Tackling climate change

This year, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited world leaders to UN Climate Summit 2014 on 23rd September to galvanise and catalyse climate action. It may not be an exaggeration to say that UN climate summit of September 23 was by far the largest conglomeration for the climate issues. It united world political leaders, government bureaucrats, local government leaders, chief executives of financial institutions and development banks, notable academicians, civil society leaders and cross section of people from different parts of the world on the same platform and provided scope to raise their voices on the cross-cutting issues about the impacts of climate changes.

Per capita carbon emission is still much higher in the developed countries compared to the emerging and developing countries. Many developed countries by replacing old technologies with new green ones have attempted to control carbon emission. But some emerging economies, too, have been registering a rapid increase in carbon emission. So, on the one hand, developed countries need to reduce the level of emissions, while on the other hand, emerging economies need to turn their rapid growth in carbon emission into zero, or even negative growth. A concerted effort from all countries needs to be taken to tackle the impact of climate change effectively.

Shaikh Moniruzzaman
PhD Candidate in Environmental Economics
London School of Economics, UK