Saleemul Huq

Saleemul Huq OBE
সালীমূল হক
Huq in 2015
Born	(1952-10-02)2 October 1952 East Bengal, Pakistan
Died	28 October 2023(2023-10-28) (aged 71) Gulshan, Bangladesh
Nationality	Bangladeshi
Occupation	Scientist
Awards	full list

Saleemul Huq OBE (2 October 1952 – 28 October 2023) was a Bangladeshi-British scientist and had been the Director of the International Centre for Climate Change & Development (ICCCAD)^[1] based in Bangladesh, also Professor at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB). He was elected one of Nature's 10 top scientists in 2022.^[2]

Huq was an expert in the field of climate change, environment and development. He worked extensively in the inter-linkages between climate change mitigation, adaptation and sustainable development, from the perspective of developing countries, particularly in the least developed countries (LDCs). He was a lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Sustainable Development in the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and was one of two coordinating lead authors of 'Inter-relationships between adaptation and mitigation' in the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report (2007).

In addition he contributed to the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Having established the climate change research group at the International Institute for Environment & Development (IIED), based in the UK, in 2000,^[3] he later became a senior fellow, and was also Senior Adviser on Locally Led Adaptation with Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA).

Huq strived to grow the capacity of Bangladesh stakeholders, while enabling people and international organizations to benefit from training in Bangladesh. His teaching experiences included at Imperial College London, the University of Dhaka and United Nations University. He was the founder and the Chairman of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), a leading research and policy institute in Bangladesh.

Huq attended all sessions of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) up to his death. He actively engaged as an adviser on adaptation, loss and damage and climate finance to the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group in the UNFCCC and provided training to LDC negotiators. He was also involved as a board member of Climate Vulnerable Forum under UNFCCC.

Huq was awarded 2020 National Environment Award by the Government of Bangladesh for his contribution to the development of the environment.^[4]

Huq was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to combating international climate change.^[5]