Bangladesh which has been made of billions of tons
alluvial soil from Himalaya through Indo-Gangetic lowland is now faced with the
fallout from climate change and natural disasters induced from it. The gravity
of the problem is so great that it calls for action from our part in a
synchronized way without any more dillydallying. With our disaster prone
geography coupled with low economic strength, inadequate infrastructure, low
level of social development, lack of institutional capacity, and higher
dependency on natural resource base, we are increasingly being left at the
mercy of nature.
From
the middle of 1800 era, average temperature of today's world has already
increased by 0.6°C. In the last century, average temperature of earth has
increased by 1.5°C to 4.5°C leading to melting of polar ice and thus rising sea
level. This is a real alarming situation for Bangladesh as 75% of Bangladesh’s
land area is less than 10 meters above the sea level and as a temperature above
32 degree Celsius will decrease prawn production. At the same time at the very
opposite end, there is also possibility of reduced temperature in the winter
time. This can greatly affect our food security as temperature going below 18
degree Celsius will decrease rice production.
One
major factor which was behind the world’s optimal temperature is now behind the
very destruction of it – greenhouse gas. It is estimated that greenhouse gas
keeps global temperature up by 15 degree Celsius in absent of which the world
could have been freeze. But as a result of mind-boggling behavior of people in
pursuit of modernization and industrialization, this natural boon has turned
into bane for this globe’s habitants.
It
has been forecasted that if there is 1 meter sea level rise, then there will be
permanent water logging in 17% southern area of Bangladesh will be permanently
water logged and 13 million peoples will be displaced. This will result into 8%
decrease in rice production and 32% decrease in wheat production. These are
forecasts and in no way can give us a comfort zone as the devastating effect of
climate change has already set in. When 13 million of the population of
Bangladesh are already affected by climate change and when in many southern
areas of Bangladesh, many people rendered homeless from Aila are roaming
around, the thought that the climate change issue is a matter of concern for
the next generation is not a real one and calls for immediate action from our
part.
According
to IPCC, Bangladesh is under A2 story line which comprises heterogeneous world,
self reliance local identities, slow fertility pattern, continuous increasing
population and slow capita income. This poses a great threat to our community
as all of these provide a great recipe for the climate change and its induced
natural disasters to have an increasing debilitating affect on us.
Now this has got a global recognition
and after 1990 there have been a huge effort from both developed and developing
countries in reducing this man-made monster. Many words have been said, many
pledges made, many promises are broken and many dreams in the minds being
planned soon to be broken. So do we really have a chance to come up with a
concrete result or concrete steps towards it for undo our scenes? We believe,
we can. The question then is ‘How’. The answer is simple. Take contextually
effective steps domestically for adapting with climate change and mitigating
it. This needs to be accompanied with bold and innovative from our country for
making developed country take the lead of the fight against climate change and
compelling developed countries to meet their commitment and disburse fund as
such.
In formulating our policies, Bangladesh
Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2008 was a milestone which was followed
by a modified one in 2009. This gave a proper guideline regarding the course of
action for our government. Bangladesh also created the document titled 'Initial
National Communication' now being known as 'Second National Communication' for
communicating its plan and action to UNFCCC. In 2004, Department of Environment
established climate change cell under Comprehensive Disaster Management
Programme. Many steps were taken among which introduction of National Adaptation
Programme of Action (NAPA) in 2005 was a major one. One big hiccup is still
there in case of policy formulation as the Disaster Management Act is still on
the offing. There are still many scopes for intensifying our effort in fighting
climate change and coping with natural disasters.
In the 16th SAARC Summit, the leaders of
eight SAARC countries agreed to establish an inter-governmental expert group on
climate change for developing and monitoring regional policy implementations.
They also decided to plant ten million trees in the SAARC countries in five
years, as part of a regional attempt in afforestation and reforestation. Now in
the just concluded 17th SAARC meeting, the Thimphu declaration was
further stressed and there was an Agreement on Rapid Response on Natural
Disaster. These are all positive developments as regional effort in this regard
can be very effective one by bolstering our fight against combating climate
change. This will also keep developing countries like India, one of the major polluters
of carbon, in reducing or controlling its emission.
Globally, there have also been some
major steps in addressing climate change. The legally binding obligations for
developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions came into effect in
1997 with the conclusion of Kyoto Protocol, albeit with some countries’ not
signing it. In the coming COP 17, it is expected that all the countries can be
aligned for achieving a legally binding agreement on reducing emission of
carbon. Again developed countries should be pushed for disbursement of climate
fund as they have so far released only $3 billion out of pledged $30 billion
where Bangladesh received only $125 million. The push from vulnerable countries
like Bangladesh could come from by going in line with the idea of Jose
Figueres, former president of Costa Rica, by boycotting the first session COP
17.
We need now a combination of both
top-down and bottom-up approach to have a realistic chance for us to survive
this combat against climate change. A top-down approach will ensure release of
climate fund from the developed countries which will be like a compensation
package for us to cope with the consequences of the crime made by the former.
This again requires push from developed countries like us which can exert more
influence through regional cooperation and building blocks of most vulnerable
countries to climate change. At the same time bottom-up approach will require
for countries like us to develop its own adaptation and mitigation strategies and
act such. This has already started as Bangladesh government already allocated
huge fund from its coiffure in this regard. If we can carry both these
approaches with out of box thinking keeping transparency in all these steps, we
can prove the ominous forecasts regarding climate change wrong. Let’s play our
part and make others theirs.
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