Climate action speaks louder than climate words

During the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), countries reached an agreement, named the Glasgow Climate Pact after the city in which the agreement was reached, to implement policies that it was hoped would limit the world's man-made global warming temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. It is essential that countries deliver on the promises made in Glasgow. 

The consensus among the scientific community is that the world is already warmer on average than in pre-industrial times due to man-made factors such as the burning of fossil fuels. Climate change has already affected the world's ecosystem, and communities worldwide suffer impacts from ever more frequent and severe extreme weather events. 

Climate change has become a climate emergency, and this emergency does not recognise national borders. International cooperation for climate justice grows more urgent each day, and implementing the demands of the Glasgow Climate Pact would be a good place to start to take action finally. 

The Glasgow Climate Pact commits countries to review and fortify their 2030 carbon emissions reduction targets and develop strategies for achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. It also demands progress in adapting and financing technologies to combat the climate crisis and addressing loss and damage. Moreover, it is the first international climate agreement to demand moving away from the use of coal, a major acknowledgement of the severity of the climate crisis by the international community.

Collectively, we have delayed global efforts to address climate and ecological instability and degradation. The current energy policies being implemented by governments around the world are woefully inadequate in the face of what is needed; and high-emitting governments and corporations have sung a litany of false climate promises while continuing to invest in ecologically-destructive industries, thereby adding fuel to the global fire. 

The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which was penned by hundreds of the world's top scientists and agreed upon by 195 countries, said that man-made greenhouse gas emissions have increased since 2010 "across all major sectors globally."

Retaining our focus on all aspects of the climate crisis directly helps tackle all other challenges to our security and prosperity. The climate crisis and national security risks are structurally interlocked since the immediate damage that climate change does to the material basis of society pushes social relations to the point of social breakdown and political instability. As the National Centre for Climate Restoration (Breakthrough) wrote in a 2019 pamphlet: "Massive nonlinear events in the global environment give rise to massive nonlinear societal events." 

The UK and Bangladesh continue to stress the need for countries, particularly the industrialised world and large emitters, to achieve dramatic near-term reductions in emissions consistent with limiting average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. 

Recently, the UK House of Lords' environment and climate change committee issued a report stating that a third of the UK's emissions reductions must come from UK citizens changing their consumption choices and behaviour. The report acknowledged that UK citizens sought guidance and knowledge from the UK government on how they could change their individual behaviour in order to mitigate the climate crisis and reduce their environmental impact. 

The report criticised the government's policy of "going with the grain of consumer choice" which is in contradiction with the UK's pledge to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. For the sake of reaching net zero by 2050, the report urged ministers to organise a public campaign to effect mass behavioural change, as well as to use regulations and taxation for this end. 

Lady Parminter, the chair of the House of Lords' environment and climate change committee, said: "After a summer of record temperatures, fires, and hosepipe bans, it has never been more apparent that the twin crises of climate change and nature loss demand an immediate and sustained response. Polling shows the public is ready for leadership from the government. People want to know how to play their part in tackling climate change and environmental damage." 

Meanwhile, although Bangladesh rejects the possibility of becoming a net-zero country by 2050, it has urged the industrialised world and large emitters to fulfil the 2050 net-zero target. In July 2022, Energy Advisor to the Honourable Prime Minister, Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, vehemently defended the use of coal power in Bangladesh and said that Bangladesh made no promise whatsoever to reach net zero by 2050. "We didn't make such a promise anywhere," he said. "It's not our goal – it's for the developed countries. We hope the developed countries, which are the main polluters, will fulfil their promises."

In January 2020, the British High Commission Dhaka (BHC Dhaka) launched a UK-Bangladesh partnership to tackle climate change in the run-up to COP26 and beyond. This built on a long-standing relationship between the two countries, mutual expertise in this area, and a common sense of urgency to address the causes and impacts of climate change. It recognised Bangladesh's influence as Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and the UK's role as president of COP26.

The partnership included multi-stakeholder workshops on low carbon, adaptation, nature, and finance. They brought ministers, academics, the private sector, and other prominent voices together to discuss solutions to common problems in each of these areas. Through the partnership, they were also able to achieve an increased awareness of the plight of the most vulnerable, the need for immediate and ambitious emissions reductions, and the need to scale up funding for both adaptation and mitigation.

Ahead of COP27, BHC Dhaka hosted an event to hear from experts, government, parliamentarians, and civil society. The event created space for young climate activists to share their views and suggestions with seasoned experts and get feedback in an effort to support the next generation of leaders.

We must accelerate financial and technical support to the poorest and most vulnerable communities for adaptation, resilience, and loss and damage because this is just as important as developed countries reaching net zero by 2050. Although underdeveloped countries are not the large emitters, their reliance on fossil fuels nonetheless causes ecological damage that contributes to climate change, not to mention immediately and directly affecting the health and mortality of local populations.

Since underdeveloped nations by themselves lack sufficient capital for major economic changes, such as switching from fossil fuels to renewables, they must receive generous donations from developed nations in order to implement such major adaptations. Moreover, since more severe and frequent climate impacts, such as floods, disproportionately affect the populations of underdeveloped nations, and since adequately responding to these climate impacts require funds that these underdeveloped nations lack, developed nations must aid underdeveloped nations in responding to climate impacts.

In 2021, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said, "While support for adaptation and resilience is a moral, economic and social imperative, it receives just one-fifth of total climate finance. And climate finance flowing to least developed countries and small island developing states stands at 14% and 2%respectively."

Furthermore, it is impossible for underdeveloped nations to make any progress in either climate adaptation or their response to climate impacts as long as they are crushed under the weight of foreign debt, especially when that debt requires them to implement austerity measures that by definition prevent them from providing aid to their own people. 

Speaking about the need for financing climate adaptation in underdeveloped nations, the UN Deputy Secretary-General said, "We cannot deliver a decade of transformation when so many developing countries face crushing levels of debt."

The UK and Bangladesh are committed to continuing to show leadership by setting an example in their own actions and working together to encourage other countries to be as ambitious as possible. In mitigation, they have both put forward ambitious policies for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and transitioning to renewable energy.

On adaptation, they are both finalising National Adaptation Plans, which will guide investment and scale-up of adaptation. On finance, they are working together to press countries to meet their commitments, as well as identify new sources of climate finance. They are also working to ensure better access to climate finance for least developed and vulnerable countries.

Through the UK's new climate programme for Bangladesh, they can support the transition to renewables, support adaptation in highly vulnerable and ecologically critical areas, and they can test and scale-up technologies to help improve solid waste management and address pollution of air, water, and soil.

COP27 is an important opportunity to maintain action and raise ambition, cutting emissions and providing finance to adapt and cope with the impacts of climate change. We hope all countries will embrace the opportunity to do so in Egypt this month.