“Bangladesh is at the frontline of the battle against climate change. Anthropogenic climate change is increasing the probability of natural disasters which have grave consequences for Bangladesh. Climate change directly threatens the economic development prospects of Bangladesh. The gulf between the rhetoric and reality of climate change needs to be narrowed down urgently.”
These were the highlights from the presentation titled “Climate Change in Bangladesh: Weathering the Storm”, presented by Dr Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director, CPD, during the recent visit of the honourable delegates from France to CPD on 12 December 2019. Mr Alain David, Deputy of Gironde, Secretary of the Commission on Foreign Affairs and Honorary Mayor of Cenon; Mrs Alizee Ruffin, Member, Governing Board, French National Assembly; and Mr Frank Grutzmacher Tecourt, Deputy Head of Mission, Political and Cultural Affairs, Embassy of France in Dhaka, visited CPD to discuss about the climate change in the context of Bangladesh.
Dr Khatun mentioned that Bangladesh bears the brunt of climate change due to its geographical location, land characteristics, riverine nature and monsoon climate. She highlighted how climate induced vulnerability threatens to push people below the poverty line and how increase in such vulnerability may jeopardise Bangladesh’s graduation from the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group in 2024. She recommended that Bangladesh should campaign for greater funding of climate change adaption measures and join forces with other climate-vulnerable countries to persuade developed countries to fulfil their climate funding commitments. She also urged for considering trans-boundary action and collaboration on mitigation and adaptation by setting up a separate fund amongst climate-vulnerable countries to address the impacts of climate change on the lives and livelihoods of people. Mr Syed Yusuf Saadat, Research Associate, CPD, added that climate change is an existential threat to humankind, and so procrastination in addressing this issue could have catastrophic consequences.