Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Thursday announced a new global initiative to reduce short-lived climate pollutants. Working together as the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden, and the United States will conduct what Secretary Clinton described as “a targeted, practical, and highly energetic global campaign to spread solutions to the [...]

Guardian: Three years after it was decimated by cyclone Aila, Bainpara in south-west Bangladesh is being rebuilt with UK assistance. On 25 May 2009, the village of Bainpara, in the district of Khulna on Bangladesh’s south-west coast, was wiped off the map. Driven by the 120km/h winds of cyclone Aila, a 12ft wall of sea [...]

Earlier this month, Bangladesh’s foreign minister chided the world’s developed nations for failing to honor their pledge to help this low-lying, water-logged nation adapt to the effects of climate change. Of the $30 billion that poor countries were promised three years ago, just $2.5 billion have been disbursed. “Our achievements — social, economic, environmental — [...]

IOL Scitech: There are simple, inexpensive ways to cut back on two major pollutants – soot and methane – and taking action now could slow climate change for years to come, international scientists said on Thursday. When it comes to fending off global warming, the focus often is on harmful carbon emissions from burning fossil [...]

Guardian: Efforts by developed countries to redistribute promised funds to help poorer parts of the world avoid environmental disasters have been described as “dismal” by the foreign minister of Bangladesh. Dipu Moni said wealthier nations must begin immediately delivering the billions of pounds’ worth of aid they have earmarked for climate change projects. “Our achievements [...]

The New York Times: With its massive chalk-white face of ice and snow, Thorthormi glacier in northern Bhutan looms high against a bright blue sky, nearly 4,450 meters above sea level. At the glacier’s base, a wide lake of murky water completes the dramatic scene at the rooftop of the world. But the beauty of [...]

The Bhutan Climate Summit for A Living Himalayas was successfully convened in Thimphu on 19 Nov 2011. Presided over by the Honourable Prime Minister of Bhutan, Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley; Environment Ministers from the four countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal adopted a declaration on behalf of their Governments wherein a regional ‘framework of [...]

Oxfam: Review of Climate Change Adaptation Practices in South Asia. Climate change is predicted to have severe consequences for South Asia, particularly in agriculture, which employs more than 60 per cent of the region’s labor force. Some of the predicted impacts of climate change include: increased variability in both monsoon and winter rainfall patterns; increases [...]

Washington Post: Amid regional tensions, only 4 of 7 Himalayan nations meet for climate summit on the mountains. Four Himalayan nations, faced with erratic weather and the threat of melting glaciers and catastrophic floods, are hashing out a plan for preserving the vast mountain range and helping millions living in the foothills cope with climate [...]

Environmental News Network: The soils and sediments at the bottom of rivers are rich in organic material. They can store carbon for thousands of years according to a study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Despite often high rates of erosion and sediment transport, the riverbed can hold organic carbon for 500 to 17,000 [...]

Daily Star: 17th Saarc Summit ends in Maldives with 20-point Addu Declaration; South Asian leaders also agree to forge effective cooperation for full implementation of Safta, better connectivity and steps towards Saarc Market for Electricity. The 17th Saarc summit ended at Addu in the Maldives yesterday with the adoption of a 20-point Addu Declaration to [...]

CLIMATE 2011: Relatively little scholarly work has focused on comparative evaluation of South Asian countries’ environmental performance (EP) in addressing issues of vulnerability to climate change. It is an accepted fact that climate change induced problems in South Asia have been increasing over many years, but their effects largely have been blamed on extreme poverty [...]

WWF: Himalayan nations must move rapidly to commit to efforts that build resilience to the impacts of climate change and generate resources for adaptation, capacity building and technology transfer. The Himalayan glaciers are the water towers of Asia, and the source of many of the world’s great rivers: The Yangtze, the Ganges, the Indus and [...]

Business Bhutan: As the global summit for climate talks approaches, vulnerable countries make a point to form a united voice. A group of 32 vulnerable countries, which created the Climate Change Vulnerable Forum, including Bhutan is set to meet in Dhaka, two weeks ahead of UN climate talks (the 17th Conference of Parties) in Durban, [...]

Mega dams have the multipurpose applications and considered as the greener energy source than most alternatives. But as compensation to this development it may result a wide range of environmental degradation. This study aims to search the fact of environmental impacts due to the existing and proposed mega dams of the Himalayas and also to [...]

All Headlines News: Bangladesh as the most at risk due to extreme levels of poverty and a high dependency on agriculture, while its government has the lowest capacity of all countries to adapt to predicted changes in the climate. A new global ranking of climate change finds most Asian countries including Bangladesh, India, Philippines, Vietnam [...]

Telegraph: A third of humanity, mostly in Africa and South Asia, face the biggest risks from climate change while rich nations in northern Europe will be least exposed, according to a report released Wednesday. Bangladesh, India and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are among 30 countries with “extreme” exposure to climate shift, according to [...]

Kuenselonline: The summit next month will not discuss complex climate change issues. Climate change being closely linked by geography, history, culture, economy and ecology, the impact of climate change would be felt by all four countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal. To discuss concerns and fine-tune the framework of cooperation, the delegates of the [...]

Digital Journal:  Journalists from India, China and Bangladesh agreed to share information on climate change in Yarlung Zangbo/Brahmaputra river basin A group of journalists from India, China and Bangladesh have agreed to cooperate and share information in reporting effects of climate change on Yarlung Zangbo/Brahmaputra river basin. The decision followed a three days’ interaction among the group [...]

The Daily Star: Climate Change is ‘increasingly recognized as a public health priority’ according to WHO (2009) and Lancet (2011). Lancet, mentioned that climate change will have its greatest impact on those who already are the poorest in the world, and it will deepen inequities, and the effects of global warming will shape the future [...]

Bangladesh among 28 developing countries ranked fifth most vulnerable to climate change and hunger, said a new report. The ActionAid research report styled ‘On the Brink: Who’s Best Prepared for a Climate Change and Hunger Crisis?” reveals that Bangladesh is more vulnerable than its neighbours India, Pakistan and Nepal, who ranked 7, 14 and 16 [...]

Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation: MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and Bangladesh joined forces for an initiative in the United Nations Human Rights Council to urge the international community to address the adverse effects of climate change on human rights. Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Evan P. [...]

International Rivers: When the World Commission on Dams reviewed the development effectiveness of dams, multipurpose projects with large dams, power plants and irrigation schemes had the worst social, environmental and economic track record. As the world is grappling for appropriate answers to climate change, influential actors such as the World Bank want to give these [...]

Multi-American: Will climate change contribute to migration in the future as people are displaced? Many experts believe so, and the Migration Policy Institute is the latest to produce a report detailing how. According to the report, climate change stands to displace people in a number of countries as weather changes affect basic necessities like the [...]

Telegraph India: Project to promote better understanding of management of natural resources. Scientists from India and Bangladesh have joined hands for an integrated understanding of the Brahmaputra and how river systems affect lives of people under an International Union for Conservation of Nature project. The project, Ecosystems for Life: A Bangladesh-India Initiative, is a civil [...]

ACT: Dr. Urs Herren, Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh, celebrated the National Day of Switzerland by addressing the government and citizens of Bangladesh in a published letter that highlights Swiss dedication to assisting with adaptation to climate change. The letter acknowledged that Switzerland and Bangladesh share the challenge of mitigating, and adapting to, climate change: [...]

Alertnet: Bangladesh is getting involved in carbon credit trading with the certification of a recycling plant that converts organic waste into compost. “We collect some 100 tonnes of vegetable waste from two city markets daily and recycle it in our plant in the city’s suburbs through composting. If that waste had been dumped in the [...]

SciDevNet: Houses that rise on floats could provide safer homes in areas prone to floods and tsunamis, according to a Bangladesh-born US architect. Two such ‘amphibious’ house designs are being tested in Bangladesh, where proximity to the Ganges delta means that flooding is a frequent problem. When flash floods last occurred, in 2010, more than [...]

The Financial Express: There is no way to look at agricultural research as having secondary importance, the first one being production and related activities. This is for the crucial reason of higher productivity to meet the even bigger demands for agro-products from accelerated consumption by the growing population of the country. But research in agriculture [...]

The Financial Express: Civil Society Organiza-tions (CSOs) Sunday suggested for ensuring transparency and social audit in implementing the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategic Action Plan (BCCSAP) 2009. The CSO representatives recommended five action plans in this regard which includes need of high level political coordination, incorporation in the sixth five year plan, institutional reforms of different [...]

TheJournalist: WHEN THE four countries, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and including Bhutan, came together for the “Experts’ Group Meeting on Biodiversity” each country presented its own regional issues on the impacts of climate change. The agriculture and forests’ minister, Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho said that a sound biodiversity was crucial for all aspects of human existence. However, [...]

IBTimes: A senior United Nations official warned that climate change could become a catalyst for “sudden and abrupt” shocks worldwide and have “far-reaching implications for global stability and security.” Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environmental Program, told the U.N. Security Council Wednesday that natural resources are at risk. “There can be little doubt [...]

Alertnet: At the intersection of two of the world’s most vulnerable groups – children and women – adolescent girls may end up bearing the biggest burden of climate change impacts, according to a new report. In times of economic hardship – often caused by droughts, floods or other natural disasters – girls regularly suffer from a [...]

Plan International’s new report, Weathering the Storm: Adolescent Girls and Climate Change, calls for better integration of the needs of adolescent girls in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes. The findings presented in the report are based on interviews with girls involved in Plan International’s programmes in Ethiopia and Bangladesh. We [...]

The Ganges BDC R4D program was launched in Bangladesh on 1 June 2011. The event sponsored by the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) was held in their conference center and chaired by the BARC Executive Director Dr. Wais Kabir.  Presentations on the CPWF and the Ganges BDC were given by Boru Douthwaite of the CPWF [...]

Gulftimes: Bangladesh has sought more British assistance in facing the impact of climate change in the South Asian country, one of the most vulnerable nations to global warming. President Zillur Rahman sought co-operation when outgoing British High Commissioner Stephen Evans paid a farewell call on him at the President’s Secretariat in Dhaka yesterday. Evans noted [...]

NewsToday: Agriculture is always vulnerable to unfavorable weather events and climatic conditions. Despite technological advances such as improved crop varieties and irrigation systems, weather and climate are still key factors in agricultural productivity. Often the linkages between these key factors and production losses are obvious, but sometimes the linkages are less direct. The impacts of [...]

HuffPostGreen: Over the next few decades, tens of millions of people will be driven from their homes. Braving violence and poverty, they’ll roam desperately across continents and borders in search of work and shelter. Unlike other refugees, though, their plight won’t be blamed simply on the familiar horrors of war or persecution; they’ll blame the [...]

Bhutan Govt.: It is a common knowledge that climate change is happening in the Himalayas with the rapid melting of glaciers, erratic and unpredictable weather, changing rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures. In order to build resilience to the impacts of climate change, the need was felt not only to address it at the national level [...]

UNDP: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have recently introduced energy efficient, smokeless brick-making technology to curb greenhouse gas emissions in Bangladesh. The new device, known as the Hybrid Hoffman Kiln, was originally developed in Germany to replace the older, highly pollutant brick-making technology. It was later modified in [...]

Assam Tribune: In the present juncture, it has become imperative for the four riparian nations – China, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh to enter into a water-sharing treaty for sustainable, equitable and judicious exploitation of water resources of the Brahmaputra river in a climate of trust and harmony. This observation was made by Prof Nayan Sarma, [...]

Science Mag News: The 13 million people living in Dhaka, Bangladesh, sit on an “earthquake bomb,” says seismologist Syed Humayun Akhter of the University of Dhaka. But as recently as a decade ago, he notes, there was not a single seismologist in the country. That yawning talent gap is slowly closing, thanks in part to [...]

Chinadialogue: Armed forces must join the fight against climate change, believes Major General Muniruzzaman. Here, the Bangladeshi strategist tells Isabel Hilton why. Major General Muniruzzaman is the president of the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies in Dhaka. He has served as a senior officer of the Bangladesh Army and as an international peacekeeper [...]

DailyStar: Broader regional collaboration on adaptation and joint meteorological data management and knowledge sharing to plan on water and food security must be achieved for water management in the face of climate change. The recommendations came at the end of a two-day consultative meeting yesterday between water experts of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan. Ministry [...]

Asia Times: India has signed a deal for a US$1 billion loan from the World Bank that will go towards an ambitious project, Mission Clean Ganga, which aims at halting the discharge of untreated sewage and industrial effluents into the Ganga River (or Ganges) by 2020. Given the enormity of the challenge, many fear that [...]

IISD: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has released the sixth issue of its Climate Change Adaptation Bulletin, a quarterly publication that provides an overview of the technical assistance to countries at the national, sub-national and community-levels. The Bulletin reports on projects carried out in Liberia, Cape Verde, Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Samoa and Cambodia. The issue [...]

Blog: A month ago, Transparency International’s ‘Global Corruption Report Climate Change‘ was released in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Since then, Transparency International Bangladesh has been working at both local and international level to keep up the pressure. It was fitting to launch the report from Bangladesh as the country is on the climate change front line, and [...]

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have recently introduced energy efficient, smokeless brick-making technology to curb greenhouse gas emissions in Bangladesh. The new device, known as the Hybrid Hoffman Kiln, was originally developed in Germany to replace the older, highly pollutant brick-making technology. It was later modified in China [...]

News Today: Renowned experts and scientists have suggested for conducting more research on climate change impacts, the main challenges the humanity now faces for survival, to find out ways of adapting with the deteriorating situations, reports BSS. They urged for directing the research works towards finding out the impacts of climate change at communities, social, [...]

Financial Express Bd: Bangladesh and the United States (US) are going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) soon to foster broader cooperation in low carbon development and other areas of climate change. Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) Meshbah Ul Alam told the news agency after a bilateral meeting with the [...]

Environmental sustainability has for many years been a major concern for Denmark. Danish Development assistance and all development programmes are analysed for potential environmental impacts, including climate change proofing. In Bangladesh, Denmark is providing support to a number of climate change adaptation initiatives in cooperation with government agencies, NGOs and other international organisations. Climate change [...]

DailyStar: Planet Earth is our common home. In this entire universe, earth is the only known planet where living organisms can survive, evolve and regenerate. All the life-forms ranging from amoeba to blue whale, from algae to giant redwood tree and of course the human race totally depend on the natural resources of this blue [...]

British High Commissioner in Dhaka Stephen Evans yesterday said the biggest threat to Bangladesh is not climate change but political violence and instability. “The biggest threat is not climate change…biggest threat is violence and instability. Political mistrust and the threat of confrontation run deep. The country can not afford to return to the politics of [...]

The United Nations Development Programme has estimated that Bangladesh’s energy sector would need $26.6 billion additional investment in the next 20 years to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change. The investment and financial flows will be required to lower carbon footprints of the energy sector in Bangladesh as it expands its supply of [...]

Worldwide 214 river basins host 40 percent of the world’s population, and the Himalayas with huge stocks of water in the form of snow and ice, are the biggest source of surface fresh water in frozen form after the polar ice caps. The Himalayan region has an extremely fragile ecosystem and is source to 10 [...]

BRITISH Foreign Secretary William Hague has described climate change as “perhaps the twenty-first century’s biggest foreign policy challenge.” It requires, in the words of the UN Charter, international cooperation “in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character.” Climate change is just such a problem and its impacts and costs fall disproportionally [...]

The annual United Nations forum aimed at advancing the rights of the estimated 370 million indigenous persons around the world opened with a call to turn those rights into a practical reality. More than 1,300 delegates are expected to participate in the two-week Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which is being held at UN Headquarters [...]

Uttarakhand can provide an able leadership to Bangladesh on environment conservation and climate change, Dhaka”s High Commissioner to India Tariq Ahmed Karim said here today. “Bangladesh has lost nearly 40 per cent of its forest wealth during the last two decades and we would try for an agreement with Dehra Dun-based Forest Research Institute (FRI) [...]

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today urged the industrialised nations to invest adequate accessible fund for adaptation by vulnerable economies. “The fund, we envisage should be adequate, sustainable and easily accessible to meet the full cost of adaptation,” she said while speaking at the high-level segment of the 16th Congress of World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) at [...]

Bangladesh needs to invest more on research to introduce improved varieties of seed for meeting the rising demand for foods by withstanding the negative impact of climate change, agriculture experts said yesterday. They also suggested diversifying crops and focusing more on livestock and fishery sectors anticipating that people would consume less rice and spend more [...]