Developed nations need to help poor counterparts in clean technology use

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M Azizur Rahmanbrback from Cox's BazarbrThe rich and developed countries should provide funds to the countries like Bangladesh to bring in clean technologies to help boost industrialisation process, experts said.brThey said as the developed and rich countries are responsible much for the climate change emitting chloro-fluro carbons (CFCs) they should shoulder the responsibility for funding the poor nations in installing clean technology and help reducing emissions of CFCs.brThe CFCs are the substance responsible for ozone layer depletion and subsequent global warming and the rich countries are emitting these gases for long, they alleged.brThe country's environmental experts and economists were speaking at a two-day media workshop on 'MDGs and Climate Change' at the tourist resort town of Cox's Bazar.brThe United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organised the workshop between August 29-30.brSpeaking on the occasion experts maintained that Bangladesh was required to boost industrialisation, ensure energy and food security and strengthen local government institutions to face the challenges of climate change and achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs).brBangladesh would not submerge due to impact of the climate change. But some unprotected areas might be inundated by water due to sea level rise and increase in average temperature, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) country representative professor Ainun Nishat said.brHe said industrialisation is must for Bangladesh to keep the momentum of the economic growth and undertake necessary cost-intensive programmes like construction of embankments and developing infrastructure to cope with the effects of climate change.brCountry's energy security is needed to fuel industrialisation and food security is inevitable to ensure livelihood, said the IUCN chief in Bangladesh.brUtilisation of the country's coal reserve potentials is necessary to ensure energy security, he said adding, Coal should be extracted utilising clean technology and the developed countries should provide necessary funding.brHe said global temperature was rising alarmingly in last one and a half decades resulting in the sea-level rise, frequent incidences of storms and floods.brFarmers are bearing the burnt of the climate change as they are now unable to predict weather and cultivate crops in time, Dr Nishat, a former BUET teacher said.brEconomist Dr Atiur Rahman expressed concern over less than projected achievement of the MDGs due to variety of reasons, including global warming and climate change.brHe said to achieve the MDGs close monitoring and necessary actions over the targets is necessary.brDr Rahman suggested strengthening of the local government to achieve the MDGs and facing the challenges of climate change. brUNDP senior officials KAM Morshed, Aminul Islam, Anir Chowdhury and Kalyan Pandey also spoke on the occasion.brDuring a fieldtrip to Kalatoli of Cox's Bazar it was found that around 70 families of a locality had to shift their houses from the seashore to the nearby hilly areas due to sea-erosion that has been taking place since 1990s.brI had around 20 'kani's of land, trees and arrangement for fishing near the sea shore. The erosion took away all these and forced me to take shelter in a narrow place of the hilly area, said Noor Alam, an old man aged 60.brHe said he has eight children -five daughters and three sons - and all now depending on catching prawn fries from the sea as they have no education.