One-third of the people in coastal areas of Bangladesh will be displaced by 2050 due to climate change. Besides, severe floods, tidal surges and cyclones will increase due to increase in global temperatures. The coastal people will be the worst sufferers for these natural calamities. Experts said this at a press briefing organised jointly by Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad and Concern Worldwide Bangladesh at the Jatiya Press Club yesterday (Thursday).
Among others, coordinator of the Bangladesh Climate Change Negotiation Team, Dr Kazi Khaliquzzaman Ahmad, country director of Concern Worldwide AKM Musa, chairman of Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad MA Jalil, country director of Concern Worldwide for North Korea Saroj Das and Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad executive director Dr Nilufar Banu spoke at the press briefing. Higher temperatures and other climate variances are leading to unprecedented frequency of calamities, including cyclones, storms, heat waves, floods, droughts and other disasters, they said. “Global warming is increasing and the average temperature will increase 1.0-1.4 degree by 2050. Snow and glaciers
are diminishing overwhelmingly, and the sea level has risen significantly and recent climate changes have had widespread impact on human and natural systems. So, Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries of the world,” Dr Kazi Khaliquzzaman Ahmad said.
The coastal people will be severely affected due to climate change, he said, adding, “the socio-economy of coastal people in the Bay of Bengal will collapse. It would impact schemes to reduce poverty, food security, economy, health, human rights and administrative activities.”
Climate change is a major threat to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially those related to eliminating poverty and hunger and promoting environmental sustainability, he observed.
Against this backdrop, the Fourth Sub -Regional Workshop on Community Resilience to Climate Change in the Bay of Bengal Conference 2017 will be held in Dhaka between December 17 and 18 to create awareness among the coastal people, they said.
The workshop would help the coastal people in building capacity on reduction of climate change risk, Dr Nilufar Banu, convener of the workshop, said.
“The coastal people will get scientific ideas about reduction of climate change risk from the workshop. Experts from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and other countries will take part in the workshop,” she said.
Banu said the main objective of the Fourth Sub -Regional Workshop is to form a common advocacy platform in line with the Paris agreement on climate change.
Eight keynote papers — Climate Change Impact on Water Resources, Climate Change Impact on Coastal Agriculture, Climate Induced Displacement and Rehabilitation, Technologies for Sustainable Adaptation, Impacts of Climate Change on Youth and Children, Urban Risk Reduction and Climate Change Resilience and Livelihood and Natural Resource Management will be presented at the workshop, she added.
According to experts, the Bay of Bengal region in South Asia faces extreme weather events in the form of greater frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones, floods and storm surges.
A total of 26 out of 35 deadliest tropical cyclones in the world history have been the Bay of Bengal storms. In the past two centuries, 42 per cent of the earth’s tropical cyclone-associated deaths have occurred in Bangladesh and 27 per cent in India.
Recently, the region, including Bangladesh, India and Nepal, has witnessed adverse effects of climate change in the form of severe floods that affected 41 million people, damaged 950,000 houses and caused 1,200 human deaths, experts said.
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Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.
Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.