Declaring 'climate change' a planetary emergency
The passing of Cyclone Mohasen through the Bay of Bengal and hitting the coastal areas of Bangladesh once again brings to our notice the devastation that such cyclones can bring. Fortunately due to the timely actions of all concerned, as well as the path of the cyclone, the damage was not as great as might have been expected.
Part of the preparation in tackling such events around the world is the declaration (or not) of an “emergency.” At the international level such an official declaration by a government automatically triggers international relief efforts which are primarily coordinated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Such declarations of “emergency” are often also required at national level by their authorities in order to trigger support from central government authorities. A good example of this was the contrast between the effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Louisiana, where the city and state authorities took a long time to declare an emergency and thus trigger support from the Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA), and the immediate declaration of emergency by the city of New York and states of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey when Hurricane Sandy struck, which enabled President Obama to provide immediate help from the federal authorities.
Of course the declaration of an emergency to face a natural calamity such as a cyclone or hurricane is not the same as the “declaration of emergency” in the governance context, which is a cause for suspension of habeas corpus and other civil liberties (very often invoked by militaries to take over power from civilian authorities).
A case can be made that on a planetary level, the forthcoming impacts due to human-induced climate change can be treated as “slow emergency” and by declaring it as such we may be able to trigger more concerted and pro-active planning and preparedness in dealing with such calamities globally.
In the context of Bangladesh, given its high vulnerability to climate change impacts, it might be worthwhile declaring climate change to be an "emergency" and start taking precautions accordingly.
Loss and damage
Another aspect of this issue is the link between the loss and damage from such catastrophes. This is a new and emerging issue in the context of climate change (although it is well understood in the context of traditional disasters). We will need to find ways of anticipating potential physical as well as economic impacts and then for delivering relief and rehabilitation (or compensation) to the post-disaster victims.
This issue of assessing and disbursing funds after such events is valid in developed countries as well as developing countries. After Hurricane Sandy, for example, the three states and city of New York sent a loss and damage assessment and requested the US Congress for US$180 billion (to which Congress responded by allocating only 50 billion).
At the last conference of parties (COP18) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) a collective decision was taken to look at the possibility of setting up an “international mechanism” for loss and damage. The Bangladesh delegation and the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group played a vital role in negotiating this decision.
Bangladesh thus has an opportunity to develop some pioneering national level thinking, policies and pilot activities on this issue.
The following are just a few ideas on how this might be done:
* Declare climate change to be a 'national emergency' for the purposes of activating all the agencies of government as well as Red Crescent and NGOs to gear up to tackle climate change impacts;
* Explore the institutional aspects of setting up a “National mechanism for Loss and Damage from Climate Change,” perhaps with the Ministry of Disaster Management and Ministry of Environment together;
* Develop procedures for triggering the utilisation of the one-third “reserve funds” in the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) for such loss and damage;
* Use the assessments of loss and damage from cyclone Mohasen as a pilot scheme for the above ideas; and
* Explore the possibility of a climate (or weather) index based insurance and micro-insurance programme.
Bangladesh needs to turn adversity into opportunity and the example of cyclone Mohasen may well provide us with such an opportunity to explore institutional and practical ways to anticipate and deal with such calamities in future, while also sharing our experience and knowledge with the rest of the world.
THE WRITER IS DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT AT THE INDEPENDENT UNIVERSITY, BANGLADESH.
E-MAIL: SALEEMUL.HUQ@IIED.ORG
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