Climate Change Expert
1952-2023
Jan/Feb 2024
Professor Saleemul Huq (founder and director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development [ICCCAD], Dhaka) passed away on Oct. 28 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He was part of the author team for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) third, fourth and fifth assessment reports, spanning from 1997 to 2014.
An expert in climate change, environment, and development, he focused on adapting to climate change and mitigating its effects from the perspective of the Least Developing Countries (LDCs). He attended all the sessions of the Conferences of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and was an active adviser on adaptation, loss and damage, and climate finance to the UNFCCC’s LDC group of negotiators. At its COP27 event, held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Huq was instrumental in reaching the agreement to establish a loss and damage fund, a project that he had worked on for many years.
A dual Bangladeshi-British citizen, in 2022 Huq was honored with the Order of the British Empire for his efforts to combat climate change. He published hundreds of scientific as well as popular articles and in 2019 was recognized as one of the top twenty global influencers on climate change policy. He was also a senior fellow at the U.K.-based International Institute for Environment & Development and senior adviser on locally led adaptation at the Global Centre on Adaptation.
Due to his parents’ diplomatic postings, he grew up in Europe, Asia and Africa. He moved to the U.K. during the 1970s to study at Imperial College London, where he obtained his doctorate in botany in 1978.
Dr. Huq is survived by his wife Kashana, son Saqib, and daughter Sadaf.
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