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POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Parliamentarians try to change the climate change narrative
**The parliamentarians have now gone back to their respective countries with renewed vigour to spread the word amongst their fellow parliamentarians as well as their constituents and governments about the need to treat the climate change issue with much higher priority everywhere.**
A recent meeting of par-liamentarians from over 20 vulnerable developing countries, including from Africa, Least
Developed Countries, small island developing states and Latin America together with some developed countries, including Canada, United Kingdom and the Netherlands, met in Dhaka from March 14 to 16 and came out with the Dhaka Parliamentary Declaration and also formed a Parliamentarians for Climate Justice Network.
The meeting was hosted by the Bangladesh Parliament and supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
After sharing presentations on what was happening in their respective countries the parliamentarians discussed a wide range of issues including climate change impacts, disarmament, climate finance as well as the specific role of parliamentarians.
Some of the significant outcomes of the meeting include the following:
Focus on vulnerable people: The parliamentarians recognised that while some countries, communities and people were currentiy already facing the adverse impacts of climate change, if efforts to reduce emissions were not successful, then eventually all countries communities and people would be adversely affected. So in that sense all countries are vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change (but some are facing those impacts already).
Hence the call for more ambitious actions on mitigation by all countries (specially the developed countries) while also advocating for more sup-
port for adaptation in the poorer countries.
The parliamentarians from the developed counties vowed to press their respective governments to fulfil their pledges of financial support to the vulnerable developing countries.
Role of parliamentarians: Much of the discussion revolved around the role that parliamentarians could play both at home and internationally.
Firstly, parliamentarians are the
elected leaders of their respective constituencies and hence can speak on behalf of their constituents, both nationally as well as internationally.
Secondly, as national leaders who
are close to the grassroots they can be powerful sources of information and advocacy towards their constituents.
Thirdly, as legislators they can initiate appropriate legislation in their respective parliaments.
Fourthly, as the constitutionally mandated body for providing oversight of the executive they can hold their own governments to account.
Finally, they can form a powerful network at the global level to raise their voices in favour of these actions.
Changing the narrative to climate justice:
The use of the term climate justice was much debated and finally agreed as it was felt to connect best to com-
mon people in both developed as well as developing countries. As much of the terminology and jargon associated with climate change (such as mitigation and adaptation, etc) can be difficult to communicate to ordinary people. The notion that the problem is caused by the rich (both rich countries as well as rich people in all countries) and the victims are the poor (again both poor countries as well as poor people everywhere), this explanation is much more easily understood by everyone, both in developed as well as developing countries.
Bangladesh's role:
By organising and hosting the parliamentarians meeting the Bangladesh Parliament has joined the government and civil society in playing a pro-active role internationally on this issue. The visiting parliamentarians were uniformly impressed by Bangladesh's stance and actions.
The fact that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina opened the meeting and the leader of the opposition Begum Khaleda Zia sent a statement of support, which was read out by the Opposition Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment, was a powerful symbol of bipartisan unity on this issue.
The parliamentarians have now gone back to their respective countries with renewed vigour to spread the word amongst their fellow parliamentarians as well as their constituents and governments about the need to treat the climate change issue with much higher priority everywhere.
It remains to be seen how successful they will be.
The writer is Senior Fellow at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development and Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh.
E-mail: saleemul.huq@iied.org