Climate defined to be the average change in the temperature
over a period of 30 years. But human-induced global warming-led climate change
is now a great issue of concern as with the passage of time it is being exposed
in front of us as a crude reality and is showing its increased damaging effect
on human beings, biodiversity etc. United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCC) defines climate change as the change resulting from long
term direct and indirect activities, that induces changes in the compared time
which are much more than the natural change. Taking this into cognisance there
is a global effort now in stopping climate from further deterioration.
Bangladesh, believed to be the worst-affected victim of climate change, has
already raised its voice in this regard and is adopting strategies and actions
for adapting to climate change impact and if possible for mitigating measures.
The average temperature of today's world has already
increased by 0.6 0C from the middle of 1800s. In the last century average
temperature of earth has increased by 1.5°C to 4.5°C leading to melting of
polar and maintains ice and thus sea level rise. It has been forecasted that if
there is 1m sea level rise, then there will be permanent water logging in 17% area
of Bangladesh. Just spare a minute to imagine what it will look like when we
the people are already struggling to cope with the available fresh land in
terms of livelihood, food security etc. To further add to the woes, it has been
also shown that if climate change continues unabated, in the year 2050,
production of rice will decrease by 8% and that of wheat by 32%.
Realising that climate change is real and needs proper
attention, in 1988 World Meteorological Organization and UNEP established Inter
Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for fixing the strategies for
fighting climate change induced problems and for addressing climate change
itself. In 1992, IPCC first published its report on climate change focusing on
the importance of controlling increase of temperature and also on the effects
that climate change ensues. Then Conference of Parties (COP) started and is
continuing till today on an annual basis. COP 15 played an instrumental role in
climate change negotiation process as in this conference, attending countries
agreed to reduce global temperature by 2 degree Celsius.
In the mean time there have also been many strategies in the
international level in response to climate change. We know about carbon
trading, carbon taxation which are implemented in many first world countries
targeting climate change mitigation in an indirect way. At the same time there
were some other strategies which were adopted but backfired. Biofuel which was
thought to be a solution to fossil fuel resulted into mass land loss for
biofuel production which finally fed into food price inflation. Then another
strategy named REDD also need to be mentioned. This was also misused and
resulted into widespread deforestation in Amazon.
All of these international strategies point us the fact that
in dealing with climate change only technical consideration will not suffice.
The programmes we need to undertake have to be contextualised in terms of
economic, social and political reality. Bangladesh, for communicating its
national situation and position to UNFCC, created the document titled 'Initial
National Communication' now being known as 'Second National Communication'. In
2004, under Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme, Department of
Environment established climate change cell. The duty of this cell is to make
our country prepared to address the risks and disasters induced by climate
change. Bangladesh introduced National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) in
2005.
Till date, there have been created three multi-party funds
known as a. adaptation fund, b. LDC fund and c. special climate change fund,
for assisting developing countries in adaptation to climate change, power,
forestation, industrialization, transfer of technology, transport and waste
disposal. Then in 2009, the proposal for Green Fund was finalized. Under this
fund, it was proposed that developed countries would provide financial and
technical assistance to least developed countries. This saw the ray of morning
light in COP 16 as in this conference it was agreed that 10 LDC countries would
receive a fund of 100 billion dollar annually. Bangladesh has already received
an amount in this regard and also allocating fund for climate change from its
own coffer.
The Government of Bangladesh has already allocated Tk 1400
crore for actions regarding climate change. Already a fund has been established
with finance advisor of Prime Minister as chairman of its committee. This
committee has been working for adopting strategies on climate change and
implementation of Action Plan 2009. There are many other strategies available
also which could be thought over. But thinking about our limited technological
sophistication and our present political situation, it is evident that we can't
go for strategies like carbon trading or carbon tax which was proposed in
October of 2010. It seems that the best strategy for us will be to demand fund
for adaptation to climate change. The main reason behind this is that
mitigation is a very costly process which a developing country like us can't afford.
Further, carbon trading requires for measuring carbon and
then trading on it. As even developed countries are posed with questions
regarding the accuracy of the card readers of carbon emission, this process
should not be introduced in Bangladesh. Carbon Tax which was also proposed has
all the potential to fuel food price inflation further by adding to the cost of
production as mode of production is mainly fired by many forms of fossil fuels.
REDD under CDM is also not a feasible step for us as this has already showed
its negative effect in the Amazon forest. Examining many strategies that
Bangladesh can adopt, one particular strategy stands out which is adaptation
fund.
As COP 17 is already on the door, this is our time to be
bold and make our demands heard by seeking release of Green Fund regularly as
was agreed by many nations. It is not that we will not demand mitigation and
reduction of emission by developed countries. That will be very much on the
table but our major thrust should be on getting a lion's share of Green Fund as
the most affected country by climate change. The onus is also on our government
to ensure transparency and accountability in using this fund so that future
release of fund doesn't get hampered. At the same, at the national and local
level, there has to be effort for adapting to climate change (finding
variations of crops tolerant to draught, water logging etc. as well as making
people aware of the adverse situations induced by climate change) and
mitigating it. If we can successfully conduct our climate diplomacy and at the
same time take effective national actions, then we may hope to bring home a
fruitful result from the ensuing COP 17.
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