Scientist, activist, advisor

Saleemul Huq championed locally led climate adaptation and greater involvement of all stakeholders in global discourse

- JAYANTA BASU

I FIRST met Saleemul Huq in 2013 in Warsaw, Poland. We were attending the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP19) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and I was eager for his views. During our 30-minute interview, his answers were full of deep analysis, sans an iota of excitement. This began a series of interactions that lasted a decade-with the Sundarbans being a common area of interest-till Huq breathed his last on October 28, 2023. The demise of the 71-year-old climate scientist, activist and advisor to developing countries came as a blow to those in the field. "We lost our guardian," says Noor-E-Elahi of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), a research institute founded by Huq in 2009.