COX'S BAZAR, Dec 9 (bdnews24.com): Bangladesh tops the Global Climate Risk Index, according to a report just published at the Copenhagen climate talks.
The report, based on data by the world's largest reinsurer, Munich Re, shows Bangladesh has been the worst hit by climate change over the two decades from 1990.
Scientists say rising sea levels may displace some 20 million people in Bangladesh by 2050. A study conducted by the water resources ministry forecasts a considerable chunk of today's Bangladesh will be inundated.
This amounts to a fifth of total numbers forecast.
Climate change stands to drive as many as 1.0 billion people from their homes over the next four decades; the International Organisation for Migration said in a study published at the Copenhagen climate talks.
But for the residents of Kutubdia Parha, being a "climate refugee" is not some distant prospect; it is their reality today.
Abdus Shukur (58), one of the first settlers in the camp, told the news agency, the process of losing homes on Kutubdia Island and settling on the Cox's Bazar shore began during the devastating 1960 cyclone.
Three decades on, the 1991 cyclone destroyed around 4,500 homes on the island, bringing another wave of families who crossed the sea and resettled on the mainland shore, he said. "Now people arrive all the time as the island erodes."
Kutubdia Parha stretches about two and a half kilometres along the beach and reaches one and a half kilometres inland.
Bangladesh tops the 'Global Climate Risk Index'
FE Team | Published: December 11, 2009 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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