Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque :
The world wide situation reveals that the problem of climate change has become a matter of great concerns signaling future uncertainties. The government of Bangladesh and that of other poor countries have been urged upon to take heed of the climate displacement nightmare unfolding to add to humanitarian crisis.
The effects of climate change have already caused large-scale human displacement.. The global project intervention t must addressed the problem of climate change displacement. The focus of th global project intervention is contained in a proposal for a convention for climate change displaced persons (CCDPs). The convention would establish an international regime for the provision of pre-emptive, adaptive assistance to those likely to be displaced by the devastation caused by climate change.
The green climate fund was intended to help climate vulnerable countries to fight out global warming. Launched at a UN climate conference at Durban, in December 2011 the green fund is to ‘channel up Dollar 100 billion a year by 2020 in aid of poor, vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change and cut emissions.
Earmarking funds from the recently agreed green climate fund(GCF) of the Durban climate meet (2011) has happened to be ‘one concrete means by which the international community could ensure that the displaced people in Bangladesh receives their fair share of the funds required to deal with the consequence of climate change’
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-17), Durban 2011, has brought together representatives of the world’s governments, international organizations and civil society. The conference seeks to advance, in a balanced fashion, the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action Plan agreed at COP 13 in 2007, and the reached at COP 16.
Each year on June 20th the United Nations, United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and countless civic groups around the world celebrate World Refugee Day in order to draw the public’s attention to the millions of refugees and Internally displaced persons worldwide who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, conflict and persecution.
The annual commemoration is marked by a variety of events in more than 100 countries, involving government officials, humanitarian aid workers, celebrities, civilians and the forcibly displaced themselves.
Each year, UNHCR announces a theme for its World Refugee Day campaign.
Today, more and more people are being forced from their homes by weather-related disasters, environmental degradation and changing climactic conditions. Over the past several decades, natural disasters have increased in force and frequency and are responsible for displacing the victims. . In addition, growing water scarcity, desertification, and decreased agricultural output are causing more people to migrate to support livelihoods. Access to scarce natural resources has the potential to exacerbate conflict. In the future, climate change will increasingly harm some of the world’s most vulnerable populations through greater weather variability, water scarcity, and severe environmental degradation. The most dramatic impacts of climate-induced displacement, such as the complete submersion of island states like the Maldives, are many decades in the future. But today, increased displacement due to more frequent large-scale natural disasters is challenging an already stressed international humanitarian system. As recent floods in Pakistan and Colombia have showed, the current system is ill-prepared to effectively respond
Unfortunately the Bangladesh and Island stats have been worst affected by global menace. If sea-level is raised to one meter in the Bay of Bengal 18 per cent of the total inhabitable land will be submerged under water. It is morally obligatory on those countries to resort to green governance in administrative and banking sectors to combat the onslaught of global warming. The UN should immediately look into it.
Many among us may be going slow and laggard thinking that ‘scientist’s prediction is nothing but prevarication. Thing is that the warning emanating from global warming leading to climate change ‘hovers like a dark cloud’
We are not surprised to see that the New York summit 2014 was not fully successful this time round, despite the hopes many might have cherished because of the great urgency of the matter and more because of resolution of the conflict of views through Obama’s statesmanship as world leader. But there were ‘various complex issues as well as conflict of interests among the nations which might take a while to resolve. The least that the meeting could do is to agree on a broad legal framework involving both developed and developing countries and leave the details for future refinement. In this way, the success of the meeting could be seen as a significant building block towards the ultimate goal.’
The representatives of the developed and powerful developing countries were at a tug of war rendering it difficult for Obama to finish negotiation with a flying colour. ‘The developed countries expected the developing countries to cut their emissions. They themselves did not turn out to be as exemplars. The emerging economies like China Has already been committted to go for substantial carbon cut. Other countries following China agree to make room for carbon emission.
Reports have it that the protestors are rising to the occasion giving a stern warning to the developed countries responsible for global warming and sea level rise. To cite a report:
Demonstrators make their way down Sixth Avenue in New York during the People’s Climate March on Sunday, Sept. 21. The march, along with similar events worldwide, comes two days before the United Nations Climate Summit, where world leaders will convene for a meeting aimed at galvanizing political will for a new global climate treaty by the end of 2015. (Jason DeCrow/Associated Press)
To cite another report:
Thousands of demonstrators marched in nations around the world ahead of this week’s UN Climate Summit, a meeting environmental groups think could help move the world towards a new global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
About 100,000 people marched through the streets to press for action on climate change. Luminaries included Ban, actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, former U.S. vice president Al Gore, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and primatologist Jane Goodall.
Among them were throngs of Canadians, with scores from one Toronto environmental group alone hopping on busses for a 12-hour trek.
Also on hand was Sierra Club Canada program director John Bennett, who said it was long past time for Harper to take concrete steps to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
More than 125 world leaders at the summit the largest number of heads of government to ever attend a climate summit. The summit has been convened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon as way to generate momentum for next year’s climate conference in Paris. The hope is the summit will see leaders outline their plan of action for next year that could result in a new climate deal.
The developed countries’ financial and practical assistance for climate change should come with their right, in return, to monitor the developing countries’ graduated progress under various schemes depending on the levels of their development towards the reduction of their emissions and adaptation to climate change’. So nothing magical was expected to be on the card despite the fact that civil movement is gaining momentum.
If New York policy dialogue registers any success it would be really heartening. New York dialogue along with mass demonstration has thrown a gauntlet for the international policy communities set about to attend the next summit in Paris.
(Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, Professor, Department of Public Administration, Chittagong University)