Flooding to displace 70m in Bangladesh coastal belt

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FE Report
Climate change will inflict harm on flood-prone Bangladesh in the near future, triggering displacement of up to 70 million of the country's populace, mostly living in low-lying coastal areas, says a new United Nations report.
"… The near term vulnerabilities (of climate change) are not concentrated in lower Manhattan and London, but in flood prone areas of Bangladesh and drought prone parts of sub-Saharan Africa," said Kevin Watkins, lead author of Human Development Report (HDR) 2007/2008, while releasing the report in Brasilia, Brazil Tuesday.
"Nobody wants to understate the very real long-term ecological challenges that climate change will bring to rich countries," the author of the report titled "Fighting climate change: human solidarity in a divided world" maintained.
According to the report, global warming may induce flooding and tropical storm in coastal and low-lying areas, displacing an estimated 332 million people.
"Over 70 million Bangladeshis, 22 million Vietnamese, and six million Egyptians could be affected by global warming-related flooding," the report insisted.
The UNDP's annual flagship report was released in less than two weeks after a a savage storm struck Bangladesh's southwest coastal districts in mid-November, killing nearly 4000 people and causing economic costs excedding US$ 2.3 billion.
"The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem, the UNDP report said.
"Looking to the future, no country-however wealthy or powerful-will be immune to the impact of global warming."
Climate change is the "defining human development challenge" of the 21st century, the HDR says, adding that failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty.
Increased exposure to droughts, floods and storms is already destroying opportunity and reinforcing inequality.
Meanwhile, there is now overwhelming scientific evidence that the world is moving towards the point at which irreversible ecological catastrophe becomes unavoidable.
The report noted that there is a window of opportunity for avoiding the most damaging climate change impact, but that window is closing: the world has less than a decade to change course.
"Actions taken-or not taken-in the years ahead will have a profound bearing on the future course of human development. The world lacks neither the financial resources nor the technological capabilities to act. What is missing is a sense of urgency, human solidarity and collective interest," it mainatined.
The report stated: "In a divided but ecologically interdependent world, it challenges all people to reflect upon how we manage the environment of the one thing that we share in common: planet Earth."
The report warned that failure will consign the poorest 40 per cent of the world's population-some 2.6 billion people-to a future of diminished opportunity. It will exacerbate deep inequalities within countries.
With governments preparing to gather in Bali, Indonesia to discuss the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations Development Programme's annual flagship Human Development Report has warned that the world should focus on the development impact of climate change that could bring unprecedented reversals in poverty reduction, nutrition, health and education.
The report comes at a key moment in negotiations to forge a multilateral agreement for the period after 2012-the expiry date for the current commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
It calls for a "twin track" approach that combines stringent mitigation to limit 21st Century warming to less than 2°C (3.6°F), with strengthened international cooperation on adaptation.
The report advocates a mix of carbon taxation, more stringent cap-and-trade programmes, energy regulation, and international cooperation on financing for low-carbon technology transfer.
Turning to adaptation, the report warns that inequalities in ability to cope with climate change are emerging as an increasingly powerful driver of wider inequalities between and within countries.
It has called on rich countries to put climate change adaptation at the centre of international partnerships on poverty reduction.
An additional 1.8 billion people facing water stress by 2080, with large areas of South Asia and northern China facing a grave ecological crisis as a result of glacial retreat and changed rainfall patterns.
Emerging health risks, with an additional population of up to 400 million people facing the risk of malaria.
The HDR has suggested that developed countries should cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent to 2050 and 30 per cent by 2020 from 1990 levels.
On the other hand, it has also suggested developing countries should cut emissions by 20 per cent to 2050 from 1990 levels.
However, these cuts would occur from 2020 and they would be supported through international cooperation of finance and low carbon technology transfer.
The report has identified a range of policies needed to close the gap between climate security statements and energy policies for avoiding dangerous climate change.
In terms of carbon pricing, the report argues that both carbon taxation and cap-and-trade schemes have a role to play.
Gradually rising carbon taxes would be a powerful tool to change incentive structures facing investors.