“The alarm bells ought to be ringing in every capital of the world.” John Gummer, a veteran parliamentarian, spent much of his career advocating for climate change in the halls of Westminster. But he knew then, as we know today, that the battle against climate change would not be confined to those halls alone. Today, the fight against climate change is a complex and global phenomenon, affecting everyone. It is a daunting task to maintain cohesion in such a global fight, involving countless agreements spanning at the local and international level.
The most scrutinized and well-known of these agreements are the ones at the very top of the hierarchy: The international agreements between states, which set the political precedent behind much of the climate change action today. The relevance is contextualized to strategize the local policies for protection of the future generations. We will explore these pertinent issues, and thus understand how we may best prepare ourselves in this fight against climate change.
Climate change agreements and Bangladesh: A brief history
The world's first agreement for environmental action was arguably its most successful: The Montreal Protocol, which pushed for a global phaseout of substances damaging the ozone layer. It is ratified by every United Nations member, including Bangladesh, which adopted the protocol the very year it was introduced. In Bangladesh, it served as a clarion call for policymakers, who undertook a mix of donor funded projects and firm legislation to phase ozone depleting substances out of the economy. Such decisive policy efforts revealed the government's commitment and belief in global action against climate change at the time.
The growing enthusiasm for global action for environmental issues led to the creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, which established an international order that allowed states to discuss, research and jointly combat climate change issues -- resulting in a platform that would convene every year in a Conference of Parties (COP).
Consequently, two significant international agreements of our time were adopted: The Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2015. The Kyoto Protocol was the first climate treaty that provided the economic instruments for climate change adaptation and mitigation, through green financing from developed states that were the main emitters of greenhouse gasses.
It regrettably fell through as it excluded the high emitting developing nations (China and India) from binding targets. The most significant Paris Agreement is a pledge by 196 countries that aims to prevent global temperature rise within 1.5-2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial level till the end of this century. The agreement also asserts that governments must disclose their targets in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), conduct the Global Stocktake every five years, share technologies, and provide information on financial support. Bangladesh was among the first countries to align with the agreement and declare its voluntary contribution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2015.
The Katowice climate package adopted by 192 countries at COP24 provides guidelines to operationalize the Paris Agreement.However, this package gave fragmented rules and overlooked the financial commitment, but it gave more clarity on NDC and biennial reporting submissions. The subsequent Glasgow Climate Pact from COP26 agreed to finance efforts for climate change resilience, pledged to provide $100 billion from the developed to the developing nations, and called for phasing down coal usage and inefficient subsidies on fossil fuels.
Finally, the most recent COP27 reinforced the financial commitment to establish a dedicated fund for loss and damage, spurred the accountability exercise of Global Stocktake to analyze the performance of countries and hold businesses and institutions accountable.
The obstacles and opportunities
The facts are stark for Bangladesh. As a deltaic, low-lying country, we remain extremely susceptible to climate change. At the same time, we are at a stage in our development that merits significant growth that can come at the expense of our environment. The Eighth Five Year Plan concedes the temptation of “grow dirty, clean up later” -- and yet commits to a policy of green growth, as mandated by the Paris Agreement. But this is not a road without difficulty: Promised climate finance is still scant, geared towards mitigation, and comes in the form of loans and non-concessional instruments. COP26 promise of $100 billion in funding from developed states is yet to be realized.
That being said, over the years the government has formulated more than 24 policies, plans, and acts to address climate change and disaster management, leveraging the international Agreements wherever possible. The most recent vision document, the Eighth Five Year Plan, reaffirms the government's commitment to the Paris Agreement, and notes updating the country's pre-existing Climate Change and Strategy Action Plan in the following years. Moreover, the Plan details the Climate Fiscal Framework that the government has established as a part of its fiscal reforms to promote green growth.
These reforms were reaffirmed by the government's long-term Vision 2041, which emphasizes its commitment to accessing global climate funds in its endeavors for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Above all, the Delta Plan 2100 sets Bangladesh on an uncharted path of climate change adaptation and mitigation. It was an outcome of developed-developing country cooperation with climate change and set the stage for vision-driven climate investments in Bangladesh.
Thus, it is evident that the country's vision documents have been rewired in anticipation of the potential benefits that could flow from the Paris Agreement, proposing bold measures to fellow development partners that could propel Bangladesh's sustainable development in the years to come.
A new international order?
From the Montreal Protocol to the Paris Agreement, Bangladesh has maintained its commitment to global environmental agreements. This has been a commitment without fail, despite the mixed outcomes we observed with the Kyoto Protocol, the overlooked financial support in the Katowice package, as well as the Paris Agreement.
Everything requires money. Without depending fully on the promised funds, the Climate Financing for Sustainable Development: Budget Report 2021-22 stated that Bangladesh government allocates 6-7% of its annual budget or $1 billion on climate adaptation for twenty-five ministries. This is nearly a fifth of the $5.7 billion that Bangladesh will need as adaptation finance by 2050.
Maximum allocation is in six thematic areas that includes Food Security, Social Security and Health, followed by Infrastructure, and Mitigation and Low Carbon Development. Seventy-five percet of this comes directly from the government and the rest from development partners. We have received funds from The Global Environment Facility (GEF), Green Climate Fund, Climate Investment Funds (CIF), Bilateral and Multilateral Channels, and private funding.
It is true: Global action against climate change, particularly the action solicited from international agreements, is still weak. The Paris Agreement's goal of limiting the rise of global temperatures within 1.5- 2 degree Celsius is evidently too little, too late, and perhaps too ambitious. Global consensus is tricky to achieve, and the compromises made in Paris will continue to be debated for decades. But the question remains: Where do we go from here?
What is clear is that an accountability system is yet to be established that holds the emitters responsible and a mechanism to impose a payment from the emitters to the vulnerable nations bearing the brunt of climate change. We need to advocate for ourselves more strongly.
Where do we go as a country? We remain firm in our global commitments, but we must play a far more dynamic role. As one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, as well as a leader in locally led climate change adaptation, Bangladesh possesses significant credibility in the increasingly significant domain of environmental diplomacy. As a country, we must share the gravity of our concerns in new avenues beyond those international agreements we have stood behind for so long -- it must be impressed upon our partners that climate change cooperation, bilaterally and multilaterally, is necessary to ensure strong relations with Bangladesh.
If we are offered billions of dollars, we will accept it, but we will remind the world that experts recommend trillions more for the energy alternatives and resources we need to use to save the planet. We must exert our influence where possible to ensure that the Paris Agreement is upheld -- in short, we must be able to own this agreement, if we wish to see it through, instead of accepting its judgment as given. If indeed, to paraphrase from John Gummer, we wish to ring alarm bells in every capital of the world, we must first ring it in Dhaka, and there it must ring the loudest.
Zaheer Abbas is the Head of Reform Management for Youth Policy Forum. He is a junior student at the Dual BA program between SciencesPo Paris and Columbia University. Maliha Mannan Ahmed is an entrepreneur and public health communicator. She is the Founder and Managing Director of Organikare Limited. This is the fourth part of a series of articles on Politics and Policies of Climate Change, produced by YPF.
