Norway and Bangladesh cooperation on climate change issues

Climate change is a major challenge of our common future.It poses a grave threat to our efforts to eradicate poverty and ensure sustainable development. The new sustainable development goals (SDGs) should therefore boost efforts to reduce emissions, build climate change resilience and promote adaptation to the effects of climate change. We should make the SDGs climate smart and promote solutions that benefit the global climate. The COP 21 in Paris next year will be the main arena for tackling climate change. Norway will work towards an ambitious global climate agreement.
As a leading member of the LDC group Bangladesh is playing a constructive and important role in the climate change negotiations under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries for natural disasters and the impacts of climate change. Natural disasters like floods, cyclones, droughts and riverbank erosion are common, and a rise in the sea-level would have serious consequences for the livelihood of many people.
Norway is working closely with Bangladesh in tackling these issues. Disaster management is one of the pillars of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, and Norway is proud to support the Comprehensive Disaster Management Program under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
Norway is also supporting the project "Climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation - Sustaining rice production in Bangladesh", which is a cooperation between the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research and the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services in Dhaka.
In addition the following climate related projects can be mentioned:
l Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research in Bergen is collaborating on capacity building for studying, mitigation, and adaptation to climate change and linkage to natural disaster risk reduction.
l "Reducing vulnerability of women affected by climate change through livelihood options" by UN Women in collaboration with BRAC and BCAS
l The Norwegian Geotechnical Institute is cooperating with the Geological Survey of Bangladesh in joint investigations and exchanges of experiences in the field of mitigation of geo-hazards such as tsunami, earthquakes, rainfall induced landslides, coastal erosion and subsidence.
l Regional initiatives such as the South Asia Water Initiative and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre in Bangkok.