Two interesting articles appeared in the Daily Star today:
Dhaka to present climate change plan
Britain and Bangladesh will jointly hold a high-level conference on climate change on Wednesday in London to launch a possible Bangladesh-specific climate change action plan and trust fund in line with the Bali Declaration.
Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam and Environment Special Assistant Raja Devasish Roy will present a strategy and action plan, including plans to start a billion dollar multi-donor trust fund, to combat climate change.
"At the conference we hope to present a strategy and an action plan which is in the final stage at this moment," said Devasish in a statement, adding that the strategy outlines how climate change issues will be mainstreamed towards development over 10 years.
British International Development Minister Douglas Alexander and World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will attend the conference along with 200 other participants including speakers from vulnerable countries, donors, private sector, academia and NGOs.
The joint effort by the two countries will try to link mitigating and adapting to climate changes with meeting the Millennium Development Goals and overall development.
The government consulted selected members of the civil society, private sector and donors to draw up the strategy to identify potential physical impacts of climate change.
“The main concern raised is that the pace of climate change could overwhelm development efforts and reverse the gains of recent decades," said a government statement. The strategy calls on donors to support Bangladesh in developing climate change resilient capability.
The conference will focus on highlighting Bangladesh as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change effects and how Bangladeshis are already struggling to adapt to the effects.
Looking ahead to the new international climate change agreement expected to be signed in Copenhagen in 2009, the British and Bangladesh governments will highlight the need for global participation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and support climate change adaptation.
"The aim is to increase international focus on how Bangladesh is adapting to climate change and how much more needs to be done, both domestically and globally to stop it from worsening," said DFID Bangladesh chief Chris Austin.
He added that Britain would announce a significant package of support to address climate change in Bangladesh.
According to government projections, the country is likely to suffer from more intense and frequent floods, droughts, cyclones and storm surges, with adverse impact on agriculture, water security and health.
By 2050, rising sea levels could permanently flood 8 percent of the country with production of rice declining by 8 percent. Around 70 million people could be annually affected by floods with up to 12 million people being affected by drought in the dry season.
Dhaka should ask for compensation, not aid
Dialogue blasts developed countries over climate change
Bangladesh should not ask for charity or aid from industrially developed countries to combat climate change, but demand compensation from them, speakers at a dialogue in the city said yesterday.
The reason for this, they said, is that the industrially developed countries are themselves causing the change in climate.
The comments came at a dialogue arranged by BBC Bangla Sanglap (Dialogue) at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre on “Bangladesh Sanglap on Climate Change” yesterday.
Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, convener of Equity-BD and a panel member at the dialogue, said, "We should not be seeking help from developed countries. It is a question of justice and reparation.”
“The developed countries have caused loss to Global Public Goods and they must compensate," he said.
The effects of climate change are causing a huge loss to the government economically, speakers pointed out, citing the example of Sidr. Bangladesh received US$ 600 million in foreign aid though the loss caused by Sidr is estimated at US$ 3 billion. Bangladesh has an existing bank loan of Tk 17,000 crore while natural disasters like cyclone, flood and other climate change effects add to the deficit every year.
Dr Atiq Rahman, chairman of South Asia Climate Action Network, Prof Shahnaz Haque Hossain, dean of environment sciences faculty of Dhaka University, Prof Mominul Haque Sarker and CEGIS Head Morphologist Mominul Haque Sarker were the other panel members of the dialogue, while BBC's Masud Hasan Khan moderated the event.
Dr Atiq Rahman pointed out that "the sea level will rise by at least one metre by 2050 -- with possibilities of rising upto 1.5 metres,” causing unthinkable damage to the world.
“A one metre rise will affect 13% of the agriculture land and 17% of the remaining land of the country as Bangladesh will be among the first countries to be affected by this change," he said.
In that case, Dr Atiq pointed out, the sea will come within 60 to 100 km of the capital city and most of the southern areas of the country will go under water. Other countries like the Maldives would go totally underwater.
Dr Atiq also said that the loss from climate change would be higher than that estimated by the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).
The speakers at the dialogue also criticised the paper that is to be presented in the upcoming bilateral talks on climate change in UK, saying the paper was “limited towards effects on infrastructure” and was ' research-centred' and not based on any field level work or information.
The talks are scheduled for September 10.
They stressed the need for the developed and developing countries' making a commitment to address the issue of climate change.
Experts at the dialogue called on the government to formulate a coordinated policy to address the issue. They praised the government for allocation in this year's budget in this regard but pointed out that Bangladesh is not responsible for climate change, and countries causing the problem must take responsibility for their actions.
Funds for adaptation and research to combat the situation should come from the countries causing the damage, they said.
The speakers also urged the industrially developed countries to introduce special quota for Bangladesh to help people migrate from the affected areas in accordance with existing international laws.
Shahnaz Haque said that we must overcome the fear of damage caused by climatic change and take effective steps to combat it.
"Our real concern is whether human activities is harming the natural system," she said.
It was revealed at the dialogue that fifty percent of Kutubdia Island has already gone under water. At the present rate of land erosion, both Kutubdia and Bhola will go completely underwater in another 40 and 70 years.
Mominul Haque said, "What really matters is how much the sea level will rise and for how long?”
