Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque :
Mitigation of global warming is accomplished through reductions in the rate of anthropogenic greenhouse gas release. Models suggest that mitigation can quickly begin to slow global warming, but that temperatures will appreciably decrease only after several centuries. The world’s primary international agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the Kyoto Protocol, an amendment to the UNFCCC negotiated in 1997. The Protocol now covers more than 160 countries and over 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions As of June 2009, only the United States, historically the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has refused to ratify the treaty. The treaty expire in 2012. International talks began in May 2007 on a future treaty to succeed the current one. The poll comes as UN negotiations to agree a new global treaty to regulate carbon pollution gather pace in advance of a key meeting in Copenhagen in December. Officials will try to agree a successor to the Kyoto protocol, the first phase of which expires in 2012.”
According to the latest UN Global Warming report underlining facts and predictions ‘the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered a huge blow to global warming skeptics. Leading climate scientists are now 90 percent sure that human activity is heating up the planet. They present various scenarios that show where global warming could take us by the end of the century. The choice is ours. Recently, global warming skeptics in the political community debated ‘all or some of the global warming scientific consensus, questioning whether global warming is actually occurring, whether human activity has contributed significantly to the warming, and on the magnitude of the threat posed by global warming.
Policy makers have by now given a serious thought to the global warning. Such warming can hardly be avoided realizing that global warming may spell disaster in coastal belt and in deltaic plain like Bangladesh with its river network. The policy makers may well think to opt for mitigation of sufferings and dislocation and enhancement of coping capacities of the coastal inhabitants. Crisis management is a two-fold mechanism-mitigation and survival. As the finance minister said “We should aim to mitigate dislocation and build the capacity to adapt lives and livelihoods” A detailed action plan will be taken to combat ‘disasters due to climate change’. The government has the plan to complete the review of medium and long term strategies to be prepared to ‘prevent the disasters’
The broad agreement among climate scientists that global temperatures will continue to increase has led some nations, states, corporations and individuals to implement responses. These responses to global warming can be divided into mitigation of the causes and effects of global warming, adaptation to the changing global environment, and geoengineering to reverse global warming
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an approach to mitigation. Emissions may be sequestered from fossil fuel power plants, or removed during processing in hydrogen production. When used on plants, it is known as bio-energy with carbon capture and storage. Many environmental groups encourage individual action against global warming, as well as community and regional actions. Others have suggested a quota on worldwide fossil fuel production, citing a direct link between fossil fuel production and CO2 emissions.
There has also been business intervention on the issue of climate change including efforts to improve energy efficiency and limited moves towards use of alternative fuels. In January 2005 the European Union introduced its European Union Emission Trading Scheme through which companies in conjunction with government agree to cap their emissions or to purchase credits from those below their allowances. Australia announced its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2008. United States President Barack Obama has announced plans to introduce an economy-wide cap and trade scheme.
The IPCC’s Working Group III is responsible for crafting reports on mitigation of global warming and the costs and benefits of different approaches. The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report concludes that no one technology or sector can be completely responsible for mitigating future warming. They find there are key practices and technologies in various sectors, such as energy supply, transportation, industry, and agriculture that should be implemented to reduced global emissions. They estimate that stabilization of carbon dioxide equivalent between 445 and 710 ppm by 2030 will result in between a 0.6 percent increase and three percent decrease in global gross domestic. A wide variety of measures have been suggested for adaptation to global warming These measures range from the trivial, such as the installation of air-conditioning equipment, to major infrastructure projects, such as abandoning settlements threatened by sea level rise. Measures include water conservation, water rationing, adaptive agricultural practices, construction of flood defenses, Martian colonization changes to medical care, and interventions to protect threatened species have all been suggested. A wide-ranging study of the possible opportunities for adaptation of infrastructure has been published by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers
The consequence of climate change may cause large-scale human displacement. The global project intervention must address 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 is 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.
The Chief US negotiator Todd Stern said: ‘Obviously the package is not going to solve climate change by itself, but I think it is a big step forward.’ ‘In a key area, the agreement set up a ‘Green Climate Fund’ to administer assistance to poor nations, which many experts say are already suffering more floods and drought as temperatures steadily mount’. ‘The green climate fund is intended to raise and disburse dollar 100 a year by 2020 to protect poor nations against climate impacts and assist them with low carbon development.’
Worst victims in Bangladesh are expected to get formal support from major players in the climate negotiations. Bangladesh, which tops a Global Climate Risk Index published during the Copenhagen talks, strongly backs an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, as the only existing binding instrument on emission cuts, rather than creation of an entirely new climate deal. Bangladesh is also urging rich nations to contribute at least US$100 billion for a global fund to help poor nations adapt to climate change. Britain, meanwhile, is the first country to contribute 75 million pounds for creation of Bangladesh’s own multi-donor trust fund for climate change adaptation.
(Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, Professor of Public administration, Chittagong University and Nasir Uddin, Lecturer of Public administration, Chittagong University)
