Climate
German companies urge next government to step up on climate
Dozens of large German companies have urged the country's next government to put in place ambitious policies to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord.
In an open letter Monday, 69 companies said the next government needs to put Germany “on a clear and reliable path to climate neutrality” with a plan for doing so within its first 100 days in office.
The signatories included chemicals giant Bayer, steelmaker ThyssenKrupp and sportswear firm Puma.
Read:Germany will take next step after WHO's approval of Covaxin
The center-left Social Democrats narrowly beat outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Union bloc in last month election. They are due to meet Monday with the environmentalist Greens party and the pro-business Free Democrats to discuss forming a coalition government.
“Climate protection was the decisive topic in the federal election and the parties must place it at the top of their agenda in building the new federal government,” said Michael Otto, board chairman of mail order company Otto Group and president of the Foundation 2 Degrees, which organized the letter.
Earlier this year, Merkel's government adopted a plan to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to ‘net zero’ by 2045, five years earlier than previously planned.
But official figures show that Germany is slipping behind on its ambitions for cutting greenhouse gases, with 2021 emissions forecast to rebound sharply after a pandemic-related economic slump.
Read:After close vote, Germany on tricky path to form government
The foundation, which says its members have an annual turnover of about 1 trillion euros ($1.16 trillion) and employ more than five million people worldwide, wants the next government to support the rollout of renewable energy and enact a climate-friendly tax reform that includes a strengthened carbon pricing system to prevent investments in power-hungry industries going abroad.
Pointing toward the upcoming U.N. climate summit in Glasgow and Germany's presidency of the Group of Seven major economies next year, the companies said the government must also work to set international standards for the global financial system and climate-neutral products.
“As businesses, we are prepared to fulfil our central role in climate action. We call upon the new German government to make the transformation to climate neutrality the central economic project of the coming legislative period,” they said.
Fight against climate change: 'Bangladesh adopts nature-based solution'
A nature-based approach is the most effective way to tackle biodiversity loss, climate change and achieve sustainable development, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin said Thursday.
Bangladesh has been putting efforts into achieving sustainable development goals, placing climate, nature and development at its heart, he said.
The country has adopted a green growth strategy in its 8th Five Year Plan and Bangladesh Perspective Plan 2021-2041 to harmonise economic growth with environmental sustainability to create a climate-resilient nation, Shahab added.
Read: Climate crisis no longer a looming crisis: Mia Seppo
The minister made the remarks during the Fourth United Nations Environment Program Session of the Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of the Asia-Pacific held Thursday in South Korea, joining virtually from Dhaka.
The government has adopted the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 to achieve a safe, climate-resilient and prosperous delta by ensuring long-term water and food security, economic growth, environmental sustainability while effectively reducing vulnerability to natural disasters and building resilience to climate change, Shahab said.
To cut GHG emissions, Bangladesh has revised and submitted Enhanced Updated NDCs on August 26 this year, enhancing both the unconditional and conditional contributions with ambitious quantifiable mitigation targets, he added.
Read: Bangladesh, UK issue collective call for ‘ambitious action’ against climate change
Shahab Uddin said Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan 2030, finalised by Bangladesh, has recognised the co-benefits of maximising share of renewable energy, enhancing energy efficiency, giving importance to climate-resilient nature-based approaches of development and due consideration on Locally Led Adaptation.
The country is also working on implementing its sectoral policies and action plans like Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, Country Investment Plan on Environment, Forestry and Climate Change, Renewable Energy Roadmap, Plastic Waste Management Action Plan, the minister said.
Climate change: EU to step up support for Bangladesh
The European Union (EU) will assist Bangladesh in its ongoing effort to tackle climate change, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission's European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, said Friday.
Appreciating the role of the Bangladesh government, he said: "The EU will continue to increase its cooperation in the days to come."
Frans said this at a bilateral meeting between the EU and Bangladesh led by the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Md Shahab Uddin in Italy's Milan.
Read: Climate crisis no longer a looming crisis: Mia Seppo
The environment minister told the EU that Bangladesh is playing a significant role in the international arena on climate change.
Also, he sought the EU's cooperation in all sectors, including technology transfer, capacity building, renewable energy and implementation of adaptation activities, to tackle climate change.
Read: Bangladesh, UK issue collective call for ‘ambitious action’ against climate change
Additional Secretary (Development) A Shamim Al Razi and Director of the Department of Environment Md Ziaul Haque were also present at the meeting.
World News Day observed with focus on climate crisis
Bangladesh on Tuesday joined the global community of journalists in observing the annual World News Day, which aims to promote the importance of authentic journalism.
News organisations and media houses came together across the world on this fourth iteration of World News Day, choosing to highlight the critical importance of credible journalism in providing trustworthy information about the climate crisis and the planet's future.
With the involvement of 500 news organisations across the world, the campaign focuses on one point -- climate change, or as the terminology shifts, the climate crisis -- with 2021 on course to be declared as the hottest year on record amid the worsening consequences of global warming.
The flagship virtual event of this year's campaign is a 75-minute Web show titled “World News Day: The Climate Crisis”.
World News Day is an initiative driven by the Canadian Journalism Foundation and the World Editors Forum to raise awareness about the critical role of journalists in people’s lives. The very first World News Day was observed on September 28, 2018.
Read: Dickson lauds Bangladesh's efforts on climate front
Bangladesh: On the frontline of a planet in peril
Nowhere is the climate crisis more pressing or more potentially catastrophic than Bangladesh, for the simple fact that nowhere else do we see a greater swathe of humanity under threat from its worst effects.
According to the Environmental Justice Foundation, by 2050, with a projected 50 cm rise in sea level, Bangladesh may lose approximately 11% of its land, affecting an estimated 15 million people living in its low-lying coastal region.
It isn’t something the country brought upon itself. As a late comer to industrialisation, the country’s contribution to anthropogenic climate change, for which the Industrial Revolution that started in 19th-century Britain was a catalyst, has actually been minimal.
That is why as the current chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group of 48 countries that are most disproportionately affected by the consequences of global warming, it is working hard for a fair and equitable deal to be reached at the next UN-led conference on the issue (COP26), set to be held in Glasgow in December.
Experts have long bemoaned the fact that the wealthier, industrialised countries – the ones who have historically contributed the most to the depletion of the ozone layer – still put up a reluctant front when it comes to taking responsibility now for addressing the problem.
“Bangladesh has been hit hard with extreme weather caused by climate change for years. Climate change is a global phenomenon that needs a global solution through collective efforts,” noted climate expert Dr Ainun Nishat on the occasion of World News Day.
Dr Nishat said they have been talking about climate finance for several decades for combating climate change impacts, but sufficient funds have not been allocated globally.
“It’s necessary to sensitise global leaders regarding climate financing and keep their commitment to reducing carbon emission. The upcoming COP-26 Summit will create an opportunity to do this,” he said.
World News Day is being observed in Bangladesh as elsewhere across the world today (Tuesday), highlighting the critical importance of credible journalism in providing trustworthy information about the climate crisis.
Environment experts said about 700,000 people in Bangladesh become refugees every year due to the natural disasters which are said to be intensifying with climate change.
They point out that per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in Bangladesh is 0.46 tonne per year while it is about 10 to 15 tonnes per year in the developed countries.
Alongside reducing carbon emissions, the analysts said developed nations must help Bangladesh with mitigation and adaptation efforts, necessary funds, resources and technology to prepare it for the inevitable losses of lives, livelihoods, habitable land, and the resulting human migration.
Read: Dickson lauds Bangladesh's efforts on climate front
Hasina places six proposals to make world more liveable
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday put forward six proposals to make the world more liveable by bringing down carbon emissions and tackle the people being displaced across the globe due to climate change.
She placed her proposals while delivering the pre-recorded speech in the ‘Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate’, convened by US President Joe Biden.
The Prime Minister, in her first proposal, asked the major carbon-emitting countries to take action to reduce their emissions to keep the global temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In her second proposal, Hasina renewed her call for fulfilling the commitment of an annual 100-billion-dollar climate fund by the developed countries and distributing it 50:50 between adaptation and mitigation.
The Prime Minister, in her third proposal, advised the developed countries to come forward with the most effective energy solutions along with technology transfer to the developing countries.
Also read: Hasina places 4 suggestions to deal with climate challenge
Out West, Biden points to wildfires to push for big rebuild
President Joe Biden on Monday used his first Western swing in office to hold out the wildfires burning across the region as an argument for his $3.5 trillion rebuilding plans, calling year-round fires and other extreme weather a climate change reality the nation can no longer ignore.
“We can’t ignore the reality that these wildfires are being supercharged by climate change,” Biden said, noting that catastrophic weather doesn’t strike based on partisan ideology. “It isn’t about red or blue states. It’s about fires. Just fires.”
With stops in Idaho and California, Biden sought to boost support for his big rebuilding plans, saying every dollar spent on “resilience” would save $6 in future costs. And he said the rebuilding must go beyond simply restoring damaged systems and instead ensure communities can withstand such crises.
“These fires are blinking ‘code red’ for our nation. They’re gaining frequency and ferocity,” Biden said after concluding an aerial tour of the Caldor Fire that threatened communities around Lake Tahoe. “We know what we have to do.”
The president’s two-day Western swing comes at a critical juncture for a central plank of his legislative agenda. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are working to assemble details of the infrastructure-plus plan — and how to pay for it, a concern not just for Republicans. A key Democratic senator said Sunday that he will not vote for a package so large.
Read: Biden to survey wildfire damage, make case for spending plan
In California, Biden took an aerial tour of land charred by the Caldor Fire after getting a briefing from officials at the state emergency services office. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces a recall vote Tuesday, joined Biden for the briefing.
Newsom joked that the emergency center had become his office because fire season has “just kept going,” as he amplified Biden’s message.
“This has been a hard year and a half,” Newsom said.
During an earlier briefing in Boise at the National Interagency Fire Center, which coordinates the government’s wildfire response, Biden noted that wildfires start earlier every year and that this year they have scorched 5.4 million acres. “That’s larger than the entire state of New Jersey,” Biden said.
“The reality is we have a global warming problem, a serious global warming problem, and it’s consequential, and what’s going to happen is, things are not going to go back,” he said.
Biden, who visits Denver on Tuesday before returning to Washington, aimed to link the increasing frequency of wildfires, drought, floods and other extreme weather events to what he and scientists say is a need to invest billions in combating climate change, along with vastly expanding the nation’s social safety net.
The president argued for spending now to make the future effects of climate change less costly, as he did during recent stops in Louisiana, New York and New Jersey — all states that suffered millions of dollars in flood and other damage and scores of deaths after Hurricane Ida.
Read: Lake Tahoe residents relieved homes spared from wildfire
Biden also praised firefighters for the life-threatening risks they take, and discussed the administration’s recent use of a wartime law to boost supplies of firehoses from the U.S. Forest Service’s primary supplier, an Oklahoma City nonprofit called NewView Oklahoma.
In deep-red Idaho, several opposing groups leveraged Biden’s visit as a way to show resistance to his administration. GOP gubernatorial candidates, an anti-vaccine organization and a far-right group were among those urging people to turn out against the president.
More than 1,000 protesters did so, gathering in Boise before Biden arrived to express displeasure with his coronavirus plan, the election and other issues.
Chris Burns, a 62-year-old from Boise, said, “I’m against everything Biden is for.” Burns was especially displeased with a sweeping new vaccine mandate for 100 million people that Biden announced last week. “He’s acting like a dictator,” Burns said.
The White House is trying to turn the corner after a difficult month dominated by a chaotic and violent U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the surging delta COVID-19 variant that have upended what the president had hoped would mark a summer in which the nation was finally freed from the coronavirus.
Biden acknowledged his polling numbers have dipped in recent weeks, but argued his agenda is “overwhelmingly popular” with the public. He said he expects his Republican opponents to attack him instead of debating him on the merits of his spending plan.
Besides the Republican opposition in Congress, Biden needs to overcome the skepticism of two key centrist Democrats in the closely divided Senate. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have expressed concerns about the size of the $3.5 trillion spending package.
Read:California wildfire dangers may be spreading south
Manchin said Sunday, “I cannot support $3.5 trillion,” citing his opposition to a proposed increase in the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and vast new social spending envisioned by the president. Manchin also complained about a process he said feels rushed.
In California, Biden appeared to respond to those concerned about the plan’s size, saying the cost “may be” as much as $3.5 trillion and would be spread out over 10 years, a period during which the economy is expected to grow.
The 100-member Senate is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Given solid GOP opposition, Biden’s plan cannot pass the Senate without Manchin or Sinema’s support.
The climate provisions in Biden’s plans include tax incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles, investments to transition the economy away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources such as wind and solar power, and creation of a civilian climate corps.
The Biden administration in June laid out a strategy to deal with the growing wildfire threat, which included hiring more federal firefighters and implementing new technologies to detect and address fires quickly. Last month, the president approved a disaster declaration for California, providing federal aid for the counties affected by the Dixie and River fires. He issued another disaster declaration for the state just before Monday’s visit aimed at areas affected by the Caldor Fire.
Malaysia pushes for solution to climate issues
Malaysian High Commissioner to Bangladesh and Chair of ASEAN Dhaka Committee (ADC) Haznah Md Hashim has highlighted the critical role of governments towards finding a sustainable solution to the climate change issues.
She said climate issues have a tremendous effect on countries all over the world, particularly those from the emerging economies.
"Therefore, a collective effort, in not just ASEAN but also countries like Bangladesh, is needed to ensure governments meet its obligation under the Paris Agreement," said the High Commissioner.
She was addressing a webinar on "Climate Change" on Thursday initiated by the High Commission of Malaysia to explore ideas and views as well as sharing of best practices on climate change.
Also read: Climate emergency demands policy shift to adaptation: Global leaders on COP26
Secretary General of the Ministry of Environment and Water, Malaysia (KASA) Dr Zaini Ujang and Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bangladesh, Md Mostafa Kamal were present as the chief guests.
Haji Haris Haji Othman, High Commissioner of Brunei Darussalam; Aung Kyaw Moe, Ambassador of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; Pham Viet Chien, Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam; Makawadee Sumitmor, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand; Hidayat Atjeh, Chargé d' Affaires of the Republic of Indonesia; Leo Marco C Vidal, Chargé d' Affaires of the Republic of the Philippines; Sheela Pillai, Head of Mission of the Singapore Consulate; senior officials, diplomats and experts from Bangladesh and ASEAN Member States.
The ADC was established in the year 2014 and is comprised of eight ASEAN Missions based in Dhaka.
Also read: UK Foreign Secretary reaffirms support for Bangladesh’s climate actions
They are the High Commission of Brunei Darussalam, Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, High Commission of Malaysia, Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Embassy of Republic of the Philippines, Consulate of the Republic of Singapore, Embassy of the Royal Thai Embassy, and Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.
The ADC chair is rotated every six months and is currently being chaired by Malaysia.
Pay compensation to climate vulnerable nations: FM to developed countries
Bangladesh has called upon the developed countries -- responsible for the highest rates of global carbon emissions -- to pay compensation to the poorer nations for the losses and damages incurred through climate change.
In an interview with ITV News, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said it is fair and just for these bigger countries to pay compensation because they are the ones that abuse the resources and spoil planet Earth.
The G20, which is made up of most of the world’s largest economies, accounts for more than 80% of global carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, developing countries like Bangladesh often emit the lowest amounts of global emissions but are forced to endure the disproportionate wrath of climate change.
Bangladesh is only responsible for 0.4% of the planet’s total carbon discharge yet loses around 2% of its GDP yearly to extreme climate events, says the ITV News.
Six million Bangladeshis have so far got displaced as a consequence of climate change and by 2050, the country fears 17% of its coastline will vanish underwater creating 30 million climate refugees.
“This is an existential problem for Bangladesh,” Momen said, adding that the climate change issue is not a national issue, not a regional issue, it is a global issue. "We all have to work together in collaboration and partnership to save this planet."
Read: Bangladesh to be voice of climate vulnerable countries: FM
Fossil leaves may reveal climate in last era of dinosaurs
Richard Barclay opens a metal drawer in archives of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum containing fossils that are nearly 100 million years old. Despite their age, these rocks aren’t fragile. The geologist and botanist handles them with casual ease, placing one in his palm for closer examination.
Embedded in the ancient rock is a triangular leaf with rounded upper lobes. This leaf fell off a tree around the time that T-rex and triceratops roamed prehistoric forests, but the plant is instantly recognizable. “You can tell this is ginkgo, it’s a unique shape,” said Barclay. “It hasn’t changed much in many millions of years.”
What’s also special about ginkgo trees is that their fossils often preserve actual plant material, not simply a leaf’s impression. And that thin sheet of organic matter may be key to understanding the ancient climate system — and the possible future of our warming planet.
But Barclay and his team first need to crack the plant’s code to read information contained in the ancient leaf.
Read: China dinosaur footprint fossil named after Doraemon's "Nobita"
“Ginkgo is a pretty unique time capsule,” said Peter Crane, a Yale University paleobotanist. As he wrote in “Ginkgo,” his book on the plant, “It is hard to imagine that these trees, now towering above cars and commuters, grew up with the dinosaurs and have come down to us almost unchanged for 200 million years.”
If a tree fell in an ancient forest, what can it tell scientists today?
“The reason scientists look back in the past is to understand what’s coming in the future,” said Kevin Anchukaitis, a climate researcher at the University of Arizona. “We want to understand how the planet has responded in the past to large-scale changes in climate — how ecosystems changed, how ocean chemistry and sea levels changed, how forests worked.”
Of particular interest to scientists are “ hothouse ” periods when they believe carbon levels and temperatures were significantly higher than today. One such time occurred during the late Cretaceous period (66 million to 100 million years ago), the last era of the dinosaurs before a meteor slammed into Earth and most species went extinct.
Learning more about hothouse climates also gives scientists valuable data to test the accuracy of climate models for projecting the future, says Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Georgia Tech University.
But climate information about the distant past is limited. Air bubbles trapped in ancient ice cores allow scientists to study ancient carbon dioxide levels, but those only go back about 800,000 years.
That’s where the Smithsonian’s collection of ginkgo leaves come in. Down a warren of corridors, Barclay hops across millennia – as is only possible in a museum – to the 19th century, when the Industrial Revolution had started changing the climate.
From a cabinet, he withdraws sheets of paper where Victorian-era scientists taped and tied ginkgo leaves plucked from botanical gardens of their time. Many specimens have labels written in beautiful cursive, including one dated Aug. 22, 1896.
Read:120,000-year-old fossils in Israel link to human family tree
The leaf shape is virtually identical to the fossil from around 100 million years ago, and to a modern leaf Barclay holds in his hand. But one key difference can be viewed with a microscope — how the leaf has responded to changing carbon in the air.
Tiny pores on a leaf’s underside are arranged to take in carbon dioxide and respire water, allowing the plant to transform sunlight into energy. When there’s a lot of carbon in the air, the plant needs fewer pores to absorb the carbon it needs. When carbon levels drop, the leaves produce more pores to compensate.
Today, scientists know the global average level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is about 410 parts per million – and Barclay knows what that makes the leaf look like. Thanks to the Victorian botanical sheets, he knows what ginkgo leaves looked like before humans had significantly transformed the planet’s atmosphere.
Now he wants to know what pores in the fossilized ginkgo leaves can tell him about the atmosphere 100 million years ago.
But first he needs a codebreaker, a translation sheet — sort of a Rosetta stone to decipher the handwriting of the ancient atmosphere.
That’s why he’s running an experiment in a forest clearing in Maryland.
One morning earlier this year, Barclay and project assistant Ben Lloyd tended rows of ginkgo trees within open-topped enclosures of plastic sheeting that expose them to rain, sunlight and changing seasons. “We are growing them this way so the plants experience natural cycles,” Barclay said.
The researchers adjust the carbon dioxide pumped into each chamber, and an electronic monitor outside flashes the levels every five seconds.
Read:Weird ‘living fossil’ fish lives 100 years, pregnant for 5
Some trees are growing at current carbon dioxide levels. Others are growing at significantly elevated levels, approximating levels in the distant past, or perhaps the future.
“We’re looking for analogues — we need something to compare with,” said Barclay. If there’s a match between what the leaves in the experiment look like and what the fossil leaves look like, that will give researchers a rough guide to the ancient atmosphere.
They also are studying what happens when trees grow in super-charged environments, and they found that more carbon dioxide makes them grow faster.
But adds Barclay, “If plants grow very quickly, they are more likely to make mistakes and be more susceptible to damage. ... It’s like a race car driver that’s more likely to go off the rails at high speeds.”