Bangladesh authorities need to be alert so that in the name of getting international assistance for coping with climate change this country does not become the unfortunate victim of fruitless spending and get saddled with fresh debts that its future generations would have to bear without receiving well the benefits from incurring such debts. As it is, Bangladesh has been identified as one of the countries to be worst affected by climate change for  globally polluting activities of the rich and developed countries . From this recognition has also come promises from these countries that they would lend substantial resources to Bangladesh as compensation. The challenge for Bangladesh would be to liaison with the donor countries and organizations  to obtain these resources free of cost and use the same in time in optimum fashion to maximize benefits.
It was learnt that Bangladesh would get  some $4 billion for spending on coping activities against climate change from  the World Bank and some donor countries .  $3 billion would be given as loan by the WB and the rest would come as developmental assistance from the British government and other donors. Thus, the greater part of this assistance to be given by WB as loan would have to be serviced or repaid by Bangladesh over the years. The WB would be put in controlling position of the whole operation and it is credibly feared that substantial part of  the funds could be  misspent on consultancies, studies and other services which previous experiences showed in so many cases in Bangladesh.
Thus, Bangladeshi  experts are of  the view that such assistances could be truly useful  if  the same were planned as pure grants. Bangladesh can also very reasonably expect such grants  as compensation from the rich countries for the great havocs to be caused to it for no fault on its part. It  is also important for Bangladesh to put the pressure on the rich countries to  get their direct cooperation  to deal with climate change. For example,  negotiations led to Maldives getting a bill piloted successfully through the Australian parliament to admit a large number of its environmental refuges to Australia as that island nation would start sinking from sea level rise. Maldives also has a similar agreement with Canada. Thus, it is imperative for Bangladesh to engage in hard negotiations with European, North American and other countries for the migration of at least 20 million of its environmental refugees who could be created from climate change by 2030.
   The greatest benefit can come to Bangladesh by working as a catalyst to get the rich and developed countries --specially the USA-- to agree to immediate reduction in carbon emissions. To this end, it should engage all its diplomatic mite . If pressures from Bangladesh and other likely  to be most affected countries by climate change, are concerted and applied in a sustained manner, then the offending countries are more likely to feel responsible and react by putting caps on their carbon emissions sooner rather than later. Persuading successfully the developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emission appropriately  at an early date can be the most successful input from Bangladesh than any amount of  resources extended to it to cope with the effects of climate change.

The writer is a journalist