#ImpactFailure2025 On 'Failures in Solving for People and Planet: Moving Towards a Climate 360 Approach', the panelists had some hard-hitting remarks on the current approaches and the urgent need to shift our perspective on the climate crisis and its implication on communities.

Bangladesh has the world’s sixth highest rate of out-of-pocket health expenditure and some of the poorest quality of care. The link between climate change and health is a particularly deadly combination in the global south, where affordable services remain out of reach for many.

To listen to the full debate:

9 - This is the fundamental structural problem of capitalism. To exist, these companies have to sell - and to sell, they have to create this aura of modernity and prosperity. That’s at the root of everything. Unless that changes, it's all greenwashing.

8 - Companies are constantly under pressure to demonstrate growth - which will primarily come from the expanding middle class in the global south. People are already being bombarded with advertising to create aspirations of consumption.

7 - We need to help people better connect the dots between the disasters they’re seeing and their everyday decisions, and see that environmental taxes are not burdens, but investments.

6 - In the developing world, we equated progress with consumption - and cheap, disposable products. We’re now trying to change that - an aspirational reset. It's crucial that we also tell our stories differently, so people understand that their choices impact women in Bangladesh.

5 - We need to separate progress from consumerism. In the 80s, we would buy drinks in glass bottles and get 1 taka back when we returned them. We were so excited when plastic bottles were introduced. We have become like America, we thought. Now, glass bottles are coming back.

4 - People are already coming up with solutions, but they need strengthening. A lot of collaboration is needed. It's crucial that the West doesn’t see the climate crisis as an isolated problem - because when people lose or can’t use their land, they’ll migrate.

3 - 6 billion people, or 85% of the world’s population, live in the global south - and in Bangladesh, where I’m from, 87% of jobs are informal, mostly agriculture. Economic transformation is about figuring out how those people can adapt to the changing climate.

2 - Equity is about the countries who have benefited from utilisation of the environment now stepping up to the plate, turning their emissions trajectories around and supporting countries who haven’t benefited.

1 - Environmental equity calls for the just distribution of benefits and burdens. The West has utilised resources to gain prosperity for a long time - and people in countries like Bangladesh are paying for it. A woman on the coast has to walk for two hours now just to get water.

Last month I had the honour of speaking at Cité de la réussite at Sorbonne Université. Some points from the debate -

Our 1st plenary at #if2025 on 6th Feb: "Failures in Solving for People & Planet." #RohiniNilekani moderating a panel with @CarlPope, @asifsaleh @HariniNagendra & #AnshuGupta @goonj discuss the failures of climate action & how to move towards a Climate 360 approach #ClimateAction

Bravo aux panelistes de la conférence de la @citereussite sur l'équité environnementale et les enjeux de la transition écologique animée par @vincentgiret avec Julia Faure @AntoinePellion @DavidDjaiz @asifsaleh . Comment répartir justement les efforts et les investissements ?

Shocking rates of violence against #women in #Bangladesh: factories, schools, public transport, online. 📊 The 🇪🇺 @EUinBangladesh & @BRACworld, in partnership with #BLAST and #YPSA, launched the €4.8M SHIKHA project to create safe public and private spaces and #EndGBV,

We need climate adaptation that solves the real problems people are facing now. I joined @timsvengali on @vox_dev Talks to discuss that those problems look like, and what adaptation needs to look like. Read it on The Good Feed: https://t.co/H2ZI0j6DVW @oliverhanney

4 - We need urgent action on extreme poverty. Nearly 9% of the world lives are in extreme poverty, and by the end of this decade, unless more action is taken, 2/3 of those people will be in fragile and conflict-affected states. We have a moral imperative to turn this around.

3 - The future is in good hands with young people. Never a surprise, but always nice to be reminded. The students I met showed real passion about dedicating their careers to a system that works for everyone, not just the privileged. Conversations like this always give me hope.