The annual international conferences on community-based adaptation are unique in that they include field trips where participants can see for themselves how vulnerable people are coping with climate-change related impacts. I went on my field visit on Saturday (26 March) — to a site in Manikganj District, about three hours from Dhaka city in Bangladesh.
The 5th International Conference on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change, takes place in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 24 to 31 March 2011. Saleemul Huq will be keeping us updated from the conference in a series of daily video logs.
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, will next week open an international conference at which more than 250 delegates will share the latest knowledge on how vulnerable communities can adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Governments risk adopting policies that increase people’s vulnerability to climate change because of a general prejudice against migration, according to research published today by the International Institute for Environment and Development.
Striking a deal at this month’s UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico will largely depend on negotiators’ ability to settle stormy disputes, particularly between the developed and developing world, over six key issues.
Climate change negotiations and capacity building work at 16th edition of Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16).
I recently met with a Member of the Bangladesh Parliament to discuss the potential for mitigation in the agricultural sector under IIED’s work on the economics of climate change in the agricultural sector. Agriculture produces 10–12 per cent of total global emissions but also has considerable mitigation potential — 70 per cent of which is in developing countries — and I expected the Honourable Member, a well known climate change champion, to back the cause. But he did not seem entirely convinced. Why should decision makers listen? What’s in it for them?
A new book argues that the best approach to reducing poverty is the simplest: giving money to the poor. In Just Give Money to the Poor, Hanlon, Barrientos and Hulme argue that cash transfers put money directly in the hands of those that need it, and that the poor are both willing and capable of using the money to benefit themselves and their families. Given the uncertainties and pitfalls of spending money on climate change adaptation, could we do worse than simply giving money to the poor themselves?
For much of the developing world producing clean energy that also mitigates carbon emissions is a very low priority. After all, why should countries that haven't significantly contributed to climate change worry about reducing their relatively tiny carbon emissions? In any case who would pay for it all?
Climate change negotiations and capacity building work at 16th edition of Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16).