A ATIQ Rahman is a scientist who refuses to remain confined within the four walls of the laboratory, a teacher who has made the world his classroom and, importantly still, an activist whose mission is to rally effective global action to address climate change.
Born in 1950, Atiq Rahman obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees from Dhaka University before going on to complete his PhD in solid state chemistry and low energy process at Brunel University in London in 1977.
His involvement in science-based environment movement began during his days in the United Kingdom. 'In 1977 and 1978, what we said about the environment was treated as "environmental texts" as there were no textbooks on environmental issues.'
When Atiq Rahman and others first started talking about environmental issues in Bangladesh, they were labelled as 'foreign agents'. 'As if environmental problem did not exist in Bangladesh,' he says. 'Eventually, we were successful in establishing that the environment and development are two sides of the same coin, and that development, resource allocation, food production and governance are environmental issues.'
The massive floods in 1986 and 1988 provided a 'learning experience'.'When the government started preparing the flood action plan at that time, we opposed,' he recalls. 'We observed that something was happening with the climate and the climate was changing. We started advocacy work based on science with messages that there will be sea-level rise due to adverse impacts of climate change, and soon we were in the middle of climate change debate at both local and global levels.'
Atiq Rahman's work was facilitated greatly by the NGO movement, as the UNFCCC also involved civil society in the climate discourse. Soon, the intergovernmental panel on climate change was formed to provide science-based wisdom on climate change.
The Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, which he co-founded, became the storehouse for reliable publications on science, environment and development after they started quantifying sea-level rise and its impacts in the late 80s and early 90s. While working on environmental projects in Bangladesh, Atiq Rahman realised the need for tapping into the traditional knowledge system of the ordinary people, most of whom are illiterate.
'We have sought to make a combination of the developed world's science-based knowledge and the local traditional experiential knowledge system. We have faced two challenges – one is harmonising the two knowledge systems, and the other is that climate change is happening at a faster rate threatening peoples' knowledge.'
While the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change conference disappointed many environmentalists and economists, Atiq Rahman refuses to be dispirited.
'Despite many failures in Copenhagen, a lot has happened there,' he says. 'There has been much progress, including long-term visions and adaptations.'
The climate change debate has come a long way since 'we started talking about it 25 years ago,' says Atiq Rahman.
His works have not gone unnoticed by the international community. The United Nations honoured him with the prestigious 'Champions of the Earth 2008' for 'extraordinary leadership and his contribution to environmental issues, sustainable development and climate change.'
The government of Bangladesh also recognised his commitment to ensuring a better environment with 'Paribesh Padak' in 2008.
The awards have also helped the activities of the BCAS which Atiq Rahman and his colleagues 'are trying to develop it as a centre of excellence on a global issue in a southern country like Bangladesh.'
The BCAS, in spite of having 65 research-based publications, has no core funding, and it works with the government, partners and international agencies. 'It [BCAS] is a very difficult model we are running for the last 25 years…Now we are recognised with some awards.'
Atiq Rahman observes that the awards have some recognition values that open certain doors. 'The awards expose you to a wider audience… My calendar is always crowded, but the demand and the audience are shifted to some extent after the awards are given… Earlier, I said what I wanted to say at the international level. Now at times I have to say what they want to hear.'
'In Bangladesh, the audiences shifted not that much,' he says. 'But the situation has changed to quite an extent. Once what we said was challenged. Now people think, ok, they all are not mad.'
Atiq realises the role of poverty in creating obstacles for development activities. 'Now we are trying to develop new theories on how we can alleviate poverty, facing the other challenges including climate change that will wash away our development efforts.'
'Now the whole paradigm in the planning process is shifting …and the government is much more responsive. They are taking leadership,' he says.
'Worldwide, climate change is a central issue now in comparison with the time when we were discussing the issue in isolation. Now the whole world is talking…In fact, when money comes people talk, Bangladesh suddenly has 300 to 30,000 climate experts overnight. So this is the world in which we live,' he remarks with a hint of sarcasm.
Atiq Rahman stresses the need for enforcement of laws, especially the ones applicable to protect environment and natural resources, for making the whole governance process functional by removing the weakness of laws. 'We are in a vicious cycle of non-compliance of laws; we need to turn it into a virtual cycle of rule of law and governance.'
One of the core problems in third world countries is the allocation and distribution of funds and Atiq Rahman feels that these processes should be made transparent. 'The government has formed a 100 million dollar trust fund. There will be a 150 million dollar Multilateral Trust Fund. About 300 million dollar would come for adaptation. So getting 500 million to one billion dollar is not impossible. But the funds will be available when you will be able to ensure accountability and transparency in their utilisation beyond reasonable doubt. If we fail to visibly ensure accountability and transparency, the money will dry out. So in our own interests we should obey the laws and demonstrate that laws are obeyed here. If we miss the first opportunities, than we will create a bad precedence.'
Atiq Rahman is now also digging the depth of his knowledge to seek new ways to modernise the traditional relief-based disaster management system. 'Cyclone, flood and draught are happening with increasing intensity as well as frequency. There will be internally displaced people, who, in the future, are likely to turn into people migrating to external places,' he says.
'Some discussion has taken place in Copenhagen (in 2009) on migration…We have made some points there. The points are: those who are responsible for climate change and emission of greenhouse gases are responsible for this displaced people. So they have to take responsibility of these people, they need to accommodate the displaced people where greenhouse gases originate from, which is rich countries. That is a very complex issue.'
'The United States believes that climate change will be the bigger strategic threat in the immediate future, much bigger than terrorism, which is expected to be purged out within next 10 to 20 years. But 300 million people will be displaced by climate change, which will throw a challenge much bigger than the present international system faces. So we need to learn and be ready to handle that before the opportunities and solutions go out of our hands.'
'In fact, we need to make our development "smart", so that it can face impacts of climate change and overcome poverty, ensure food, water and energy security for the people. The politicians should become far smarter and take lead in the struggle.'
Although Atiq Rahman's hands have always been more than full, he has designed, developed and taught multi-disciplinary post graduate courses on Sustainable Development Challenges and North South Dialogue at the MIT in 1999 and 2000, thus sharing his vision with the potential leaders of the future generation.
He is a coordinator of the Global Forum on Environment and Poverty, a worldwide network of over 400 policy and research institutes working on sustainable development, global governance and equity issues. He is also the chairperson on the executive board of the Climate Action Network – South Asia.