Climate

By Stella Paul Incheon, South Korea, Oct 9 2019 (IPS) – “The window of opportunity to avoid catastrophic climate change is fast shrinking,” executive director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Yannick Glemarec, tells IPS. Read More »

Dhaka, Oct 01- The water levels at various points in Bangladesh have crossed the danger marks after all the gates of the Farakka barrage were opened following flood in Patna, Bihar. Read More »

Dhaka, Oct 1 (UNB) – City dwellers witnessed heavy rains for about two hours on Tuesday that inundated roads and lanes in many parts of the capital triggered huge traffic tailbacks. Read More »

By Rachel Kyte Washington, DC – When emergencies strike, special processes within governments and communities swing into gear. And everyone steps up to help. Read More »

By Andrew Holness and Frank Bainimarama Kingston/Suva – Small island developing states like ours are barometers of the world’s commitment to climate action and sustainable development. Our economies and societies thrive when national ambitions and progress are supported by bold global action. However, global inaction on climate change is threatening our way of life, development achievements, and growth prospects, and ... Read More »

By Ralph Chami, Sena Oztosun, Thomas Cosimano, and Connel Fullenkamp Scientific research now indicates more clearly than ever that our carbon footprint—the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere where it contributes to global warming through the so-called greenhouse effect—now threatens our ecosystems and our way of life. But efforts to mitigate climate change face two significant challenges. Read More »

Global Carbon Index combines proprietary information and futures markets data to produce the first benchmark for the global price of carbon London (September 25, 2019) – IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, today announced that it has launched the IHS Markit Global Carbon Index, the first benchmark for the global price of carbon ... Read More »

Denmark, Sept 25 (AP/UNB) — Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is among four people named Wednesday as the winners of a Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “Alternative Nobel.” Read More »

United Nations, Sep 23 (AP/UNB) — Leader after leader told the United Nations on Monday that they will do more to prevent a warming world from reaching even more dangerous levels. But as they made their pledges at the Climate Action Summit, they conceded it was not enough. Read More »

United Nations, Sept 24 (AP/UNB) — President Donald Trump made his political priorities clear Monday within an hour of arriving at the United Nations for a three-day visit: He breezed by a major climate change summit to focus instead on religious persecution, an issue that resonates with his evangelical supporters. Read More »

Dhaka, Sept 23 (UNB) – The tell-tale signs and impacts of climate change – such as sea level rise, ice loss and extreme weather – increased during 2015-2019, which is set to be the warmest five-year period on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Read More »

British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson on Saturday said the United Kingdom (UK) would be spending some 6 billion pounds to help Bangladesh and other vulnerable countries combat climate change with adaptation and mitigation. Read More »

Dhaka, Sept 20 (UNB) – Nearly 3,000 school and college students took part in a protest rally here on Friday urging global leaders to act against climate change. Read More »

About 160 Bangladeshi workers, sent back home from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night amid a crackdown on undocumented workers, said they had been forced to return despite having valid documents. Read More »

by Karin Nansen Montevideo – In a recent special report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) argues that addressing climate change will require fundamental changes to the way we manage forests and farmland. The data are new, but the underlying conclusion isn’t: for over a decade, scientists, environmentalists, and civil society organizations have been warning that our prevailing – ... Read More »

Berlin, Sep 14 (AP/UNB) — Germany faces a decisive week in its efforts to combat climate change, with Chancellor Angela Merkel pledging Saturday that Europe’s biggest economy will find good solutions but her governing coalition still haggling over a long-promised policy package. Read More »

London, Sep 12, (AP/UNB) — Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has made a substantial donation for research into the treatment of multiple sclerosis at a center named after her late mother. Read More »

Dhaka, Sept 10 – Due to active monsoon heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely at places over Chattogram, Khulna and Barisal divisions during the next 24 hrs commencing 1 pm on Tuesday. Read More »

A strong typhoon that could bring “historic” winds and rain was poised to make a direct hit on Tokyo later Sunday, as authorities warned of high waves, landslides and flooding. Read More »

Abaco, Bahamas (AP) — Search and rescue teams are still trying to reach some Bahamian communities isolated by floodwaters and debris after Hurricane Dorian, while the official death toll has risen to 43 and is likely to increase even more, top officials said. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said late Friday 35 were known dead on Abaco Island and eight in ... Read More »

Tokyo (Japan), Sept 7 (UNB) – The international community needs to focus more on repatriation of Rohingyas to their place of origin in Rakhine State instead of focusing only on their food, shelter and healthcare issues, says a Japanese South Asian affairs expert. “We’ve to work on how to bring them (Rohingyas) back to their original country (Myanma),” Ryohei Kasai, ... Read More »

7 September 2019 Climate Change The urgent need to move towards a low carbon economy and build resilience, would not only mitigate the worst impacts of climate change in the Asia-Pacific, but also lift the region economically, according to the body overseeing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Read More »

Carrying possessions in plastic bags, some weary Bahamians whose homes were smashed by Hurricane Dorian waited Thursday for a flight out of the disaster zone as an international humanitarian effort to help the Caribbean country gained momentum. The death toll rose to 30. A few hundred people gathered at the partly flooded Leonard M. Thompson airport on Abaco island in ... Read More »

Dhaka, Sept 2 (UNB) – Representatives from the government, development partners, academia, think tanks and UN agencies came together here on Monday to discuss the role social safety nets play in addressing climate change, building community resilience and helping Bangladesh achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. “This is an important shift in our thought process on disaster management. ... Read More »

Equipped with powerful magnets, history enthusiasts and environmentalists scour France’s rivers, pulling out bits of scrap metal, bikes, scooters and the odd kitchen appliance. Sometimes, too, they fish other more unexpected objects out of the water, such as unexploded munitions. Magnet fishing has fast become a popular pastime, according to public safety officials, but French authorities have clamped down over ... Read More »

Demonstrators gathered outside Brazilian embassies on Friday to protest against inaction on Amazon fires. Hundreds gathered in cities including London, Madrid and Bogota, calling for Brazilian president Jairo Bolsonaro to act. Read More »

Helheim Glacier, Aug 20 (AP/UNB) — This is where Earth’s refrigerator door is left open, where glaciers dwindle and seas begin to rise. New York University air and ocean scientist David Holland, who is tracking what’s happening in Greenland from both above and below, calls it “the end of the planet.” He is referring to geography more than the future. ... Read More »

by Silvia Ribeiro Mexico City – Although the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly apparent, the progress toward reducing greenhouse-gas emissions remains as disappointing as ever, leading some to tout new technological solutions that could supposedly save the day. Harvard University’s David Keith, for example, would have us consider geoengineering – that is, deliberate, large-scale, and highly risky interventions ... Read More »

Dhaka, Aug 19 (UNB) – At least 24 people were killed in Himachal Pradesh and three people died in Punjab in rain-related incidents on Sunday as the two states received rainfall over ten times more than normal, officials said, reports The Indian Express. Recording its wettest day this monsoon, Punjab received rainfall 1,300 per cent above normal on Sunday and ... Read More »

Geneva, 13 August (Indrajit Bose) – Member governments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) adopted the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of the ‘Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse gas fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems’ (also called the ‘Land Report’) and the underlying assessment report on Wednesday, 7 August in Geneva ... Read More »