Adaptation to climate change a big challenge
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Shahiduzzaman Khan
The European Union (EU) pledged a grant of euro 8.5 million to Bangladesh, which is around Tk 730 million, to implement the country's strategic action plan for tackling climate change. The EU this week signed a declaration to provide euro 14.5 million to Bangladesh, Cambodia and the Maldives who agreed to work together to achieve a legally binding agreement in the climate conference in Mexico this November.
Reports published in the media this week said the money is part of euro 7.2 billion that the EU pledged in Copenhagen conference in December last year. The industrialist countries there promised a total of $30 billion for the countries vulnerable to climate change for 2010-2012.
There is no denying that the climate change is already a reality for Bangladesh, but the initiatives taken by the multilateral donors and the developed countries to tackle its impacts are far from being adequate. Climate change will have an adverse effect on public health -- particularly that of children -- agriculture and environment. If temperature goes up from 5.0 to 8.0 degrees celsius, children will be affected the most and 10 per cent of them will not be able to celebrate their fifth birthday.
Thanks to their untiring efforts, the coastal people have started adapting to a changing environment. They are an example to the global community of how to overcome the difficulties caused by flooding. Coastal people have developed several techniques, such as raising the plinths of their homes and developing floating gardens to cultivate vegetables, as a result of flooding in previous years.
British Minister Douglas Alexander said recently that Britain and other rich countries had a moral duty to help Bangladesh and other poor countries adapt their infrastructure, farming and economies to climate change. The world has now a duty to rise to the challenge and ensure that "we support the poorest people of the world -- least responsible for climate change -- to prevent and prepare for its cruellest consequences", he added.
Bangladesh is now in the international spotlight on the adverse impacts of global warming. There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and enhance the country's capability to adapt to perilous impacts of climate change. The adversities stemming from the changing climate under the impact of heavy carbon emission by developed countries are threatening to set back Bangladesh's efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, particularly through its serious adverse consequences for agriculture and food security.
Bangladesh is trapped between the Himalayas in the north and the encroaching Bay of Bengal to the south. The delta is most vulnerable to natural disaster due to the frequency of extreme climate events and its high population density. The predicted temperature increase will cause the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas. Bangladesh, as some experts have feared, may lose one-third of its landmass due to the rise of sea level, which is the direct outcome of climate change. The impacts of higher temperatures and sea-level rise are already felt. The hazardous climate change will affect water resources, agriculture and food security, ecosystems and biodiversity, human health and coastal zones in Bangladesh.
These changes are already having major impacts on its economic performance and on the lives and livelihoods of millions of poor people in this country. It was projected by experts that a one-metre rise in sea level would inundate 17 per cent of Bangladesh; frequency of natural disaster is likely to increase during the present century. Two successive floods and deadly cyclone Sidr that caused heavy damage to life, property and crops worth about $2.8 billion in 2007 are indications of the climate change.
Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the sea-level rise would be in the range of 15 cm to 90 cm by the year 2100. Even a 10-cm sea-level rise will inundate about 2500 square kilometres of land area of Bangladesh. A 30-45cm sea-level rise is likely to dislocate about 35 million people from coastal districts by 2050. Crop yields are predicted to fall by up to 30 per cent, creating a very high risk of hunger due to climate change.
A study by a multilateral donor and other related, leading agencies and the government of Bangladesh had found that the country urgently needed huge amounts of money to ensure its survival. It needs at least $4.0 billion by 2020 to build dams, cyclone shelters, to plant trees along the coast and to build infrastructure and capacities to adapt to increasing number of natural disasters. The EU's recent grant announcement of 8.5 million euros is not that much big, but definitely it will go a long way to help tackle the most hazardous issue.
Yet, a local environment specialist believes money available now is not enough and rich economies should feel obliged to offer more assistance to countries like Bangladesh which are facing devastating disasters, occurring for no fault of their own. The world should not stay indifferent when such countries go under the sea, he said.
On its part, the government of Bangladesh had launched an aggressive battle to fight climate challenges that should have been started many years earlier. It is not too late but the country needs a lot of support -- including funding and technical expertise -- from the global community. It especially needs help from those rich nations whose carbon emissions have created the problems -- and they should also be prepared to open their doors to the millions of Bangladeshis, if they become climate refugees. szkhan@dhaka.net
The European Union (EU) pledged a grant of euro 8.5 million to Bangladesh, which is around Tk 730 million, to implement the country's strategic action plan for tackling climate change. The EU this week signed a declaration to provide euro 14.5 million to Bangladesh, Cambodia and the Maldives who agreed to work together to achieve a legally binding agreement in the climate conference in Mexico this November.
Reports published in the media this week said the money is part of euro 7.2 billion that the EU pledged in Copenhagen conference in December last year. The industrialist countries there promised a total of $30 billion for the countries vulnerable to climate change for 2010-2012.
There is no denying that the climate change is already a reality for Bangladesh, but the initiatives taken by the multilateral donors and the developed countries to tackle its impacts are far from being adequate. Climate change will have an adverse effect on public health -- particularly that of children -- agriculture and environment. If temperature goes up from 5.0 to 8.0 degrees celsius, children will be affected the most and 10 per cent of them will not be able to celebrate their fifth birthday.
Thanks to their untiring efforts, the coastal people have started adapting to a changing environment. They are an example to the global community of how to overcome the difficulties caused by flooding. Coastal people have developed several techniques, such as raising the plinths of their homes and developing floating gardens to cultivate vegetables, as a result of flooding in previous years.
British Minister Douglas Alexander said recently that Britain and other rich countries had a moral duty to help Bangladesh and other poor countries adapt their infrastructure, farming and economies to climate change. The world has now a duty to rise to the challenge and ensure that "we support the poorest people of the world -- least responsible for climate change -- to prevent and prepare for its cruellest consequences", he added.
Bangladesh is now in the international spotlight on the adverse impacts of global warming. There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and enhance the country's capability to adapt to perilous impacts of climate change. The adversities stemming from the changing climate under the impact of heavy carbon emission by developed countries are threatening to set back Bangladesh's efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, particularly through its serious adverse consequences for agriculture and food security.
Bangladesh is trapped between the Himalayas in the north and the encroaching Bay of Bengal to the south. The delta is most vulnerable to natural disaster due to the frequency of extreme climate events and its high population density. The predicted temperature increase will cause the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas. Bangladesh, as some experts have feared, may lose one-third of its landmass due to the rise of sea level, which is the direct outcome of climate change. The impacts of higher temperatures and sea-level rise are already felt. The hazardous climate change will affect water resources, agriculture and food security, ecosystems and biodiversity, human health and coastal zones in Bangladesh.
These changes are already having major impacts on its economic performance and on the lives and livelihoods of millions of poor people in this country. It was projected by experts that a one-metre rise in sea level would inundate 17 per cent of Bangladesh; frequency of natural disaster is likely to increase during the present century. Two successive floods and deadly cyclone Sidr that caused heavy damage to life, property and crops worth about $2.8 billion in 2007 are indications of the climate change.
Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the sea-level rise would be in the range of 15 cm to 90 cm by the year 2100. Even a 10-cm sea-level rise will inundate about 2500 square kilometres of land area of Bangladesh. A 30-45cm sea-level rise is likely to dislocate about 35 million people from coastal districts by 2050. Crop yields are predicted to fall by up to 30 per cent, creating a very high risk of hunger due to climate change.
A study by a multilateral donor and other related, leading agencies and the government of Bangladesh had found that the country urgently needed huge amounts of money to ensure its survival. It needs at least $4.0 billion by 2020 to build dams, cyclone shelters, to plant trees along the coast and to build infrastructure and capacities to adapt to increasing number of natural disasters. The EU's recent grant announcement of 8.5 million euros is not that much big, but definitely it will go a long way to help tackle the most hazardous issue.
Yet, a local environment specialist believes money available now is not enough and rich economies should feel obliged to offer more assistance to countries like Bangladesh which are facing devastating disasters, occurring for no fault of their own. The world should not stay indifferent when such countries go under the sea, he said.
On its part, the government of Bangladesh had launched an aggressive battle to fight climate challenges that should have been started many years earlier. It is not too late but the country needs a lot of support -- including funding and technical expertise -- from the global community. It especially needs help from those rich nations whose carbon emissions have created the problems -- and they should also be prepared to open their doors to the millions of Bangladeshis, if they become climate refugees. szkhan@dhaka.net