unique ecosystem. At a meeting in Krakow, Poland on Thursday, its World Heritage Committee softened that stance, giving an 18-month deadline to address certain environmental concerns.

“It is because of our goodwill and capacity, Unesco has lifted its objection on the construction of mega power plant,” said Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, energy advisor to the prime minister, as reported by the national Daily Star newspaper. Finland and Turkey were among 12 nations to voice their support for the plant, he said.

Report: UN tells Bangladesh to halt mangrove-threatening coal plant

Ultra-supercritical technology will be used to mitigate the environmental impact of the plant, he added. “The Sundarbans saves us from natural disasters; we will do nothing that harms her.”

Mohor Ali Sheikh is loitering with his flatbed moto-rickshaw outside the site entrance when Climate Home visits. He gets 50 taka ($0.62) to transport workers here from the main road.

“I have no idea what problems there will be if a coal-laden ship sinks,” he says, asked about one of the risks associated with the project. “But I know that this power plant gives me the opportunity to earn more money.”

In Foylabazar, the nearest settlement, two shrimp farmers taking breakfast express worries about the potential impact of fly ash on their seafood harvest. Fly ash is a fine dust that issues from power station chimneys. It contains heavy metals that can contaminate water sources if not filtered out.

Komolesh Halder, flipping roti on a hotplate, is ambivalent. He has heard the environmental concerns about the plant, but says more than 200 locals have got jobs there: “They are happy.”

The Sundarbans may be only 14km away, but there is no road connection to Foylabazar. It takes an hour by boat, a journey few people from here have cause to make. To them, its wildlife is a distant concern.

Climate Weekly: Sign up for your essential climate news update

There is more vocal opposition to be found in regional capital Khulna.

“Most of the people of this region, they are against this plant, because it will kill the environment,” says city mayor Moniruzzaman Moni, speaking before the latest news emerged from Unesco’s meeting in Poland. “We have only one Sundarbans.”

Indian company Bharat Heavy Electricals won the building contract for the $1.7 billion plant earlier this year, while state-owned Coal India is reportedly in line to supply 4m tonnes of coal annually.

From the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Moni accuses the government of suppressing democratic protest to protect its relationship with India. “They are not listening to their own people’s voice as well as the environmental specialists. Yes, we need [electricity] but we need the Sundarbans also.”

Hasan Mehedi of Khulna-based NGO Clean (Pic: Megan Darby)

Surrounded by ecology books at the office under his home, Hasan Mehedi of local NGO Clean cheerfully describes several visits from the police. They harassed staff, seized campaign literature and forced him to change the venue of a photo exhibition, he says.

Representing his NGO, he cannot criticise the government, on pain of having its registration revoked. “I only want to protect the Sundarbans,” he says. “If they do that, we don’t have a problem.”

Mehedi rolls out his latest poster, which shows various health problems associated with burning coal. That is one line of advocacy. The plight of dolphins and the endangered Bengal tiger is another. The delta forests are home to nearly one fifth of all Bengal tigers left on earth.

Then there is the forest economy. An estimated 300,000 people make a living from the mangroves, according to Mehedi. They catch fish and crab, gather honey in season or nypa palm for thatching roofs.

Report: Bangladesh faces food supply crunch after flash floods

The mangroves are a major source of income in Gabura, on the cusp of the Sundarbans. It is not connected to the electricity network. Around four out of five households have solar panels.

Zainab Begum, a 40-year-old woman collecting water from a village pond, says her 20W system has broken. She bought it five years ago for 12,000 taka (roughly $150). The price has come down, but nowhere near as dramatically as for large-scale solar farms: it is now 10,000 taka ($124).

When it is working, the magazine-sized panel runs two lightbulbs for four hours a day. “The light is dim. I can’t see an insect if it falls in the rice,” says Begum. “I want grid power.”

Zainab Begum wants grid electricity (Pic: Megan Darby)

At the last count in 2014, 38% of Bangladeshis had no electricity access. Power outages are common.

The country needs more electricity, accepts activist Mehedi. “When we organise any movement in Khulna or the area, on that day, the power is cut in Khulna city, to show that you need the power plant,” he says. But increasing generation capacity does not automatically lead to wider distribution – and he does not want to see the Sundarbans industrialised.

The Rampal power venture goes hand in hand with the opening of an industrial zone at nearby Mongla port, to produce cement, leather and tyres among other things.

To meet Unesco’s approval, the Bangladesh government must put all industrial development in the southwest on hold pending a strategic environmental assessment of the region, including the Sundarbans.

In a message to Climate Home after the meeting, Mehedi says he is “disappointed” with Unesco’s move, but notes it is only a draft decision. “Still there is hope.”

Abu Siddique contributed to this report by arranging interviews and translating from Bengali

The post Hope and anger in Bangladesh as Unesco reverses coal plant opposition appeared first on Climate Home News.

Despite agreeing to shift $100bn each year in climate finance by 2020 under the Paris climate deal, wealthy countries have quibbled and delayed. As of June, 43 developed countries and nine of their developing counterparts had pledged just $10.13 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

Under the direction of president Donald Trump, the US is set to renege on the majority of its $3bn pledge and looks certain to send no more money to help with climate change until there is a change in the Oval Office.

In the face of a likely shortfall by 2020, poor countries must simultaneously lobby for the rich to meet their obligations and begin to develop their own plans to cope with climate change, said Julius Mbatia, who is representing African civil society organisations at the GCF’s board meeting in Songdo, South Korea this week.

Climate Weekly: Sign up for your essential climate news update

“While climate change still hits developing countries hard, some of these countries are already taking action… They are setting up policy systems to facilitate local finance mobilisation for sustainable climate financing,” said Mbatia, adding: “Some developing countries are already setting aside a percentage of budgetary allocations for climate actions.”

Drought-hit Kenya is one of the countries taking the lead. The Kenya Climate Change Act 11 of 2016 establishes a national climate change fund, which draws its funding from the national coffers. The fund will provide loans and grants aimed at fostering low-carbon development and protecting the vulnerable against the increasingly variable climate. The size of the fund is still being decided.

Ethiopia and Rwanda are other African countries that have set up such funds. Rwanda’s National Climate and Environment Fund is expected to provide up to $20-30m each year.

Bangladesh was the first among developing countries to set up a climate change resilience fund, which has already spent $400m from the national budget on climate change initiatives.

“Country finance mobilisation will obviously make a difference. But this does not replace the reality and principle of the convention, upheld in the Paris Agreement, that developed countries should provide financial support to developing countries to meet the huge cost of adaptation actions,” said Mbatia.

Thembinkosi Dlamini, Oxfam South Africa economic justice lead, urged governments from developing countries to reorient the whole of their budgets to prioritise the transition to low carbon development and adaptation.

“[External funding] is taking forever to materialise and even when it does, nothing will change if recipient countries policies are not re-created to be climate smart,” he said.

Report: Universities in global south aim to end reliance on western experts

Dlamini said by reviewing energy policy in light of climate change concerns, a developing country’s energy mix could be realigned toward renewables. This means new foreign investments will favour that direction.

Donor countries are known to prescribe policy for funds recipients and direct them at certain technology that favours the donor countries in order to drive sales of their products, he said.

“Developing country governments should retain their autonomy during the process of transitioning to low carbon economy,” said Dlamini.

He makes this point at a time when NGOs have petitioned the GCF board for playing semantics when deciding on which projects to fund. This follows the board’s decision not to fund two proposed adaption projects from Bangladesh and Ethiopia arguing that they were developmental, rather than climate-related. NGOs argue that there is no difference and economic development equates to a more climate-resilient community.

While all countries would have to commit resources to the fight against global warming, developed countries are mostly responsible for the greenhouse gases driving climate change, said Climate Action Network policy coordinator on financial flows Anoop Poonia. He added that they also have the expertise and wealth available to support their developing counterparts,

But donor countries have made their support conditional, he said, preferring to encourage investment from the private sector, rather than stumping up their own cash. In reality, many climate-vulnerable countries still lack capacity to attract or absorb private finance and rely heavily on aid to meet their basic needs.

Poonia said the rich world needed to provide at least $35bn each year, as grants, by 2020.

The post Sick of waiting, poor countries prepare to fight climate change alone appeared first on Climate Home News.

In the run-up to the budget announcement, the idea was floated as a way of raising revenue and addressing climate change. It was hailed by international commentators as a sign of leadership from one of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries to global warming.

But the only green initiative in the final version, presented by finance minister AMA Muhith, was a tax break for garment factories that meet international green building standards.

Officials from government agencies told Climate Home politicians did not want to risk increasing the cost of living ahead of an election scheduled next year.

Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), said: “The government has completely avoided the environmental concern though it was urgent to tackle the negative impacts of climate change, rather it focused on election by widening the coverage of popular schemes.”

What is more, Muhith doubled an import duty on solar panels from 5% to 10%, citing the development of domestic manufacturing.

Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, an independent evaluator of Green Climate Fund, criticised the mixed messages. “The government should decide what it wants,” he told Climate Home. “Sometimes it takes the initiative for tackling climate change and sometimes it goes against it, which is ridiculous.”

Report: Bangladesh faces food supply crunch after flash floods

The World Bank estimates that if Bangladesh imposed a tax of $5 on each tonne of carbon dioxide, it could generate $2.4 billion annually which is 1% of the country’s GDP.

Zahid Hussain, lead economist of the World Bank office in Dhaka, told Climate Home the bank advised government to cap revenue at the same level as existing fuel taxes.

Under this proposal, the overall burden on consumers would not increase, just shift to discourage use of more polluting fuels. For example, he said, “some grades of diesel have high emission rate and it can have higher taxes per litre. This mechanism will ultimately reduce the use of diesel as well as emissions.”

But energy and transport interests lobbied against the proposal, saying it would hike costs.

According to the government’s power division data, around 30% of the country’s power generation is dependent on diesel and furnace oil, which is dirtier than natural gas. The Bangladesh Power Development Board in March announced price increases of 7% to 11%.

Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation currently charges 65 taka for a litre of diesel or kerosene, while petrol is more expensive at 86 taka.

Joynul Abedin, a member of Bangladesh Bus, Truck Owners Association, said: “We welcomed the government’s decision for not imposing extra tax like carbon tax as it would increase the transportation cost.”

Bangladesh is one of the most exposed countries in the world to the impacts of climate change, with millions of people living in low-lying coastal areas threatened by rising seas and tropical cyclones. The government estimated in its submission to the Paris climate deal adapting to these impacts would require $40 billion by 2030.

It contributes little to the problem: the carbon footprint of an average Bangladeshi is around one twentieth that of an American. Under its Paris pledge, Bangladesh aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5% by 2030 compared to business as usual, rising to 15% with international support.

As part of an informal grouping of countries on the front line of global warming impacts, it declared an aspiration to go further – ultimately aiming for 100% renewable energy.

The post Bangladesh backtracks on carbon tax proposal ahead of election year appeared first on Climate Home News.

Unusually heavy pre-monsoon rainfall submerged 400,000 hectares of wetland in the northeast of the country, damaging some 2 million tonnes of rice.

It is already having an impact on the market. Agricultural economist Quazi Shahabuddin, former head of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, told Climate Home it will cause suffering across the country this year.

A kilogram of coarse rice costs 38 Bangladeshi taka ($0.57), a 58% hike since the same period in 2016, according to official data.

The government is planning to procure 600,000 tonnes of rice from countries including India and Thailand, the first time in six years it has relied on international markets. The food department has put out a tender for the first 100,000-tonne tranche.

“The sudden flash flood has forced us to do that,” explained Badrul Hasan, director general of the food department.

Weekly briefing: Sign up for your essential climate news update

The affected districts Netrokona, Sunamganj, Brahmanbaria, Moulovibazar, Hobignaj, Kishoreganj and Sylhet are located at the foothills of Indian Meghalaya and Assam states.

Known as “haor” or wetland, this region is typically inundated every year in mid-May and stays underwater for six months.

The problem this year was not the volume of rain, but the timing. Flash floods came at the end of March, before the farmers had harvested the “boro” crop they rely on for their annual income.

“My 6 acres of boro paddy has completely been submerged  under water, which ultimately made my family destitute,” said Mala Rani Biswas, a farmer from Sunamganj district.

“It is clear to me that the coming days will be harder because we have lost our crop and we have to wait for one more year to recover that,” she said.

An embankment designed to protect rice paddies is breached by flash floods (Pic: Abu Siddique)

March, April and May is pre-monsoon season in Bangladesh and India, while the monsoon prevails from June to September.

This year saw unusually high pre-monsoon rainfall both in Bangladesh’s haor basin and upriver across the border in India.

On the Bangladesh side, March rainfall was more than three times the average – 905mm instead of 275mm, according to official data. This was followed by 1,748mm in April, compared to a typical 720mm.

The Indian Meteorological Department recorded higher than normal rainfall across the northeast of the country from the beginning of March to mid-May. That swelled rivers, contributing to the havoc downstream.

Rainfall data upstream of the flooded area (Source: Indian Meteorological Department)

Saleemul Huq, director of International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), said models of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions predicted greater variability in rainfall for Bangladesh.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified Bangladesh in its last comprehensive assessment of the science as being at specific risk from climate change. The low-lying, densely populated country is highly exposed to sea level rise and extreme events like salinity intrusion, drought, erratic rainfall and tidal surge, which will hamper the its food as well as livelihood security.

Ainun Nishat, a professor at BRAC University in Dhaka specialising in climate change and water resources, said: “The weather pattern has been changing in the region which is increasing the risk to people’s livelihoods.”

The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute has developed a variety of rice that takes 110 days to ripen, rather than the 135-160 days typical for a boro crop.

That could help farmers adapt to the changing conditions, said the institute’s former director Jibon Krisna Biswas, but he noted “it is yet to reach the farmers adequately”.

The post Bangladesh faces food supply crunch after flash floods appeared first on Climate Home News.

I am a researcher in Bangladesh working on adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change, especially on the poorest and most vulnerable countries and communities.

In light of the recent executive order signed by President Donald Trump reversing the Obama administration’s climate plans in the US, I wanted to reach out.

By turning his back on the evidence of climate change impacts on your lives, livelihoods and ecosystems in the US, President Trump is failing in his primary responsibility to keep his own citizens safe.

You have my sympathy.

Journalists have asked me how President Trump’s backtracking on US climate pledges affects Bangladesh. Make no mistake, it does.

His attempt to revive the coal mining industry by scrapping curbs on greenhouse gas emissions will make it harder than ever to stay within safe global warming limits.

Bangladesh was one of the countries to call for a 1.5C cap on temperature rise, to protect its people who will be hit by small changes in sea level. Now even the looser 2C threshold looks uncertain.

Trump is also seeking to renege on a US pledge of financial support to developing countries like Bangladesh. The US had committed to deliver US$3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, as part of a wider push by the industrialised world to mobilise $100bn a year by 2020.

But none of this will stop the rest of the world. The main outcome of the Paris Agreement is that all countries have agreed to take actions to tackle climate change at their respective national and local levels.

No, the biggest impact of President Trump’s executive order will fall on his own citizens.

He has revoked a requirement on federal agencies to consider established climate science in their planning. As a result, homes, roads and other infrastructure may be built with no regard to the rising risk of floods, droughts or storms.

It puts you in the US in the predicament of having to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change without the help of your own Federal government.

On behalf of my country, Bangladesh, I would like to offer not just our sympathy but also our assistance.

The government and people of Bangladesh realised some years ago that we would be badly impacted by the changing climate and we have already been planning and implementing adaptation measures to tackle those impacts.

In the process, we have already gained a great deal of experience on what works and what doesn’t. We would be happy to share that knowledge with our friends in the US.

Sooner or later, all countries will feel the effects of climate change. The poorest and most vulnerable, like Bangladesh, are being hit first and as a result are learning how to adapt very fast. We can help you in the US to follow.

Saleemul Huq is director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at Independent University, Bangladesh

The post An open letter from Bangladesh to the American people appeared first on Climate Home News.

He spoke about a slew of mega projects being built with the assistance of China, Japan and India, but said little about Bangladesh’s failure to expand its renewable energy sector.

Bangladesh is betting on coal to support its fast growing economy, even as other countries in Asia try to shift away from the dirty fuel amid an intensifying pollution crisis. The government hopes coal use will jump from 2% to over 50% of the Bangladesh’s electricity supply by 2022, with 23,000 megawatts of new coal powered plants in the pipeline.

“In Moheshkhali [an Island of Cox’s Bazar in the Bay of Bengal], a hub is being built to produce 10,000 megawatts of electricity [from coal]… Construction of a US$ 6 billion (1,200 MW coal-fired) power plant has started in Matarbari [in the same district near the Bay of Bengal] with Japanese assistance; we will get electricity from the Matarbari plant by 2022,” Hamid told the parliament.

The minister said a 1,320 megawatt coal-fired plant was under construction in the newly built Payra seaport, with Chinese support. Another power plant, the 1,320 megawatt Rampal project in the Sundarbans, funded by India, would start to supply electricity by 2020. Protests against this power plant have been ongoing, costing a number of lives, with another set of protests happening at the end of last month.

Report: UN tells Bangladesh to halt mangrove-threatening coal plant

This amount of electricity is a little more than Bangladesh’s current total installed capacity. Bangladesh has seen a swift upsurge in electricity usage. Hamid told the parliament that daily power generation capacity has grown from 3,000 megawatts in 2009 to15,500 megawatts by 2017. Currently, 80% of Bangladesh’s 160 million people have access to electricity—up from 47% in 2009.

According to the website of the Sustainable & Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) over half of Bangladesh’s electricity is currently generated from natural gas (54%) – but its gas reserves are declining and this is one of the reasons that coal is being considered. Renewable energy constitutes only 2.7% of the energy mix and coal power plants account for a paltry 1.6%. But if the minister’s plans come through, coal will account for more than half of Bangladesh’s electricity generation supply by 2022.

The failed promise of renewables

In June 2014, the Bangladeshi finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, presented the national strategy on the energy sector in parliament. The document outlined plans to produce 800 megawatts of electricity, 5% of the total national electricity production capacity, from renewable sources by 2015. In early 2017, two years after the deadline, to produce 800 megawatts, Bangladesh has failed to meet its renewable targets, producing only 419 megawatts.

Siddique Zobair, from the SREDA told thethirdpole.net: “Yes, our plan to produce 5% of our electricity demand from the renewable sources by 2015 has not been achieved. Although we have successfully installed over four million solar home systems, we are beset with problems standing in the way of expanding the renewable sources.”

Solar power has a great deal of potential in Bangladesh. It accounts for almost 44% of power generated from renewable sources.

“But the main problem is we need vast land to install photovoltaic (PV) panels. In a densely populated country like ours, it is very difficult to find [large areas of] unused land,” said Zobair.

Shahidul Islam Khan, a professor at the electrical department at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), told thethirdpole.net that the renewable sources of energy had advantages that were often overlooked.

“Yes, availability of land is a big problem, but renewable sources can bring power to inaccessible areas. We have some excellent achievements on popularising the solar home systems in the rural areas,” Khan said. He suggested that the government might be choosing to develop coal for national energy supply, rather than for households in remote areas.

Expanding wind power

Although wind power accounts for only 0.7% of energy produced by renewables there is some hope that this will grow. The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) plans to implement a 50-200 megawatt offshore wind power project at Parky Beach area in Anwara, Chittagong.. The government and BPDB have identified 22 potential sites for wind resources in Bangladesh. The board also plans to expand on-shore wind power plants along the coastal regions of Bangladesh.

Shahidul Islam Khan told thethirdpole.net that changing direction of cyclones and storms over the last 20 years might create new opportunities.

“Twenty years ago, the cyclones used to head towards Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar (southeast of Bangladesh). But now the cyclones blow towards Odisha (in India); so we can utilise the wind for power generation,” said Khan.

To maximise the renewable potential, he said, Bangladesh could build hybrid projects that combine wind and solar. A hybrid pilot project on Saint Martin’s Island has been successful enough to supply energy needs of a little under 400 megawatts a year. Kuakata beach had potential for wind and hybrid projects.

Small hydropower could be another option.  “In the hilly areas like the Chittagong Hill Tracts, small water turbines can be used to generate hydro power,” said Khan.

Soul searching

In the meanwhile, the expansion of coal as a source of energy has led to some soul searching, but given its affordability, the government fears it has no choice. This may also be because the assessment of costs has not factored in health and environmental impact of this huge increase in coal production. Given Bangladesh’s vulnerability to climate change, adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere will lead to other hidden costs.

Furthermore, as Ashfaqur Rahman, a former Bangladeshi ambassador to China, told thethirdpole.net: “Many developed and technologically-advanced countries have adopted the policy of getting rid of coal-fired plants. But we are switching to a dirty source [coal]; we are building a coal plant near the world heritage site.”

China, Japan and other countries are selling coal technology and expertise to developing countries, although they are phasing out coal fired plants in their own countries.

Analysis: China cuts pollution at home, grows coal abroad

“These countries are basically expanding polluting industry in developing countries, including Bangladesh. The government should be careful about it because public health and environmental issues matter. The energy is for people; people are not for energy,” he said.

Ambassador Rahman said the government should negotiate with China, Japan and other technologically advanced countries to implement the coal projects with latest technology that would drastically reduce pollution.

State minister Nasrul Hamid claimed the Rampal power plant near Sundarbans would be built with the latest technology, which would reduce pollution from coal burning, in his recent speech in parliament. This has been received with some scepticism.

Anu Muhammad, who spearheads the civil society movement against Rampal coal fired plant, told thethirdpole.net: “The government talks of best technology for Rampal power plant, but actually this is untrue”. Officials have been speaking of “ultra supercritical technology” to be used at the Rampal power plant. As has been recently reported in the Bangladeshi press, no such technology exists, and the contract specifies supercritical technology, which will not limit the limit of coal used and pollution caused – although it might lead to the generation of more electricity.

This article was produced by thethirdpole.net

The post Bangladesh bets on coal to meet rising energy demand appeared first on Climate Home News.

It says increasing numbers of people are seen to be moving internally and from neighbouring countries as erratic rains, flooding and storms bite.

This is “stoking tensions” between communities, piling pressure on women left behind as men go in search of work and placing young women at risk from sex traffickers, says the NGO.

Severe drought through 2015 and 2016 in India saw a spike in movement from affected regions, with an estimated 330,000 impacted from poor rains.

“While India’s vulnerability is well-recognised by the government, the extent to which migration is being driven by climate change is not yet part of any policy debate,” says the report.

“Although the National Disaster Management Authority does map disasters and their consequences, official migration statistics resulting from those disasters are not tracked.”

2017 to be ‘very warm’ but not beat 2016 – UK's @metoffice: https://t.co/jA1VApSTNb pic.twitter.com/NT09wrP1iQ

— Climate Home News (@ClimateHome) December 20, 2016

Migration across South East Asia is nothing new. According to India’s 2011 census just under half of the country’s 1.2 billion citizens have migrated for work, marriage, education or other reasons.

But ActionAid contends the scale and pace of population movements will intensify if projected climate impacts develop.

The UN climate science panel’s 2014 study said uncertain rainfalls, sea level rise and heat waves across the region will likely intensify as global temperatures inch higher.

That means more movement from vulnerable internal zones and neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, where an estimated 15 million people could be displaced by flooding by 2050.

Weekly briefing: Sign up for your essential climate politics update

ActionAid warns that could further inflame tensions between Indians and the Bangladeshi immigrants, who number around 15 million according to census data from 2011, 2001, 1991, and 1981.

These numbers alone have proved a “huge challenge” to India according to Sanjeev Tripathi at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“It has substantially contributed to changing the demographic pattern in the northeastern states of India, where the locals feel overwhelmed by the outsiders,” he writes. “This has adversely affected their way of life and led to simmering tension between the two sides.”

Specific data on how many people are moving because of climate change around the world is scarce, said Kayly Ober, a climate migration researcher at Bonn University, due to the variety of reasons that lead populations to move.

Typically communities near coastlines and those relying on agriculture are most likely to move due to extreme weather events, she told Climate Home.

“Moving is a form of adaptation, and we need to be realistic about what this means for urban areas, and we need to be realistic about expanding services for the poor.”

The post India ‘lacks plan’ to cope with climate-linked migration appeared first on Climate Home News.

She is set to present a draft national plan for coping with the floods and tropical cyclones that periodically batter the low-lying country.

The aim is to forge progress on a tough area of negotiations, according to Saleemul Huq, lead author of the document.

“There are limits to how much you can adapt; there will inevitably be losses and damages to people and we need to figure out how we deal with that,” he said.

#Marrakech mail: sign up here for your daily #COP22 update

The Paris Agreement, which takes effect on Friday, for the first time recognises “loss and damage” as a separate issue to adaptation. There is no sea wall big enough to protect millions in the sprawling Ganges delta from the rising flood risk.

But the nature of support there will be for those on the sharp end of climate change remains hazy. Small print in previous UN decisions makes clear that rich countries do not accept any liability for damages caused by emissions from their fossil fuelled development.

Huq, who advises the least developed countries in climate negotiations, explained: “When we talked about loss and damage, they [developed countries] heard liability and compensation, which are taboo words, but I think we have moved on.”

Bangladesh loss and damage proposal by climatehomescribd on Scribd

Instead, there is a long policy to-do list, ranging from early warning systems to mechanisms to manage climate-linked migration. A working group launched at Warsaw talks in 2013 is set to report back in Marrakech.

It is unclear where the money will come from. Adaptation is already a poor relation to carbon cutting when it comes to climate finance. Donor countries may not want to open up a third stream of funding, even on a voluntary basis.

Bangladesh has allocated around US$100 million a year of its domestic budget to a national climate plan since 2009. Prime minister Hasina in 2015 won a UN award for her leadership of the strategy.

A third of that money was set aside in a high interest account for emergencies, said Huq. This scoping report, written in partnership with Care, Action Aid and Nature Conservation Management, outlines how that could be best used.

“If countries want to contribute to that in a solidarity framework, then at least we show them what we do with the money,” said Huq.

Report: G7 nods to loss and damage claims with climate insurance pledge

He was speaking at the launch of a report by Results UK in the British Parliament, on making climate risk insurance work for the poor.

Insurance has proved to be one of the more politically palatable ways to address loss and damage. The G7 last year pledged to expand insurance coverage for climate related hazards to 400 million people by 2020.

This can include anything from micro-insurance to African smallholders against crop failure to state-level coverage for governments to respond to weather emergencies.

Aaron Oxley, executive director of Results UK, called for a focus on the most vulnerable. “We do have a really golden opportunity to make sure that the systems we are building are fit for purpose and are not going to leave people behind,” he said.

That might require some public subsidy to make the premiums affordable to the very poor, with transparency from private sector partners.

Oxley and Huq agreed that insurance, while it helped to make societies more resilient, was not the whole answer.

“It is going to leave out a lot of people who need to be helped but cannot afford insurance,” said Huq.

The post Bangladesh PM to put climate losses on Marrakech agenda appeared first on Climate Home News.

They are among 13 developing countries making investments in renewable energy and climate insurance schemes easier and more accessible to the public, it says.

In Bangladesh banks now offer reduced interest rates on loans for wind, solar and other clean energy technologies, with some favouring women-run companies.

Kenya’s burgeoning mobile banking system is moving into pay-as-you-go solar, with M-Kopa, Mobisol and Off-Grid:Electric among a host of fast-expanding companies.

Mongolia’s 13 commercial banks have adopted a set of sustainable finance principles to work with government sustainable consumption and energy efficiency targets.

Meanwhile nearly half a billion people in Asia, Africa and Latin America now take advantage of micro insurance schemes aimed at low income groups at risk from extreme weather events.

Influencing the G20
Compiled by the UN Environment Programme Financial Inquiry, the report has been submitted to a UK and China-led Green Finance Study Group, which will deliver its findings to the G20 in September. The GFSG is expected to suggest banks adopt tougher environmental standards, implement climate risk management strategies and will focus on continued barriers to green investments.

The study underlines the need for international financial bodies to switch their focus from traditional banking hubs to the developing world, said UNEP head Erik Solheim.

“Financial arrangements and changes in policies and market practices elsewhere, such as in New York, London or Singapore, have a direct impact on these countries, their economies and citizens, and yet are very often agreed upon and put into motion without considering their concerns and needs,” he said in the report.

Flows of green-tinged finance are fast increasing around the world according to a recent study by HSBC, which rates the size of the green bond market alone at US $694 billion.

Weekly briefing: Sign up for your essential climate politics update

Renewable energy investment hit $348 billion in 2015, a record year for financing of wind and solar projects driven by fast growth in China and the US, with significant development in Brazil and India.

According to Bank of England governor Mark Carney $5-7 trillion a year is likely to flow into clean technologies to cut pollution and emissions in the next 15-20 years.

For all the optimism, bankers in developing countries told the UNEP report there’s a need for better global and regional cooperation to ensure continued growth.

Analysis: Welcome to the world’s clean energy revolution, in 11 slides

“Green finance is burgeoning, it has reached a point of spontaneous combustion. But it needs to be aligned,” said Nuru Mugambi from the Kenya Bankers Association.

“It needs to go beyond the leadership of a few champions and it needs to be coordinated across regional trading blocks.”

“We need a comprehensive and coherent framework supported by political will that enables market forces to move businesses from the traditional to the green economy,” said Mohammed Omran, an official from the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

“When we talk about green finance we are really talking about strengthening our core financial systems,” said Unenbat Jigjid from Mongolia’s bankers’ association.

The post UN: Kenya, Bangladesh, Jordan ‘green finance leaders’ appeared first on Climate Home News.

Some years ago the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) received support to deliver their climate resilience programmes, known at the UN as NAPAs.

These were meant to identify and then support urgent and immediate adaptation actions in these countries, which are mainly in Africa and Asia.

More recently the UN has started to support all developing countries to go the next level and prepare longer term plans known as NAPs.

The idea is that by 2020 if not earlier all 195 countries that are members of the UN climate process will have an idea of the risks they face in a warming world, and the response needed.

Work on this is underway – and this week country teams and international agencies met in the former West German capital Bonn to share notes and tips.

Weekly briefing: Sign up for your essential climate politics update

The first lesson – and this is good news – is that we are no longer starting with a blank sheet.

Every country has already done some planning and even some implementation and hence already has a body of experience to build on.

A second lesson is that adaptation is a learning-by-doing process of moving up a learning curve of adaptive capacity.

Those who have done most so far are further up the adaptive capacity learning curve, and for once that means it’s the turn of the LDCs to showcase what they have achieved.

Report: Games are preparing Ethiopian farmers for climate threats

Some of the world’s poorest governments have gained a body of experiential knowledge that can be shared with other poor as well as rich countries.

Third, a number of LDCs have already been taking path breaking adaptation actions on the ground.

Bangladesh has set up a national climate change trust fund which it has invested over US$ 500m of the country’s own resources to pay for hundreds of adaptation projects.

Nepal has developed an innovative local adaptation planning action (LAPAs) while Kenya is already implementing a national adaptation programme in dry lands.

WMO: Climate change could outpace mitigation efforts

Still, questions remain. Should LDCs and other developing countries focus on preparing a “plan” they can submit to the UN as part of the Paris climate deal?

Or should they focus on “mainstreaming” adaptation to climate change into national planning and development strategies, and perhaps aim to raise funding from national budgets?

The answer obviously is that they need to do both. But meeting a UN deadline should be secondary to the more important national process that mainstreams adaptation at all levels.

Nevertheless, the good news is that work has started. And given the impacts from this year’s supercharged El Nino – boosted in a warming world – there’s not a moment to lose.

Saleemul Huq is director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University of Bangladesh 

The post Adapt or die: UN urges countries to build climate resilience appeared first on Climate Home News.

It is also one of the most politically unstable parts of the world, with regional rivalries – particularly between India and Pakistan – threatening to lead to military conflict.

A report written by three senior retired military figures – from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – warns that unless there is more regional co-operation to tackle the impacts of climate change, conflict could break out, leading to suffering for tens of millions of people.

April temperatures in many areas of India were up to 5°C above the long-term average, the report notes. As a result, hundreds of people have died, and more than 300 million are enduring a serious drought.

Economic problems

“The recent drought has illustrated just how climate change creates chronic economic problems in South Asia, such as unemployment,” says retired Air Marshal A K Singh, from India.

“These conditions can contribute to militancy, terrorism and organised crime, aggravating existing conflicts and giving rise to new ones”.

The report – published by the Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change – lists a number of ways in which changes in climate are affecting security in South Asia.

Sharing the region’s water resources is a key part of maintaining peace and stability, say the report’s authors. Pakistan has changed from being a water-affluent country to a water-stressed one over the last decade, while the water table in many areas of India has dropped dramatically.

“The challenge of addressing climate change actually represents an opportunity to catalyse long-term peace in the region”

India and Pakistan have reached some compromises on sharing water resources but much information on river flows and water usage is still treated as security-sensitive.

The study says it’s important that activities on the Tibetan Plateau – governed by China, and a vital water source for millions of people in the region – are included in agreements.

“Climate change does not have any boundaries,” the report says. “Most countries in South Asia are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, thus making it a common challenge.”

The authors point out that Bangladesh shares the waters of 57 rivers with its neighbours, The country is likely to be seriously affected by sea level rise in the years ahead, and its food production will be severely reduced.

All this will create tension and mass movements of people, and the military throughout the region should develop effective long-term climate change adaptation strategies and be prepared to play a greater role in humanitarian relief efforts.

Ecological degradation

The report urges the military in India and Pakistan to demilitarise the glaciers in the Himalayas. Every year, both countries spend millions of dollars maintaining military installations and troops in the mountains – activities that are leading to ecological degradation.

It calls for more regionally-based research and data gathering on climate change, and the setting-up of a regional advisory council to analyse security threats related to climate change.

“While South Asia has a long history of regional instability, the challenge of addressing climate change actually represents an opportunity to catalyse long-term peace in the region through continuous dialogue and co-operation,” says retired Major General Muniruzzaman, from Bangladesh.

The report’s other author, retired Lieutenant General Tariq Waseem Ghazi, from Pakistan, says South Asia is an example of a region where climate impacts are already affecting security.

He says: “If addressed jointly across borders, we can increase stability and save lives − for example, by co-ordinating in response to natural disasters and water shortages. This report is about militaries co-operating for peace.”

This article was produced by Climate News Network

The post Climate change raises conflict risk in South Asia, warn experts appeared first on Climate Home News.

As one of the world’s most climate vulnerable cities, Bangladesh’s capital is frequently hit by flooding, storms and heatwaves.

It is forcing city officials to come up with rapid and novel solutions to protect millions of citizens from the worst nature can throw at them.

But if the political will is there, the capacity to cope with the challenge they face is often lacking. By this I mean knowledge, technology and – yes – money.

And if the rich nations or will not cannot rapidly slow emissions of greenhouse gases, they can help to build the capacity to cope in regions likely to be most affected by imapacts.

Podcast: Bangladeshi expert talks rich-poor tensions and 1.5C

The topic of Capacity Building to tackle climate change is a one of the minor perennial parallel negotiating tracks under the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

It is a motherhood-and-apple-pie issue that no one disagrees with and industrialised countries like the US, Australia and EU-28 send their most junior negotiators to attend.

However, in Paris this topic for once became a negotiating issue between the Global North and South. The issue was what role the UN should play, beyond simply talking about the need for it?

Developed countries already fund climate change capacity building programmes, mostly through their respective development funding agencies, and most said they are happy to continue to do so without any “interference” from the UN.

Developing countries , on the other hand wanted the UN to play a more proactive role in “coordinating” (and perhaps even “oversight” of) the different climate change capacity building programmes and projects.

The result of these (for once quite heated) negotiations was Article 11 of the Paris Agreement on Capacity Building which agreed that the UNFCCC would set up a new “Paris Committee on Capacity Building”  which would have a coordinating (and perhaps also oversight) role for all the disparate and largely unconnected capacity building initiatives already underway.

Report: Ahead of UN climate talks, world’s poorest urge early action

But what will this mean in practice? That’s the subject of further discussions under the Paris Agreement going forward, starting with the fortnight of talks in Bonn that started on Monday.

First let me start by evaluating some past experience.

There has already been several hundred million US Dollars “invested” in climate change capacity building programmes and projects by many of the developed countries over the last decade.

A typical climate change capacity building project or programme funded by a developed country has been executed as follows:

The developed country allocated funds for a climate change capacity building programme or project in certain countries (which it chooses itself) for certain topics such as preparing an INDC or National Adaptation Plan.

They then allocate this fund to their respective Official Development Assistance agency (USAID in USA, DFID in UK, GIZ in Germany, SIDA in Sweden).

In almost all the cases the funds are double counted for meeting both the country’s ODA as well as climate change funding obligations.

These agencies in turn, sometimes through bidding – sometimes not, allocate the funds to a consultancy company in their own country.

These mostly private, profit-making consultancies in turn then send an “expert” to the designated developing country chosen (usually quite arbitrarily) to have their capacity built.

The typical activity for these consultants are to visit the designated developing country for a few days and perhaps hold a one or two day workshop on the topic for some local stakeholders.

A few such visits (and a “report”) allow the capacity building objective to be considered to have been “delivered” and the consultants get paid.

Thus most of the money that has been spent (I won’t say “invested”) has gone to private companies in the developed country that allocated the money and if any capacity has been built it has been of those “consultants”.

If anything it has transferred money from the public sector to the private sector within the developed country itself (with very little having gone to the intended developing country).

Judging value

As far as I am concerned there is really only one indicator by which value for money for “climate change capacity building” can be judged.

That’s what capacity building “Systems” have been left behind in each targeted developing country to enable the country to continue to build capacity over time and indeed over generations.

This is if one sees the money being spent as an “investment” and not just as an “expenditure”.

Tackling climate change is not a one off issue and all counties will have to build long-term, sustained capacity-building systems at national levels to carry out these functions for decades and indeed generations to come.

Every country in the world, even the very poorest, will have a number of universities that teach subjects like environmental sciences or geography that can be “capacitated” to also teach climate change issues like mitigation and adaptation.

Real investment

Universities are some of the most sustainable institutions in the world, some of them being well over a thousand years old and have outlasted empires over time.

Hence investing in universities to set up and sustain “capacity building systems” would seem to be a no-brainer option for any “capacity-building” project or programme under Article 11 of the Paris Agreement.

Some universities in the developing countries are already taking the lead in developing masters and other level courses for students and professionals from developing countries.

One programme at my institute recently started a Master’s degree in Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh.

We have already held 15 short courses for professionals from least developed countries (LDCs) and now count 500 Alumni in over fifty countries: mostly in Asia and Africa.

This is just one example. But it’s time we highlighted the discrepancy between investing in developing countries and simply spending money on consultants.

Investing in universities the world over could be a useful place to start.

Saleemul Huq is director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University of Bangladesh 

The post Why universities, not consultants, should benefit from climate funds appeared first on Climate Home News.

Government officials investigate the wreckage site (Flickr/Waterkeeper Alliance)

By Megan Darby

Campaigners have renewed calls to block the proposed Rampal coal power plant in Bangladesh after a coal barge sank in the Sundarbans on Saturday.

Laden with 1,200 tonnes of coal, the Sea Horse now lies at the bottom of the Shela river, in the middle of the rich mangrove ecosystem.

It is the fourth shipwreck in two years in the region, according to international watchdog Waterkeeper Alliance. Such incidents threaten species like the rare Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins.

“The leaders of India and Bangladesh are not taking steps to protect the Sundarbans, rather they are taking multiple joint actions that will result in greater damage and destruction,” said Sharif Jamil, of local environmental group Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon.

“This accident again proves the carelessness of the government towards the protection of the Sundarbans.”

The government plans to build a coal power station in Rampal, just 14km from the World Heritage Site. Another, Orion Khulna, will be even closer.

Despite growing demand for electricity, with a third of Bangladeshis lacking grid access, the proposals have inspired fierce opposition. Local environmentalists argue there are other, less risky, places to site coal plants.

“Four recent episodes of ships capsizing have created a cumulative impact that endangers the rare aquatic ecology of the Sundarbans,” said Donna Lisenby, energy campaign manager for Waterkeeper Alliance.

“If the Rampal and Orion coal-fired power plants are built, the resultant dramatic increase in ship traffic will further imperil the Sundarbans.”

Report: Bangladeshi protest intensifies against Rampal coal plant

The post Loaded coal barge sinks in Sundarbans mangroves appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: Enamur Reza/Flickr)

By Saleemul Huq

The 2015 Paris Agreement has set in train global actions by all countries to reduce emission of greenhouse gases and prepare for the adverse impacts of climate change.

The next milestone will be on April 22 in New York where the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon has invited heads of government to come together to formally sign the Paris Agreement.

In order for Bangladesh to be able to join that meeting, we will need to have adopted the Paris Agreement domestically.

After that, COP22 to be held at the end of 2016 in Marrakech, Morocco, will be the next stop in the global policymaking process; it will need to develop momentum for implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Report: Bangladesh Bank launches $200m ‘green fund’
Podcast: Bangladeshi expert talks rich-poor tensions and 1.5C

An important topic for a country like Bangladesh is loss and damage, more specifically how to deal with the failure to adequately mitigate or adapt, when we are faced with inevitable losses of human lives, ecosystems and damage to infrastructure like roads and embankments.

At COP21 in Paris, the developing countries fought for and succeeded in including the topic of loss and damage as a separate article (Article 8) in the Paris Agreement against the resistance of the developed countries who did not wish to treat it as a separate issue from adaptation.

This Article also reinforced the mandate of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) on Loss and Damage that had been agreed upon at COP19 in Warsaw, Poland in 2013.

The WIM has an executive committee consisting of 20 members (10 from developing countries and 10 from developed countries), and it has a work programme with nine action areas to be presented to COP22 in Marrakech later this year.

The nine action areas include the following:

Action Area 1: Vulnerable populations

Enhance the understanding of how loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change affect particularly vulnerable developing countries, segments of the population  that are already vulnerable owing to geography, socioeconomic status, livelihoods, gender, age, indigenous or minority status or disability, and the ecosystems that they depend on, and of how the implementation of approaches to address loss and damage can benefit them.

Action Area 2: Risk management

Enhance the understanding of, and promote, comprehensive risk management approaches (assessment, reduction, transfer, retention), including social protection instruments and transformational approaches, in building long-term resilience of countries, vulnerable populations and communities.

Action Area 3: Slow onset events

Enhance data on and knowledge of the  risks of  slow onset events and their impacts, and identify ways forward on approaches to address slow onset events associated with the adverse effects of climate change with specific focus on potential impacts, within countries and regions.

Action Area 4: Non-economic loss and damage

Enhance data on and knowledge of non-economic losses associated with the adverse effects of climate change and identify ways forward for reducing the risk of and addressing non-economic losses with specific focus on potential impacts within regions

Action Area 5: Capacity and coordination

Enhance the understanding of the capacity and coordination needs with regard to preparing for, responding to and building resilience against loss and damage associated with extreme and slow onset events, including through recovery and rehabilitation.

Action Area 6: Migration, displacement, mobility

Enhance the understanding of and expertise on how the impacts of climate change are affecting patterns of migration, displacement and human mobility; and the application of such understanding and expertise.

Action Area 7: Financial instruments

Encourage comprehensive risk management by the diffusion of information related to financial instruments and tools that address the risks of loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change to facilitate finance in loss and damage.

Action Area 8: Other organisations

Complement, draw upon the work of and involve, as appropriate, existing bodies and expert groups under the Convention, as well as relevant organisations and expert bodies outside the Convention at all levels.

Action Area 9: Five-Year rolling work plan

Develop a five-year rolling work plan for consideration at COP 22, building on the results of this two-year work plan to continue guiding the implementation of the functions of the Warsaw International Mechanism.

Bangladesh’s role

Bangladesh has a major opportunity to influence the decision to be made on loss and damage at COP22 in Marrakech in two ways.

Firstly, as Bangladesh is a member of the twenty-member Executive Committee of the WIM, we can influence their deliberations if we prepare ourselves well for each meeting of the Executive Committee.

Secondly, Bangladesh has an chance to move forward pro-actively to set up a national mechanism on loss and damage, using the reserve funds in the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) which could make us an example for other countries to follow.

This is an important opportunity in the next ten months to make a major contribution to what is likely to be known as the “Loss and Damage COP” in November 2016.

The writer is director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (www.icccad.net) at the Independent University, Bangladesh

The post View from Bangladesh: What next for the UN climate talks? appeared first on Climate Home News.

Green finance initiative will target Bangladesh’s export-focused clothing industry (Flickr/jankie)

By Megan Darby

The central bank of Bangladesh is launching a US$200 million fund to green the country’s clothing factories.

Governor Atiur Rahman trailed the initiative at a sustainable development conference in Dhaka last week.

The goal was “transforming Bangladesh into a fully fledged ‘green’ nation,” he told delegates, to stay competitive amid slowing global trade.

Following financial incentives to light Bangladeshi homes with solar power, it represents a scaling up of the bank’s green ambitions.

While it is not yet clear how, the fund is to shrink the carbon footprint of Bangladesh’s textile industry – the second largest in the world – and leather production.

A development economist by background, Rahman has used his role at Bangladesh Bank since 2009 to promote sustainable growth.

“He has been pushing green banking down the throats of the commercial banking sector in Bangladesh,” said climate expert Saleemul Huq. “It has been a mixed success – not everybody has taken it up.”

But he says the results are visible in a rapid roll-out of solar panels to rural homes, made possible by financial innovation.

Podcast: Bangladeshi expert talks rich-poor tensions and 1.5C

In 2010, the bank started offering cut-rate loans to financial institutions lending to green projects. That trickled down to make solar systems affordable to poor households.

The International Institute for Environment and Development, where Huq is a senior fellow, evaluated the impact in a report published last August.

Combined with improvements in after-sale service, researchers found the low cost finance had accelerated take-up of solar home systems, with 3 million installed by 2014.

“People have been buying them like crazy,” said Huq. For lower weekly instalments than the cost of kerosene, families could get electric light and perhaps a radio or TV.

“The demand for lighting comes from children telling their parents they need lighting to do their homework at night. That is really the driving force.”

Report: Bangladesh coal power plans stall

Around a third of the country’s 170 million population lacks electric power. As the government struggles to push through coal power plants, solar is key to a goal of universal access by 2021.

Rahman signalled Bangladesh Bank is preparing to expand the low carbon push to other sectors. “These are only small initial steps,” he said, “with lots more to do in our intended countrywide transition to environmentally sustainable output practices and lifestyles.”

It may issue a green bond to raise money for such projects, he added – a suggestion welcomed by the Climate Bonds Initiative.

“We look forward to Dr. Atiur and his pioneering central bank to show us its next steps in the transition,” wrote the think tank’s CEO Sean Kidney in a blog. “Bravo, Bangladesh!”

The post Bangladesh Bank launches $200m ‘green transformation fund’ appeared first on Climate Home News.

A couple fish in the Sundarbans mangroves. The government is pushing ahead with Rampal coal power station near the World Heritage Site (Flickr/ Kingshuk Mondal)

By Alex Pashley

Bangladesh’s bet on coal power to expand its grid is making slow progress.

The densely-packed, low-lying country is planning 24 coal-fired plants to boost its share of electricity generation as gas reserves dwindle.

The government hopes the polluting fuel’s share could jump from 2% to 50% within 15 years, boosting electricity generation capacity to 20 gigawatts.

But just two coal stations are on track to join its Barapukuria plant, national news site the Daily Star reported on Sunday.

Report: Climate change to wipe 2% off Bangladesh GDP by 2050

“Sources blame bureaucratic bottleneck, lack of strong leadership in the related authorities and lack of understanding about coal power among related offices for this sudden slowdown in project implementation,” it wrote.

Located on the cyclone-swept Bay of Bengal, the nation of 160 million wants to widen energy access to 50% of its people who are off the grid.

Natural gas production falls short of energy demand, the New York Times reported, with coal proffered as a solution to reduce blackouts by the Awami League government.

Out of eight joint ventures with different countries only the contentious Rampal project, which threatens the Sundarbans mangroves, is making progress. The proposed 1,320MW power station is just 14km from a World Heritage Site and has sparked vehement protest, with some banks refusing to finance it given its environmental impact.

Report: Bangladeshi protest intensifies against Rampal coal plant

Japanese-funded Matarbari is the other project to go ahead. Authorities’ slowness to process environmental impact assessments were given as one reason for the deadlock. Projects part-financed by Singaporean and Chinese companies are other examples that have stalled.

The country is pursuing clean energy. In its submission to a UN climate deal, it targeted 400 megawatts of wind generating capacity by 2030 and 1,000 MW worth of solar.

ƒYet it also expanded on its plan to maximise coal mines and new plants in a “carbon-neutral way”.

By 2030 all plants will use “super critical technology”, which burns the fuel at higher temperatures and pressures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, subject to over US$16 billion in foreign aid.

The post Bangladesh coal power plans stall appeared first on Climate Home News.

Makeshift tents positioned precariously on the sodden ground as the awaits cyclone relief in 2011 (Credit: Transparency International/ Alice Harrisson)

By Saleemul Huq

With the crisis of refugees arriving in to Europe from Syria and other countries in Asia and Africa the topic of climate change, displacement and migration assumes a high level of attention.

Much of the debate is characterised by prejudice rather than evidence.

We should accept the obvious truism that humans have been moving for millennia for a variety of reasons that predate the problem of human induced climate change.

It is also true that one of the many disparate factors driving such movements have been push-factors of environmental degradation where people are currently living and render them unable to stay where they are.

Many of these environmental degradation push-factors, but not all, are climate related (such as hurricanes, floods and droughts) and these are likely to be exacerbated due to human induced climate change.

Podcast: UN COP21 Paris climate change preview

There is also increasing evidence that such climate change related exacerbations are already happening (and will certainly get worse over the next few decades to come).

Hence we need to start to think collectively as a global community how we will anticipate and deal with this exacerbation of existing trends in future.

We should make a distinction between forced displacement (which is a bad thing to be avoided) and planned migration (which is a good thing if done properly).

I would argue that we are now entering the second era of adaptation which is essentially about planned migration as a second order adaptation when we reach the limits of adaptation in-situ (which is the current form of adaptation in the near term).

There are probably in the order of hundreds of millions of people living in low-lying atoll islands (like Kiribati and Tuvalu), low lying coastal deltas (like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Egypt) and mid-continental drylands (like central Asia and Kenya and Somalia in Africa) who will not be able to continue to practice their traditional livelihoods over the next few decades.

Comment: Paris climate deal needs solidarity on loss and damage

Hence the strategy meeds to be adaptation in-situ in the near term combined with investing in educating and skilling up the next generation so that they are able to get better paid jobs elsewhere.

These adults of tomorrow will then be able to move and bring their elders to join them at their own volition and at their own pace. This is sometimes called facilitated or enabled or planned migration as adaptation.

The first order planned migration needs to be done within national borders (as most people would prefer to stay in their own country) but in some cases there will also have to be cross-border international solutions as well.

Look at my own country Bangladesh, where the government has prepared a climate change strategy and action plan which includes planned migration as a solution to tackle forced displacement from climate change impacts.

In Bangladesh the rural-to-urban migration has already made the capital Dhaka the fastest growing mega-city in the world with fifteen million people and which cannot absorb another ten million who will inevitably be moving from the low lying coastal areas over the next two decades.

Report: Bangladesh capital faces future influx of climate refugees

The strategy, which is still in an early stage of thinking, is to combine tackling climate change impacts with education of children and youth and with investments in urban infrastructure in cities far from the coats but not Dhaka.

People need to be facilitated and encouraged, not coerced, to move to these other cities by the creation of jobs, schools and other facilities in those cities.

How does this fit in with the upcoming COP21 talks?

We have a draft negotiating text for the proposed Paris Agreement in which there is a separate article on Loss and Damage under which Option1 is six paragraphs of text proposed by all the developing countries collectively.

One of these paragraphs calls for a separate and new mechanism (or similar body) on the issue of Displacement and Migration due to climate change.

The alternative Option 2 inserted by Switzerland is to refuse to even recognise, let alone negotiate constructively, by deleting the entire article!

It is not clear if other Annex 1 Parties such as the European Union support such an extreme position of coming to a negotiations in Paris with a refusal to negotiate.

This will certainly be a highly sensitive issue in Paris and it is to be hoped that cooler heads will prevail and there will indeed be serious negotiations to find common ground for a way forward.

Burying our heads in the sand by refusing to confront reality is not a viable option.

Saleemul Huq is a director at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh

The post COP21: Why the Paris talks must tackle climate-forced migration appeared first on Climate Home News.

Millions live in Dhaka slums without water, sanitation, gas or electricity

By Sohara Mehroze Shachi

With multiplying impacts of climate change – increasing floods, cyclones, and drought – thousands of climate refugees are migrating to Dhaka. And the city, well beyond its carrying capacity, is bursting at the seams.

The word most often associated with Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is perhaps, “overpopulated.” Supporting more than 14 million people on less than 325 square kilometers (125 square miles) of land, the city’s drainage, waste management and transportation infrastructure is on the brink of collapse.

Against that backdrop, it is hardly surprising to find the Bangladesh capital among the worst cities to live in on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2015 ranking.

To delve beneath the apparent reasons – overpopulation, waterlogging and congestion – is to reveal a major underlying cause: unsustainable levels of climate-induced displacement and migration.

And the problems are washing up along Bangladesh’s 700 kilometers of low-lying coast. Rising sea levels and cyclones heighten the risk of flooding, while riverbank erosion and seawater intrusion are set to have a devastating impact on the nation’s population.

Report: Climate change to wipe 2% off Bangladesh GDP by 2050

“Over the next two to three decades millions of people will no longer be able to live and earn their livelihoods from farming and fishing as they are now,” said Saleemul Huq, a senior fellow with the Climate Change Group of the International Institute for Environment and Development.

Conversely, prolonged droughts are affecting arable land by causing soil erosion and damaging crops that depend on predictable monsoon patterns.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates 20 million people will be displaced in Bangladesh in the coming five years. That is more than the cumulative populations of Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City. And this should be very worrying.

Even now, many of the half-a-million-plus people who move their families – along with their hopes – to Dhaka, are driven there by the effects of climate change.

No streets paved with gold

But the Bangladeshi capital, which teeters on less than 1 percent of the country’s overall landmass, is far from being the promised land.

The combination of explosive population growth and land scarcity has sent its property and rental prices through the roof.

And given that most climate refugees come from humble financial backgrounds, they are left with little alternative but to join the estimated 3.4 million people who already live without gas or electricity in cramped and substandard squatter settlements, known as bosti.

Even in their new homes, they cannot escape the environmental disasters that drove them to seek shelter in the flimsy shack-like houses in this low-lying city on the banks of the Buriganga river.

A flooded street in Dhaka

The incidence of flooding in Dhaka is increasing, and the lack of water and sanitation facilities means waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and typhoid are widespread.

But health and pollution are not the only problems bosti-dwelling climate migrants face. Rahmat Ali, a resident of Dhaka’s biggest slum Korail, moved to the city when saltwater logged his farmland. Once an agricultural worker, he now scrapes out a living as a rickshaw puller.

“It is very hard work for little money. But there are few options for the likes of us, who have lost our lands and homes, and now have nothing left to go back to.”

Slow response to an urgent problem

With ubiquitous bostis and climate refugees dominating the cityscape, more affluent Dhaka residents are becoming increasingly desensitised and apathetic to their plight, and are coming to accept it as the norm.

This apathy is reflected in the country’s policy sphere. “People are migrating to cities because the nation is not responding to their risks,” says Aminul Islam, a member of the National Displacement Strategy Working Group under the Ministry of Disaster Management.

Coastal and river erosion is a major problem in Bangladesh

While Bangladesh has developed a solid strategic framework for tackling climate change – including its National Action Plan for Adaptation and the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan – it has not yet prescribed any adaptation programs specifically addressing climate-induced internal displacement.

And that, thinks Islam, is a failing.

“The country needs a long-term vision and adaptation plan for reducing displacement,” Islam said. “The provision of climate resilient habitat, livelihood opportunities and civil facilities for the vulnerable will reduce incentives to migrate to cities.”

Dhaka, precursor for catastrophe?

Even if Bangladesh were to increase its adaptation efforts 100-fold, it can only go so far in protecting its people. From a Bangladeshi point of view, what it desperately needs are mitigation efforts by major carbon-emitting nations.

At the end of November, the world’s leaders will congregate in Paris to try and achieve a universal, binding agreement for combating climate change. And for the millions of people living in vulnerable countries such as Bangladesh, their success at the negotiating table is crucial.

The situation in Dhaka illustrates how climate change is neither something that affects only polar bears, nor a problem only for future generations. Many fear that failure to act now will render the Bangladeshi capital a precursor for wholesale climate catastrophe.

This story was sourced through the Voices2Paris UNDP storytelling contest on climate change and developed thanks to Tamsin Walker and @DeutscheWelle.

The post Bangladesh capital faces future influx of climate refugees appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Sundarbans are home to 4 million people, as well as a rich range of wildlife (Flickr/Frances Voon)

By Rafiqul Islam in Dhaka

Environmentalists have intensified protests in Bangladesh against a planned coal-fired power plant near the world’s largest mangrove forest.

The Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and the Socialist Party of Bangladesh (SPB) recently concluded a 5-day “Road March to Save the Sundarbans” with a call to save the sensitive ecosystem.

A nationwide demonstration against the Rampal plant, which is located 14km from the World Heritage Site, is planned for 26 November.

Speaking at a press conference in capital Dhaka on Tuesday, CPB president Mojahidul Islam Selim threatened further action if the government does not stop work on the project by the end of the month.

In a country hungry for modern energy, campaigners are nonetheless rising up to protect the home of Bengal tigers and endangered Irrawaddy river dolphins.

Report: India PM Modi endorses controversial Sundarbans coal plant

“We are not against coal-based power plants, because we need power for development,” said Hasan Mehdi, executive director of Khulna-based Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network (CLEAN).

“But the question is why the power plant should be set up near the Sundarbans, a world heritage site? We have many places to set up such a coal-fired power plant.”

The proposed 1,320MW power station is a joint venture of national Bangladeshi and Indian companies. They are publishing advertisements in daily newspapers, insisting that Rampal poses no threat to the Sundarbans.

Nearly a third of Bangladeshis have no access to electricity and demand is increasing about 6% a year. Rampal would increase the country’s power capacity by more than 10%. At present, it has 12,000MW installed, mostly fuelled by natural gas.

To cut dependency on gas in power generation, the government is planning to build eight large and 10 small coal-fired stations by 2021.

The Sundarbans are the world’s biggest mangrove forest, spanning the coastline of India and Bangladesh (Wikimedia Commons)

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port of Bangladesh is backing the counter-protest with a national convention in the capital on 14 November to mobilise public opinion in favour of the plant.

At a recent press conference in Dhaka, energy minister Nasrul Hamid claimed that modern ultra-super thermal technology would be used, so the plant would not pollute surrounding areas.

Green campaigners are not convinced.

Anu Muhammad, activist and economics professor at Jahangirnagar University, accused the government of spreading misinformation.

“Defying all protests and refusing to hold a proper debate over the issue, the government is going ahead with the coal-fired power project. Once the project is implemented, it will destroy the Sundarbans,” he said.

The plant is expected to produce 750,000 tonnes of fly ash and 200,000 tonnes of bottom ash a year, according to the environmental impact assessment (EIA).

This contains pollutants like sulphur, arsenic, mercury, lead, chromium and cadmium as well as greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Report: Sundarbans islanders face stark choice as sea levels rise

An independent analysis of wind flows shows these toxic substances will blow into the mangroves, warned environmental science professor Abdullah Harun Chowdhury.

“The Sundarbans will face a long-term impact. Physical growth of plants, their flowering and fruiting will be affected severely while breeding capacity of animal of the forest will be lost,” he said.

Transparency International has called for a fresh assessment involving international experts.

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the impacts of climate change. With 31.5 million people living within a metre of sea level, rising oceans increase the risks of flooding. Mangroves provide a natural buffer against cyclones and storm surges.

Meanwhile, its citizens contribute little to the problem, with carbon emissions of 0.37 tonnes a head in 2011. The figure for India was 1.69t, by comparison, China 6.6t and the US 17t.

The post Bangladeshi protest intensifies against Rampal coal plant appeared first on Climate Home News.

Cyclone Pam flattened parts of Vanuatu earlier in 2015 (Pic: Grace Wye/Flickr)

By Ed King

Three island countries could disappear and an estimated 40 million people be made homeless if the impacts of climate change are left unchecked.

That was the headline warning from a coalition of 20 developing countries, which on Thursday launched a fundraising initiative to protect their citizens from climate impacts.

“Climate shocks already exceed our regional/national capabilities at approximately half our target level of global warming of not more than 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures,” they said in a statement.

The newly formed V20 group (the V stands for vulnerable) includes Bangladesh, Kiribati, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Afghanistan.

World Bank chief Jim Kim addresses the press ahead of the 2015 annual meeting in Lima, Peru (Pic: World Bank/Flickr)

In total it represents 700 million people and offers a platform for finance ministers from those countries to demand more climate-related cash from the international community.

“In the absence of an effective global response, annual economic losses due to climate change are projected to exceed US$400 billion by 2030 for the V20, with impacts far surpassing our local or regional capabilities,” said Cesar Purisima, Philippines finance minister.

Speaking in Lima on the sidelines of the annual World Bank/IMF meeting, Costa Rica’s finance vice minister Jose Francisco Pacheco described the initiative as “historic”.

“We have decided to work together to ensure we are not made victims, but do everything we can to contribute to a resolution to this crisis,” he said.

V20 statement: excerpt

A Working Group of the V20 commenced immediate follow-up to begin implementation of the first Action Plan, progress on which will be presented at the UN Climate Change Conference at Paris (COP21) later this year. The V20 statement said COP21 must deliver “an agreement entirely consistent with the non-negotiable survival of our kind,” while highlighting the significance of a strengthened below 1.5°C temperature goal.

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Nepal, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam are part of the V20 and the associated Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) that mandated the group’s formation.

According to the V20, an estimated 50,000 people a year are already dying from climate-related impacts, while further warming could see Kiribati, Maldives, and Tuvalu submerged by rising oceans.

UN development head Helen Clark and World Bank president Jim Kim offered their support to the group, which said it wanted to collaborate with the UN and multilateral development banks to explore funding options.

A scoping document said finance ministers would boost their “limited contributions” towards climate-related projects and develop an insurance scheme to cope with future impacts.

It demanded a greater share of funds from developed countries and suggested more rich nations adopt a financial transactions tax (also known as a Robin Hood tax) to raise revenue.

An OECD report this week suggested climate finance flows from rich to poor countries were already over halfway towards a 2020 goal of US$100 billion a year.

Developing countries set out trillion-dollar investment asks in their submissions to the UN ahead of a global climate deal to be finalised in Paris this December.

“We want to the world to know that we will not overlook the perils that our economies have been placed at due to the shortcomings, particularly of action by major economies,” said Dr Atiur Rahman, governor of the bank of Bangladesh.

“The world also needs to know that working together our vulnerable countries are doing everything in our power to bring the climate crisis under control, and we won’t relent until we’ve succeeded in our ambition.”

The post Climate vulnerable states despair of rich, launch finance plan appeared first on Climate Home News.

Dhaka, Bangladesh’s densely-packed capital city of over 14 million is vulnerable to flooding (Flickr/ Mariusz Kluzniak)

By Alex Pashley

Bangladesh, one of the world’s most susceptible countries to global warming, unveiled its offer to an international climate pact on Friday.

Adapting to climate impacts was its primary focus, with extreme weather poised to wipe 2% in annual GDP off its $174 billion economy by 2050 – and as much as 9% by the century’s end, the communication said.

Located off the cyclone-swept Bay of Bengal and on the flood plains of Himalayan meltwater, the republic of about 160 million has faced dozens of natural disasters since independence in 1971.

“Current research and studies suggest that flood, tropical cyclones, storm surge and drought are likely to be more frequent and severe in the years to come,” it said.

Paris tracker: Who has pledged what for 2015 UN climate pact?

Over 70 countries have now submitted climate plans to the UN, which will form the backbone of new global warming agreement expected to be signed at a December summit in Paris.

The country said it would bear its burden in combating climate change with a pledge to cut carbon by 5% within 15 years on current forecasts of emissions growth.

That could rise to 15% on “business as usual” as international cash and technology could drive cleaner coal generation, develop its railways and reduce energy consumption in its industry, it said.

Those figures only applied to its power, industry and transport sectors given insufficient data to measure emissions from the likes of forests.

Moral high ground

Bangladesh’s drive to lower its carbon footprint “puts it on the moral high ground as one of the most vulnerable countries still willing to do its part,” Saleemul Huq, a national climate expert, told Climate Home.

Developing its climate plan had unleashed a major discussion about the country’s nature of industrialisation, said Huq, who is a director at the Independent University of Bangladesh.

“Previously it had a very default fossil fuel-based programme and big electricity plants that could deliver energy in the traditional manner. Now it is increasingly questioning that modality.”

As the country aspires to gain middle-income status by 2021, poverty reduction is central alongside growth rates of up to 8% a year.

Some 47 million citizens live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank, in what is one of the world’s most densely populated countries.

Report: Pakistan, Bangladesh face ‘state failure’ as globe heats up

The plan, also known as an “intended nationally determined contribution” in UN jargon, eyed a larger if limited role for renewables.

It plans to ramp up its programme to power off-grid rural homes with solar PV cells. Renewable generation is set to make up 10% of the country’s energy by 2020.

Bangladesh also repeated a call for warming to be slowed to 1.5C by the century’s end to lessen the brunt of monsoon flooding and cyclones, costed at $6.6bn by 2030.

“As a collective, the country from the prime minister to the farmer in the field, is going through a knowledge acquisition of the solutions to climate change,” Huq added.

The post Climate change to wipe 2% off Bangladesh GDP by 2050 appeared first on Climate Home News.

Makeshift tents on the sodden ground in Bangladesh’s southern Khulna district as it awaits cyclone relief in 2011 (Credit: TI/ Alice Harrison)

By Alex Pashley

A pillar of an anticipated UN global pact in Paris is financial support for poor countries to cut carbon and climate-proofing.

Those launch solar farms in Ethiopia or build sea defences in the cyclone-battered Maldives.

Close to US$30 billion went from the world’s six top development banks in 2014 to green projects. More is ‘leveraged’ from the private sector.

But some destinations of the climate-fighting funds are problematic. Many of those most vulnerable to climate impacts rank among the world’s most corrupt.

Take 2014’s top climate finance recipients: India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Vietnam, Egypt, South Korea, Kenya, Thailand and the Philippines.

They fall between 25 and 43 on the watchdog Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index (with 0 perceived as highly corrupt and 100 very clean).

Donors worry about funds not reaching their recipient, as public money is siphoned off to offshore bank accounts; or cronyism inflating bid prices for contracts.

Report: Green Climate Fund shortlists projects worth $500m

In 2010, Transparency International (TI) set up a climate finance unit “in recognition of the urgency and scale of the problem,” Leah Good, who coordinates the Asia-Pacific region, tells RTCC.

“The need to send a lot of money and have it spent effectively means it goes through relatively untested channels and new institutions built at an international level,” she adds.

Bangladesh is a case in point. In 2013, some $250,000 for flood defences in the Satkhira coastal region were rerouted from the national climate change trust fund, according to TI’s local chapter.

Budgets were exaggerated too, it found, with the collusion of officials at Bangladesh’s Water Development Board.

The case is now resolved, with a citizens’ committee formed to oversee the project. In 2011, a separate episode occurred where money for cyclone relief disappeared in the country, leaving shelters half-built.

The Maldives is another vulnerable state with a weak record on transparency.

An incomplete house in 2012 after local contractors siphoned off funds in Kulna district (Credit: Transparency International Bangladesh)

The completed house from a return visit in 2015, following pressure on the government to react to mismanagement of climate finance funds (Credit: Transparency International Bangladesh)

Cases like this hold back large contributions to the UN’s flagship Green Climate Fund, Lisa Ana Elges, a climate director at the international watchdog tells RTCC.

US Republicans cited concerns about corruption as part of an attempt to block President Barack Obama’s $4bn pledge to the fund, she says.

Rich countries have vowed to mobilise $100 bn of climate finance by 2020, some of which will flow through the GCF.

But transparency is critical and there’s nowhere near enough of it.

“It’s true for recipients and developed countries giving money,” says Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University of Bangladesh.

“It’s very hard to know who is giving money to whom.”

Report: Green Climate Fund partners with Deutsche Bank to green fury

Publish What You Fund, an aid transparency campaign group, noted in their most recent climate transparency report in 2012: “While there are already a plethora of reporting and data management systems, the availability of data about overall and individual funding flows is currently poor.”

The Climate Funds Update tracks some $35 bn of funds and bilateral initiatives, with the GCF the largest, followed by the Clean Technology Fund, part of the World Bank’s portfolio.

The six multilateral development banks are refining how they measure finance ahead of a Paris climate summit.

Elges praises their information disclosure practices, but says problems persist.

The Green Climate Fund refuses to disclose the names of entities applying to distribute its funds until they are accredited, for example.

The initiative named this month another 13 entities as partners, taking the total to 20. These range from Rwanda’s Ministry of Natural Resources to the Inter-American Development Bank.

“It leaves a lot of questions of aptitude of the agencies,” says Elges.

Observers want to know if applicants are complying with important standards on money-laundering, fiduciary duty and grievance mechanisms.

The South Korea-based GCF didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Whistleblowers

Elges also picks out the Global Environment Facility, which accredits members permanently.

“There’s no procedure to punish or suspend activities in case of wrongdoing, which is highly problematic.”

A spokesperson said GEF standards “reflect international best practice and candidate agencies are accredited only after they are found to meet the standards”.

The facility requires agencies to have “accountability systems” in place, and to respond to “complaints and concerns from affected people”.

Corruption is likely to be exposed by whistle blowers, typically a middle-manager at an irrigation project for example. “Who do they complain to?” asks Elges, adding processes at the UN’s environment and development programmes were inadequate.

Tensions between rich and poor nations are likely to persist over the granting of cash.

An EU source tells RTCC: “You can’t put a blank cheque what the $100 billion is going to finance. Pumping up the project pipeline is going to take time. You need bankable projects.”

But Huq says pushback by developed countries wasn’t a “legitimate obstacle” to giving finance.

“For them to be preach to developing countries to be transparent is a bit like the pot calling kettle black,” he adds.

As December’s Paris summit draws nearer, debates over climate finance are set to intensify with developing countries like India and China demanding to see hard evidence of progress towards the $100 billion target.

The post Campaigners warn of climate finance corruption risk appeared first on Climate Home News.

Environmental disasters could undo years of progress in tackling poverty (Source: UN/Kibae Park)

By Ed King

India will face a huge influx of refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh should high degrees of climate change develop, according to one of the country’s senior military officials.

Drought and flooding linked to sea level rise would place the governments of those countries under “severe stress” and lead to large-scale migration, said Vice Admiral Pradeep Chauhan, head of the Indian Naval Academy.

“In India, this would combine with an internal population shift from rural to urban areas, further increasing demographic pressure in cities,” he wrote in a climate risk study backed by the UK Foreign Office.

A significant influx of migrants could further destabilise what is known as India’s “Red Corridor”, a belt of land running through east India where Marxist rebels are fighting the state.

“The temptation to solve this problem through military intervention could become overwhelming,” he added.

Report: Bird flu offers lesson in averting climate calamity

Current greenhouse gas emissions will “likely as not” mean temperature increases of 4C above pre-industrial levels by 2150 said the study, with severe implications for human health and crop yields.

A N M Muniruzzaman, a retired Bangladeshi major general, said millions of people in his country could be displaced as a result of sea level rise.

“Flooding is projected to increase in many regions, but it could be a particular problem in South Asia due to the contribution of melting glaciers,” he said.

Planning battle

Chauhan’s and Muniruzzaman’s comments were based on a war gaming exercise held in Delhi in March, hosted by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water.

Former military officials from India, China, the US, the UK, Bangladesh, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland took part, along with scientists and diplomats.

“In the game, it was notable that increasing numbers of refugees contributed to several large countries becoming more isolationist in their foreign policies,” says the study.

“Participants in our exercise considered it extremely likely that climate change would exacerbate humanitarian crises over the coming decades.”

Report: Climate change could lead to China-India water conflict 

Long term water stress in South Asia could become so severe previous agreements over resource sharing between India, Pakistan, China and Bangladesh “could be broken”, the study warns.

“At the high degrees of climate change possible in the long-term future, participants in our scenarios exercise considered that there could even be risks to the political integrity of states that are currently considered developed and stable.”

Alex Randall from the UK-based Climate Change and Migration Coalition said the document presented a “one sided view of migration” seeing it only as a security threat.

“While there is growing evidence linking climate change to changing patterns of migration, there is little evidence suggesting that migrants and refugee present the kind of security threat suggested in the report,” he said.

“There is also strong evidence indicating that migration could become a key way for some people to adapt to climate change.”

The post Pakistan, Bangladesh face ‘state failure’ as globe heats up appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Sundarbans are the world’s biggest mangrove forest, spanning the coastline of India and China (FicusMedia/Arati Kumar-Rao)

By Avik Roy in New Delhi

A proposed power plant at the fringes of Sundarbans forest is getting more attention than its supporters would like.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to Bangladesh at the weekend, endorsed the controversial Rampal coal-fired power station. In a joint press statement with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, Modi said Rampal will have India’s support and cooperation.

But green groups say the project threatens the future of the world’s largest mangrove forest, a sensitive and diverse ecosystem. The Sundarbans are home to the critically endangered Bengal tiger and a Unesco World Heritage Site.

As the project clears environmental hurdles in Bangladesh, campaigners are turning their attention to financiers in a bid to starve it of cash.

Report: China billions drive Pakistan coal power expansion

The proposed 1,320MW plant is a joint venture by India’s state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Bangladesh’s Power Development Board (PDB). It is one of three major deals signed under the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company, formed in 2013 to deal with power trading between the two countries.

Together, the developers have acquired 1,834 acres of land and started to prepare the site, including land filling for construction of the plant and its associated infrastructure. The environment department of Bangladesh has approved its environment impact assessment report.

Campaigners are not satisfied. The rich wetland ecosystem of the Sundarbans provides habitat for an extraordinary range of biodiversity, including rare and threatened species and the almost-extinct Ganges and Irrawady river dolphins.

According to the India’s ministry of environment, forests and climate change, locations of thermal power plants are not allowed within 25 kilometres of the outer periphery of any ecologically sensitive area, forests or prime agriculture lands.

India’s 1972 Wildlife Protection Act directs a 15km exclusion zone around national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests. The proposed Rampal power plant is only 14 km away from the Sundarbans’ core area border.

Report: Sundarbans islanders face stark choice as sea levels rise

However, Bangladesh presently has no law or guideline that specifies minimum distance for a coal-based thermal power plant from reserve forests.

“The NTPC is flouting the rule of its own country. Once the power plant is set up, Rampal will be crowded by many industries and that would have an adverse impact on the sensitive ecology”, said Bangladeshi activist Mowdudur Rahman.

Experts point out that if the project works out, around 50,000 people would need to be evacuated from villages in the adjoining areas of Rampal. Environmentalists warn the power plant will release various harmful gaseous substances like carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, sulphur dioxide, aldehydes, hydrocarbons and huge amount of fly-ash to the entire environment, seriously polluting water bodies of the entire area.

The impact starts with the coal transport. According to the EIA report, 13,000 tonnes of coal will be required for this power plant on daily basis. This coal is planned to be imported from Australia and Indonesia through Passur river in Sundarbans.

Report: No ban on coal finance as Green Climate Fund eyes first projects

Light and sound from the coal-loaded vessels, as well as potential oil spills or water pollution, are set to pierce the tranquility of the Sundarbans’ main water source.

Then there is water demand from the power plant itself – some 9,150 cubic metres an hour when it starts running.

“If the coal power plant is installed, it will accelerate the extinction process of the fisheries,” warned Maha Mirza of campaign group the National Committee of Bangladesh. “The discharged water will be toxic and have a destructive effect on the fisheries.”

The project has been subject to ongoing criticism and protest within Bangladesh, leading to delays of several years. In September 2014, Bangladesh’s planning commission refused to approve the project.

Protests against the project culminated in a five-day march from Dhaka, the nation’s capital, to the project site in September 2013, with 20,000 participants demanding an immediate halt to the project.

Marchers demand a halt to plans for the Rampal coal power station (NCBD)

In May, many environmental groups in Bangladesh issued a statement calling on the project to be abandoned and requesting that “all financial institutions and potential equity investors make a clear public commitment to rule out any involvement in arranging or providing finance for the Rampal coal-fired power plant”.

Unesco has already expressed its concern about setting such type of power plant near the Sundarbans, identifying a “lack of transparency” on the Bangladeshi government’s part around the Rampal coal plant.

Rampal plant is expected to produce 750,000 tonnes of fly ash and 200,000 tonnes of bottom ash, to be contained in a 183-acre pond. Researchers at Transparency International Bangladesh say the EIA does not take seriously enough the risk of soil and groundwater pollution from this source.

Under condition of anonymity, an analyst tracking the project told RTCC in an email that the ash pond is being planned on the banks of the river, the worst possible place for leakage of toxic metals.

Other pollutants such as sulphur dioxide can stunt the growth of vegetation. The effects ripple through the food chain, from deer to the endangered Bengal tiger.

Finance focus

In December this year, Paris will hold the 21st United Nations climate change conference. Civil society groups are putting pressure on banks to end their support for coal industry, the largest emitter of carbon dioxide.

The Norwegian Council of Ethics has recommended the Norwegian government exclude NTPC from their Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) investment portfolio.

“There is an unacceptable risk that NTPC will contribute to severe environmental damage through the building and operation of the power plant at Rampal, including related transportation services”, the report said.

Risalat Khan, a campaigner with Avaaz, argued the plant was against Bangladesh’s national interest, because of its impact on relations with richer countries.

“The establishment of coal-fired thermal power plant will weaken Bangladesh’s demand for climate finance as a climate change vulnerable country,” he said.

Report: India heat wave kills 1,500 in taste of climate change impacts

Last month, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole ruled out the project at their annual general meetings held in France.

“Credit Agricole SA Group has no plans to finance the Rampal coal power plant, in Bangladesh, given our intervention rules and the risks associated with this project”, Stanislas Pottier, global head of sustainable development, said in an emailed statement.

This was followed by an email from Société Générale which said it is “not currently contemplating any financing related to the Khulna coal-fired power project, located in Rampal, Bangladesh”.

At the annual general meeting of BNP Paribas, climate groups like Friends of the Earth, BankTrack and activists from Bangladesh asked BNP Paribas to commit to not financing the Rampal coal-fired power plant.

“The billions of euros of support extended to the coal industry every year by BNP Paribas end up in projects that will pump out millions of tons of CO2 every year for decades, destroying pristine environments and threatening the survival of local populations,” said Yann Louvel, Climate and Energy coordinator for BankTrack.

“The Rampal project in Bangladesh, still only in the development stage, is one such case. It threatens the Unesco-protected Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, as well as local communities, yet the project promoters are approaching even the big international banks for financing.”

It claims that the project in Rampal contravenes the Equator Principles, a voluntary agreement signed by 80 global financial institutions for assessing and managing environmental and social risk in project finance.

The United Communist League of Bangladesh, at a rally on World Environment Day, also demanded cancellation of the power project.

The post India PM Modi endorses controversial Sundarbans coal plant appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: UNFCCC/Flickr)

By Ed King

An automatic system to decide whether countries are classed as rich or poor could be the best solution to historic arguments over who should do most to address climate change.

Quamrul Choudhury, chief negotiator for the least developed countries bloc at UN climate talks, said there was a “growing need” to revisit the way these countries were divided.

“I think there she be some review process so that automatically it can be done,” he told a meeting at Imperial College’s Grantham Institute in London.

If his own country Bangladesh – currently rated one of the most climate vulnerable on the planet – passed a certain level of development it should no longer be classed as poor, he said.

UN negotiations are blighted by a long-running argument over who should accept the toughest greenhouse gas emission cuts and pay for future climate impacts.

Analysis: UN agrees new climate text for Paris deal, but work remains 

Many countries who were classed as poor in 1992 when the talks started now have high per capita incomes and are responsible for growing levels of carbon pollution.

The distinction is critical as developed countries are expected to do more to address the causes and consequences of global warming.

Choudhury, who represents a bloc of 48 countries, admitted a change ahead of this year’s Paris summit, where a UN pact is set to be signed off, was unlikely given deep divisions.

“It will be a challenge – especially from developing countries – and there are some strong positions on the part of developed parties. They also try to hold some issues that are dear to them,” he said.

Running sore

In 2011 governments agreed to work on a UN deal “applicable to all” but the nature of these commitments is still a matter for heated debate.

The US says that without widespread support a global pact will not work. Emissions from India and China alone are predicted to account for 40% of the global share by 2030, says the International Energy Agency.

Talks at the last main UN summit last December in Lima nearly collapsed due to continued disagreements on this issue, a late intervention from the US and China saving the process.

Last year two online calculators aimed at evaluating what level of cuts various countries should make were released by researchers, but neither has widespread support.

Brazil has suggested countries should be classed in a series of three ‘concentric circles’, with the poorest on the outside the richest in the centre and emerging economies in the middle.

At a recent round of talks US negotiators suggested splitting countries into two new ‘annexes’, labelling them ‘x’ and ‘y’, but it is unclear what metrics these would be based on.

The post UN climate body needs “automatic” system to split rich and poor appeared first on Climate Home News.

A boat anchored on the banks of Ghoramara Islands in India (Pic: Priyanka Singh)

By Sanjay Pandey in Ghoramara

The island of Ghoramara has shrunk by two thirds in the last four decades, eaten away by sea level rise and a river periodically swollen by erratic rainfall.

It is part of the Sundarbans region of India and Bangladesh, where some 13 million people eke out a living on the front line of climate change.

The World Bank warned in a recent report that sea level rise and population growth are putting the delta’s delicate ecosystems under increasing pressure.

For the islanders, there is a stark choice between gambling on favourable weather or migrating in search of a more stable existence.

Whenever the river rages into their homes, they retreat and rebuild deeper into the heart of the islands praying to God: “May this be the last ingression of the deity-turned-devil.”

In the past 10 years, Hasna Biwi has watched helplessly as the river swallowed her home, farm and cattle three times. “What can we do? Is it humanly possible to chase the raging river away? We have to live with it and die one day,” the 57-year-old told RTCC.

Report: India resists international scrutiny as it shapes climate plan

During monsoon season, inhabitants of islands like Ghoramara live in continual fear of a dam breach that would not only flood their homes and cattle, but also spoil standing crops. Saline water comes in, making the farms infertile.

Pointing to a standing cash crop of betel leaves, farmer Sheikh Rehman said: “If there is a breach this year too, the village will get flooded again, houses will be washed away or damaged and crops spoiled. We have taken a loan of around Rs 80,000 (US$1,300), again hoping against hope that there won’t any breaches this year.”

The family has considered moving to more solid land, but that takes resources it does not have.

“See, we are very poor people. We cannot afford to buy a plot in the mainland. Those who can they have already left. Only death can take us out of this place,” said Rehman’s mother, with tears in her eyes. When she came to Ghoramara in the early 1970s, she recalled, it had a police station and a post office. Now they are gone.

Hasna Biwi with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren at their abandoned house in Ghoramara (Pic: Priyanka Singh)

The story is the same for thousands of people living on the 100-odd islands of the archipelago. Located in the low-lying delta of mighty rivers, the islands have always grown and shrunk on a natural cycle as the water picks up and deposits masses of sediment.

But in recent decades, land losses have outweighted the gains. The Centre for Environmental Studies reports the Sundarbans has shrunk by around 250 square kilometres since the 1930s.

Some islands have vanished from the map altogether, like Lohachara, Suparibhanga and New Moon islands. With sea levels rising 5mm a year, more areas are expected to sink.

Spread over an area of 9,630 square kilometres in India and 16,370 sq km in Bangladesh, Sundarbans has the world’s largest mangrove forest. It hosts a Tiger Reserve and three wildlife sanctuaries.

It is also densely populated, with 1,000 people per square kilometre and a high birth rate.

Report: Climate adaptation costs could hit $1trn a year by 2050 – UN

At a time when the mangrove delta is being battered by cyclones and inundated due to sea-level rise, a team of nearly 50 scientists, led by coastal engineering expert Robert Nicholls from Southampton University, visited the Tiger camp in Indian Sundarbans early this month.

The objective was to find ways to secure water supplies, health and food for the millions living in the delta.

The scientist are trying to understand how to deal with a dynamic situation caused by climate change and human factors alike .

Once the five-year project is over, scientists say, they will be able to predict the different futures facing the delta under various scenarios.

It will be “crucial” not only to understanding the Sundarbans but also similar deltas in Egypt and Ghana that are home to some 500 million people in total, said Tuhin Ghosh, School of Oceanographic Studies joint director.

Migration as adaptation

“Adaptation can be practised locally like changing the agriculture from high-yielding paddy to conventional and sustainable paddy farming using indigenous seeds. You can go for fishing, aqua-culture farm, crab fattening and so on,” said professor Sugata Hazra, director of the School of Oceanography Studies in Jadavpur University.

Another option is to migrate to a safer place, he added. “Migration should be seen in the framework of adaption rather than seeing it as the failure.”

That was the route taken by Suren Mandal, a climate refugee from Ghoramara who now lives in a slum area of Delhi. With the city state’s newly-elected Aam Aadmi Party promising to give every slum-dweller a pukka house, people like Mandal hope to become legal residents of Delhi.

Mandal, who inherited large tracts of land from his father only to see it being swallowed by the hungry tide, said: “I am now assured that nothing can take away the roof over my head.”

Ironically, the people who are suffering the most due to rising sea levels and increasing salinity, have little or no idea what climate change is.

Environmental activist Subhas Datta, who wants to launch a Green party in India, expressed surprise that no political party had made climate change an election issue in the region.

“For the common people, they don’t know about themselves – forget about climate change,” he said. “Ignorance is bliss for these hapless people.”

The post Sundarbans islanders face stark choice as sea levels rise appeared first on Climate Home News.

Rice harvests in Nepal are at risk from increasingly volatile rainfall with climate change (Pic: UN Photo/John Isaac)

By Bhrikuti Rai in Kathmandu

Research scientists are coming to the aid of 300 million people along the River Ganges who face a hungry future because their staple rice crop is threatened by climate change.

The team of scientists and development practitioners from Australia, Bangladesh, India and Nepal plan to improve the productivity, profitability and sustainability of 7,000 small-scale farmers in the eastern Gangetic plains with a five-year US$ 6.7 million programme.

According to Nepal’s Ministry for Agriculture Development, 66 per cent of Nepal’s total population of almost 27 million is involved in agriculture and contributes 39 per cent in the GDP.

Local scientists say that lack of access to climate-resilient technologies and dependency on monsoon rains for irrigation are major problems for farmers in Nepal.

Food security

“Nepal is one of the most vulnerable countries to projected climate change effect, so the project will help small-scale farmers address pressing issues about their livelihood and food security,” Devendra Gauchan, senior scientist at Nepal Agricultural Research Council, told the Climate News Network.

Altogether, the eastern Gangetic plains of Nepal, Bangladesh and India are home to 300 million people. The aid team, funded by the Australian government, aim to help rice farmers systems through efficient use of water and conserving resources to improve adaptation to climate change, and also connect them to new markets.

The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) will manage the programme, which will be led by the International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre in eight districts − two in north-west Bangladesh, two in east Nepal, and two each in the Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal.

“Rice-based system productivity [in the eastern Gangetic plains] remains low, and diversification is limited because of poorly-developed markets, sparse agricultural knowledge and service networks, and inadequate development of available water resources,” says Kuhu Chatterjee, South Asia regional manager of ACIAR.

The project was designed in consultation and participation with NARC, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and agricultural universities in India.

New technologies

Local scientists feel that this project will also help build capacity of researchers in Nepal. Gauchan said: “Agricultural research in Nepal has very limited strength in terms of human resource, infrastructure facility and institutional capacity.

“Through this project we will get to learn about new technologies and research management from scientists from participating countries.”

According to Chatterjee, the project will test and fine-tune the technologies developed in countries such as Australia, Canada and Brazil, and will modify them to suit farmers in the eastern Gangetic plains.

“Community consultations will be conducted to identify different ways to optimise the productive use of rain and irrigation water, increase cropping intensity through timely planting, reduced tillage and enhancing access to, and use of, energy-efficient irrigation technologies,” Chatterjee said.

This article was produced by the Climate News Network

The post Scientists to help Ganges rice farmers handle climate threat appeared first on Climate Home News.

Minister Hossain Manju (left) and MP Hasan Mahmud (right) address reporters at UN climate talks (Pic: Sophie Yeo)

By Sophie Yeo in Lima

Poor countries have been piling too much pressure on the rich west, Bangladesh’s environment minister Anwar Hossain Manju has suggested.

“We are probably expecting too much from the industrialised and developed countries, because today all countries are suffering from social, political, economic problems,” he said.

He pointed out that war and unemployment had sapped financial resources.

“It’s not a question of expecting anything particularly from any country or organisation,” he said. “Our approach is let us put our hands into our pockets and see how much we can afford. No country can do everything.”

The government of Bangladesh has invested $10 billion over the last three decades in preparing the vulnerable country to the impacts of climate change.

Slow progress

After two weeks of UN talks in Lima, countries are still behaving sluggishly in the face of climate change.

Come Thursday night, parties are supposed to have written a text that will determine what kind of ambition they will put forward before the final UN deal is signed in Paris next year.

But instead of being whittled down into bite-sized options, the text is expanding. This morning, it was 52 pages long, said EU climate commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, having ballooned from 12 pages at the beginning of the week.

And while the options and opinions have multiplied, no paragraphs had yet been agreed.

“Progress is much slower than we want and need,” said Cañete.

On finance there have been some celebrations. The wayward Australia finally dug into its pocket, and the Green Climate Fund has hit its $10 billion target.

Not everyone is impressed.  “It’s peanuts,” says Abdul Momen, Bangladesh’s ambassador to the UN. And most of it has been pledged over a four year period. “I would expect that $10bn should be spent by next year and we should move forward with more money.”

Pledging countries have received congratulations, even those whose contributions amount to a pittance in the face of their fair share.

Brandon Wu from Action Aid said that Australia’s $165 million pledge ought to have been around $271 million for it to be considered its fair share.

Neither did European countries escape censure. Austria’s $25 million pledge today should have been around four times higher if the country is to keep up with its neighbours in Germany, said Christiane Brunner from the country’s Green Party.

It was only around half a year ago that the head of the Green Climate Fund called for $15 billion to be in its coffers by the UN talks – a call that was backed by developing countries including Nauru and Fiji.

Thieves

Bolivian president Evo Morales delivered a lengthy speech yesterday that was fiercely at odds with the forgiving view of the Bangladeshi minister.

He said that rich countries were thieves who were stealing the belongings of others.

“There are countries that do not want to reduce emissions domestically or do anything to help developing countries,” he said.

Other Bangladeshi officials were also quick to point out that they were not giving up on greater help from rich countries.

The compromise that the least developed countries had made was that they were only asking for billions, said Momen. The actual demands of climate change would require “trillions and trillions”, he said.

MP Hasan Mahmud added that many were frustrated: “All the developed parties committed a lot and delivered very little,” he said.

Meanwhile, US climate envoy Todd Stern said that he was not concerned at the slow pace of the negotiations, which he said were usual at this stage of the UN talks.

“I don’t think we’re in any kind of danger zone with respect to time,” he said.

He added that the draft version of the Paris negotiation text was basically completed, with all the options laid out for countries to discuss over the coming year.

This is different from the text that determines countries contributions to the deal, which has to be completed in Lima.

He emphasised that the US refusal to accept an approach to these that treats rich and poor countries differently had not changed.

The level of information that countries should provide is not so complicated that it should scare countries off, he said. “What needs to be provided is really quite simple.”

The post Bangladesh: Poor nations expect too much climate aid from west appeared first on Climate Home News.

Agriculture in Rwanda (Pic: CIAT/Flickr)

By Susannah Fisher

Building consensus and providing up-to-date climate data could help countries develop their low carbon, climate resilient national plans, new research suggests.

Climate negotiators from across the world are preparing to jet off to COP 20 in Lima, Peru, in early December. For two long weeks of talks, media attention will be drawn to climate change once again.

Less glamorous, but equally important, behind-the-scenes work is already being carried out by national policymakers in many Least Developed Countries (LDCs), who are developing their national low carbon climate resilient strategies.

In particular, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Bangladesh recognise that climate change poses a threat to their future.

They are developing national plans that will help them grow in a way that relies less on high-carbon fossil fuels, while also preparing to deal with the impacts that climate change will bring to each country’s regions and sectors, including to agriculture, water, health and tourism.

Ethiopia and Rwanda are both heavily reliant on agriculture and are faced with increasingly unpredictable rains.

These can result in food shortages due to decreasing crop yields. Certain staple crops such as maize in Rwanda are particular sensitive to changes in climate.

Rwanda already experiences floods and droughts and is also vulnerable to landslides. Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to floods and extreme events in the coastal zone.

ANALYSIS: What does it mean to be climate resilient?

The public policy team within the Climate Change Group at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) have just finished 18 months of research into these planning processes.

The research helped clarify what is motivating countries to become more climate resilient and adopt low carbon development alternatives in the future. It also highlighted some ways these processes could be better supported and brought together.

The research, which was carried out in partnership with local research partners and government agencies, involved semi-structured interviews with key policymakers.

It also looked at how individuals worked within their larger social networks, a field of study called social network analysis, in order to see how policymakers were accessing and sharing the information they needed.

Incentives 

The research revealed that there was a strong consensus between all three countries on the incentives driving them to adopt a greener, climate resilient development path in the future.

The key incentives were access to climate finance, and to support existing national priorities.

The financial incentives for such an agenda lie in accessing climate funds such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The GCF was established in 2010 by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to support adaptation and mitigation activities in developing countries.

Countries hope to access significant finance through mechanisms such as these and bilateral support from individual development agencies for climate-related interventions.  This finance can then be used to support national plans.

In Ethiopia, for example, policymakers  talked about using the low carbon, climate resilient approach to be more ambitious with their national agenda.

Some policymakers in Bangladesh emphasised that low-carbon elements of the agenda should be funded through external sources, highlighting that their priorities lie in developing resilience and potentially including low-carbon objectives, if externally supported.

For the policy agenda to gain traction with a range of stakeholders, there is a need to align the chosen policy approach with strong national motivating factors.

For example in Bangladesh, securing energy access for all is a strong policy narrative and parts of the government has aligned it with the low carbon resilient agenda so as to capitalise on the existing policy support.

Diverse definitions 

What people understand by ‘low-carbon resilient development’ varies among key stakeholders  (both government and non-governmental) within and between countries.

In Bangladesh, environment ministries and power-related ministries have formed coalitions supporting their different views and definitions of what the agenda means.

In Ethiopia, views remain diverse and there was little evidence of coalitions forming around particular perspectives within or between ministries.

Rwanda also shows a diversity of views across stakeholder groups, although they broadly remain within the discourse of long-term environmental sustainability.

When a policy is supported by a coalition of stakeholders with similar understandings and priorities they seek to move it forward, and to start implementation.

But when several coalitions hold different ideas there may be insufficient shared understanding to generate a unified way ahead.

This diversity of views suggests that debate across government is required to consolidate ideas and develop a national approach with wider national ownership.

Through this debate, consensus can be reached and the low carbon, climate resilient agenda will become more defined.

Report: Low-cost climate adaptation can help African farmers says UN 

Research also showed that government policymakers and other stakeholders need new information to plan for climate change, indicating that this policy area is still emerging.

This includes technical data on climate change models, and data on the impact of climate change on different regions and sectors.

This research clearly shows that greater attention must be paid to developing wider stakeholder engagement within policymakers and those associated with policy development with the still-emerging low-carbon resilient development agenda.

Policymakers and researchers in each country need to develop a common understanding of key points to allow progress towards implementation, and this must be supported by high-quality, easily available information.

Read the full report : http://pubs.iied.org/10099IIED.html and policy briefing: http://pubs.iied.org/17258IIED.html?c=climate

Susannah Fisher is a researcher on climate change, development, adaptation and political economy based in the Climate Change Group at the International Institute for Environment and Development. Follow her on Twitter @SusannahFisher

The post How are Rwanda, Ethiopia and Bangladesh preparing for climate change? appeared first on Climate Home News.

British forces training Malian troops in response to the 2012 insurgency (Pic: MOD/SAC Dek Traylor)

By Ed King

Climate change could open the door for extremist groups like Boko Haram to take control of parts of Africa and South Asia, risk analyst firm Maplecroft has warned.

In its latest Climate Change and Environmental Risk Atlas it identifies 32 countries across the two continents where food shortages linked to drought and other natural disasters could “amplify” civil unrest.

Bangladesh, Nigeria, India, Myanmar, Philippines are among the most vulnerable it says, while China, India, Nigeria and Kenya are “high” risk.

In total Maplecroft estimates nearly two billion people face increasingly tough prospects due to rising global temperatures.

“Widespread drought and food insecurity helped create the socio-economic conditions that led to the emergence of Boko Haram and the violent insurgency in the North East of the country,” write the authors.

“Food insecurity and food price volatility have also been identified as triggers to the Arab Spring – particularly in Egypt and the current Syrian conflict.”

Other countries deemed at acute risk include the three West African countries hit by outbreaks of ebola: Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

A lack of coordinated governance and security concerns in this region is a “key driver of the region’s increasing vulnerability to climate change” adds Maplecroft.

Drawing on recent research from the UN’s IPCC climate science panel, the report says countries heavily reliant on agriculture for their economies are likely to be worst hit by future climate impacts.

“The agricultural sector in Southern and Southeastern Asia in particular is likely to be significantly affected by climate change,” it says.

“These regions are expected to experience respective drops in labour capacity of 7% and 16% by 2045 due to future increases in heat stress, threatening economic output and productivity from the agricultural sector.”

IPCC scientists and government officials are meeting this week in Copenhagen to discuss the UN panel’s flagship “synthesis” study.

This will condense the findings of three 1,000-page studies it has released over the past 12 months.

The final document, due out on November 2, is likely to warn that continued emissions of greenhouse gases will lead to “severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems”.

Links between climate change and instability are not new. Last month the US military said rising sea levels and temperatures would change the way it operates around the world.

And the NATO military alliance said in September global warming, water scarcity and energy demand would “shape the future security environment” for its 28 member states.

“Unlike policy makers who often ignore or politicise the science in seeking short-term objectives, global business and the military now view climate change as an important risk management imperative,” said Dr James Allan, head of environment at Maplecroft.

“Identifying future flashpoints will help proactive organisations and governments make strategic decisions.”

The post Climate change could create more Boko Haram extremists – study appeared first on Climate Home News.