Climate migration should top Dhaka's agenda
Friday, 25 September 2009
AZM Anas
A senior UN official has urged Bangladesh to lead a campaign for making climate migration a global agenda as the densely populated delta nation faces the potentially worst human displacement induced by climate change.
"You really need to push for the climate migration agenda. Relying on the single appeal for the adaptation fund will not be enough for Bangladesh," M Aminul Islam, assistant country director of UN Development Programme (UNDP), said Wednesday.
"For Bangladesh, over population is a major issue. It's going to be the toughest challenge to accommodate millions -- not thousands -- whose future is poised to be swamped under a rising sea," he added.
Some 1156 people huddle together on per square kilometre in a country whose population hit 162 million in mid-July, according to the US-based Population Reference Bureau, making it one the most densely populated nation in the world.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a top UN scientific body, has estimated that more than 30 million of people living along the Bangladesh's coastline would become refugees in the coming decades as a result of sea level rise.
His comments came just a day after world leaders descended on New York to attend the United Nations summit on climate change where the world's biggest carbon emitter, China, pledged to increase renewable energy use and forest coverage as part of its battle for climate change.
Mr Islam, who oversees the climate change programme, noted that each year river erosion and floods displace thousands of Bangladeshis and the future scenario is bleaker.
"We need land for our displaced people and the richer nations have a moral responsibility to take our refugees," he told the FE.
He said many small Pacific islands have already reached a deal with Australia for the mass settlement of their islanders.
A senior UN official has urged Bangladesh to lead a campaign for making climate migration a global agenda as the densely populated delta nation faces the potentially worst human displacement induced by climate change.
"You really need to push for the climate migration agenda. Relying on the single appeal for the adaptation fund will not be enough for Bangladesh," M Aminul Islam, assistant country director of UN Development Programme (UNDP), said Wednesday.
"For Bangladesh, over population is a major issue. It's going to be the toughest challenge to accommodate millions -- not thousands -- whose future is poised to be swamped under a rising sea," he added.
Some 1156 people huddle together on per square kilometre in a country whose population hit 162 million in mid-July, according to the US-based Population Reference Bureau, making it one the most densely populated nation in the world.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a top UN scientific body, has estimated that more than 30 million of people living along the Bangladesh's coastline would become refugees in the coming decades as a result of sea level rise.
His comments came just a day after world leaders descended on New York to attend the United Nations summit on climate change where the world's biggest carbon emitter, China, pledged to increase renewable energy use and forest coverage as part of its battle for climate change.
Mr Islam, who oversees the climate change programme, noted that each year river erosion and floods displace thousands of Bangladeshis and the future scenario is bleaker.
"We need land for our displaced people and the richer nations have a moral responsibility to take our refugees," he told the FE.
He said many small Pacific islands have already reached a deal with Australia for the mass settlement of their islanders.