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Saleemul Huq
Senior fellow, Climate Change
Saleemul Huq is an expert on the links between climate change and sustainable development, particularly from the perspective of developing countries. He was the lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Sustainable Development in the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and was the lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Mitigation in the IPCC's fourth assessment report.
His current focus is on supporting the engagement of the Least Developed Countries in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He is researching the least developed countries' vulnerability to climate change and the impact of adaptation measures. He is also the director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh.
Links between climate change and sustainable development, and particularly the perspective of developing countries.
Africa and South Asia, especially the least developed countries in those two regions.
Building negotiating capacity and supporting the engagement of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), including negotiator training workshops for LDCs, policy briefings and support for the Adaptation Fund Board. Research into vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in the LDCs.
Lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Sustainable Development in the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Lead Author of the chapter on Adaptation and Mitigation in the IPCC's fourth assessment report.
Executive director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies
English, Bengali and Hindi/Urdu
Saleemul Huq's blog posts
Although Cyclone Roanu killed 30 people in Bangladesh last week, steps taken to reduce the country's risk from disasters saved many more lives.
Ahead of the 10th conference on community-based adaptation (CBA10), to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh this year, Saleemul Huq highlights some of the lessons learned from organising these events.
When it comes to climate adaptation, the Least Developed Countries have the greatest expertise and other countries may benefit from learning from what they have done.
As four major strands of global decision-making come together in 2015, IIED senior fellow Saleemul Huq explains why they are so important for the world's Least Developed Countries.
How do we effectively measure and enhance adaptation? Saleemul Huq looks at some possible answers, all of which will be discussed at the 9th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA).
As last month's fourth conference on Climate Change and Development showed, Africa will need strong leaders such as Fatima Denton – who will deliver IIED's 2014 Barbara Ward Lecture on Thursday – to tackle the issues of climate change.
It's been a busy week for IIED senior fellow Saleemul Huq, with plenty of action unfolding on the climate change front in New York. Here he provides an inside look into what transpired, and some reflections on how the recent events may impact upcoming climate negotiations.
It is clear that the long-term solution to climate change lies in weaning the global economy off fossil fuels and onto a cleaner and more sustainable energy pathway in every country. But it is also clear that climate change is already wreaking havoc around the globe and that, in the short term, the world's poorest and most vulnerable people need urgent support.
President Obama's declaration on limiting emissions of carbon dioxide by a third from coal-fired power plants in the US is a major step in the right direction and marks the tipping point in US engagement in tackling the global problem of climate change.
I have just spent a gruelling week in Yokohama, Japan at the plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). There the summary for policymakers on climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerability was adopted a day after the official closing, after an all-night marathon of work.
Even the best of efforts to adapt to climate change may not be enough to prevent loss and damage, and that's why the UN climate talks need to agree a mechanism to handle this new issue, says Saleemul Huq.
The global community has been too slow to limit greenhouse gas emissions and too slow to adapt to the impacts that climate change will bring. Loss and damage are now inevitable.
The poorest communities (and poorest countries) are leading the world in learning about and practising adaptation to climate change. The rich would do well to learn from them.
Find out what the key issues facing the least developed countries are as the climate talks progress. Watch our daily live video updates from Saleemul Huq, Senior Fellow at IIED, from the climate talks in Doha.
The impacts of climate change do not happen overnight but play out over decades. Funders looking to support people to adapt to those impacts must take the long view and accept that their investments may not provide measurable outcomes for ten years or more.
Saleemul Huq's blog posts with other authors
As climate negotiations continue in Bonn this week, Stephanie Andrei and Saleemul Huq argue that it would be in everyone's interest to strengthen the target for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.