DT e-Paper, Saturday, 12 November, 2016

Faith leaders for
cutting fossil fuels
• AFP
Faith group leaders, supported by
Nobel Peace Prize laureates Desmond
Tutu and the Dalai Lama,
called Thursday on sovereign
wealth and pension funds to pull
out from fossil fuel investments.
They made their plea in an interfaith
statement, released in
Marrakesh on the sidelines of UN
talks tasked with implementing a
landmark climate treaty.
Signatories also included
Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Chancellor
of the Pontifical Academy of
Sciences; Olav Fykse Tveit, head of
the World Council of Churches; and
more than 200 other faith leaders.
National and private investment
funds have placed trillions of dollars in
fossil fuel energy and related sectors.
The Paris Agreement, seeks
to beat back the threat of global
warming, caused mainly by the
burning of coal, oil and gas.
The 196-nation pact calls for the
rapid decarbonisation of the world
economy -- essentially a switch
from carbon-intensive to clean energy,
especially solar and wind.
The appeal was led by a pledge
from the Islamic Society of North
America, an umbrella group, to divest
from fossil fuels and encourage sister
organisations to do the same. •
News 5
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2016
CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE
COP22
DT
New protocol demanded
for climate displacement
• Abu Siddique
titled “Climate Displacement : Protecting
and Promoting Rights of the in reference to the Doha decision.
Implementation Mechanism (WIM)
Rights groups yesterday urged global
leaders to come to a consensus
about the protection and promotion
of the human rights of those
Climate Migrants” held at COP22 in
Marrakech.
Sharing his experience of working
with climate change migrants,
Nina M Birkeland of Norwegian
Refugee Council (NRC) said that the
responsibility of climate displacement
should not only be placed
displaced by climate change across Climate Action Network South with the WIM, it should be an important
the world.
They also demanded a new protocol
for the displaced like that of
1951 UN Refugee convention that
ensures justice for the most vulnerable
as a result of global warming.
“I must say that United Nations
Framework Convention of Climate
Change (UNFCCC) does not consider
the issue seriously, and thereby
it needs a new protocol,” said Azeb
Girmi of LDC Watch from Ethiopia.
The call came from a seminar
Asia, Director, Sanjay Vashist said
the number of displaced people
and their migration in South Asia
has been increasing which also has
a higher impact on women.
“It also has been creating tensions
among communities and an
imbalance of competition for scarce
resources,”he added.
Harjeet Singh of ActionAid International
said that states especially
most the vulnerable countries must
push to include this issue in Warsaw
issue in the UNFCCC pro-
cess too.
She urged for policy coherence on
the issues with SDGs, Sendai Frame
Work, UN Global compact on refugee
and migration and WHS (World
Humanitarian Summit) process.
Bangladesh’s Environment secretary
Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed said,
although Bangladesh is trying it’s
best to protect the those displaced
by climate change, the problem is
so huge especially for 39 million living
in coastal areas that its require
global support for the protection of
their human rights.
The programme was jointly organized
by several rights organisations
including Action Aid (AA) International,
Asia People Movement
of Debt and Development (APM-
DD), Climate Action Network South
Asia (CAN South Asia) and Coastal
Association for Social Transformation
Trust (COAST). •
Uncertainty looms over Paris Agreement
• M Zakir Hossain Khan
No matter whether the delegate
represents government or a civil
society organisation (CSO), at the
end of the first week of Conference
of Parties (COP22) most of the participants
seemed gloomy over the
presidential election results of the
USA, the largest contributor to the
global greenhouse gas emission
that has already signed the Paris
Agreement. Needless to mention
that President-elect Donald
Trump’s rigid stance over climate
change is behind this worry.
Global concerns have touched
the UN Secretary General Ban
Ki Moon also who considering
an upcoming uncertainty said:
“The United Nations will count
on the new Administration (USA)
to strengthen the bonds of international
cooperation as we strive
together to uphold shared ideals,
combat climate change, advance
human rights, promote mutual
understanding and implement the
Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) to achieve lives of peace,
prosperity and dignity for all.”
However, morning shows the day!
Climate skeptic Donald Trump has
already selected Myron Ebell, one of
the best-known climate skeptics to
lead the US EPA transition team.
It has been reportedly apprehended
that ‘his participation in
the EPA transition signals that the
Trump team is looking to drastically
reshape the climate policies the
agency has pursued under the Obama
administration.’
A burnt cow dreads the fire: – concerns
grabbed the world intensely
as US previously had set a bad
example; even after signing the
Kyoto Protocol by a predecessor
after the new government came
into US power they left the treaty.
Consequently, concerns are growing
whether the global goal to go
for drastic reduction of the carbon
emission to keep the temperature
rise at least within 2 degree Celsius
turns into rhetoric!
With such a bleak scenario, developing
country Parties as well as
global crusaders against climate
change have already doubted if
the US commitment to mobilise of
$3bn to the GCF would be fulfilled.
The fund is supposed to be the major
source of public finance for the
adaptation process of developing
countries. The country has released
only $0.5bn of the committed $3bn.
In Paris Agreement, the developed
countries committed to meet
the $100bn per annum target by
2020 and to extend it until 2025 in
Concerns grabbed the world intensely as US
previously had set a bad example; even after
signing the Kyoto Protocol by a predecessor
after the new government came into US power
they left the treaty
The photo shows the right group members talk on the climate displacement issue
in a side event at Mrarakech in COP22
COURTESY
the context of meaningful mitigation
actions and transparency on
implementation; it was also agreed
that prior to 2025, the COP will set a
new collective quantified goal from
a floor of $100bn per year, taking
into account the needs and priorities
of developing countries.
In line with the Paris Agreement,
just few days ahead of
COP22, 21 developed countries
finally released the long-waited
“Roadmap to $100bn”. Though this
is only a step forward by the developed
countries towards meeting
the $100bn target, it is noteworthy
that they have also reaffirmed
their commitment to reach the
long term finance goal, recognising
adaptation as a priority for developing
countries. However, even
‘the doubling of present adaptation
finance would be only 20% of the
total $100bn in 2020”.
Now question has arisen how
the 50:50 balance in finance for
adaptation and mitigation could be
ensured.
Moreover, the Roadmap couldn’t
clearly clarify how far the adaptation
finance will be adequately
scaled-up; which portion of claimed
climate finance will actually be
grants, or grant equivalent, as due
to not having the capacity for direct
access from the GCF, some MDBs
are imposing loan to vulnerable developed
countries like Bangladesh
in the name of concessional loan.
Not only that, ‘some of the developed
countries currently provide
only around 10% of their committed
climate specific finance for
adaptation and have made insufficient
or even no commitments on
how they will change by 2020’.
In the fourth day of COP22 negotiation,
Philippines, for the G-77/
China also stressed on clarity on
how to scale up climate finance
and, with AILAC, on considering
how to advance adaptation finance.
Mentionable, the above Roadmap
of the developed country Parties
including US doesn’t include direction
on whether the future finance
against the claim for loss and damages
would be over and above this
$100bn. •
TEMPERATURE FORECAST FOR TODAY
DRY WEATHER
LIKELY
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12
Dhaka 28 19 Chittagong 28 22 Rajshahi 33 19 Rangpur 31 18 Khulna 30 19 Barisal 31 19 Sylhet 32 17
DHAKA
TODAY
TOMORROW
SUN SETS 5:13PM
SUN RISES 6:12AM
YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW
31.6ºC
16.8ºC
Sylhet
Tetulia
Source: Accuweather/UNB
PRAYER
TIMES
Cox’s Bazar 30 21
Fajr: 5:35am | Zohr: 1:15pm
Asr: 4:00pm | Magrib: 5:25pm
Esha: 7:30pm
Source: Islamic Foundation