Reliable and accurate data is instrumental for climate resilience, as it helps the government take the best decisions, speakers told a regional conference yesterday.

They stressed the need for an intense collaboration among countries in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, nations that are bearing the brunt of climate change.

They were speaking at the two-day Hindu Kush-Himalaya Climate Regional Conference, held at a hotel in the capital and organised by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

The title of the event is “Climate Data: Opportunities for Resilient Development”.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Department of Agricultural Extension, and Bangladesh Planning Commission helped organise the conference.

Inaugurating the event on the conference’s first day, Deputy Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Begum Habibun Nahar said Bangladesh has been preparing itself for a long time to combat the impacts of climate change. It has done so by finalising the National Adaptation Plan, Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan, Bangladesh Delta Plan-2100, and Nationally Determined Contribution.

The junior minister said climate change is considered to be the greatest threat to the planet. So, data plays a pivotal role, as it helps delineate the real scenario.

“I hope this conference will come up with insights that will reinforce our resolve to fight climate threats”, she added.

Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik, additional secretary of the ministry, who chaired the inaugural session, said robust climate data is instrumental to formulate climate policies, and Bangladesh has globally become a role model for disaster-risk management.

Reliable, transparent, easily accessible and accurate data generation would be of immense importance for Bangladesh’s fight against climate change. Efforts to intensify collaboration among countries and agencies would play a great role for this, he said.

Malik Fida A Khan, executive director of Centre for Environment and Geographical Information Services, presented the keynote paper, offering the status and accessibility of data in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.

He said Bangladesh along with the region will experience a temperature rise of 1.8 degrees Celsius, while it would be 1.5 or below for the rest of the world at the end of the century.

Sudip Pradhan, programme coordinator at International Center for Integrated Mountain Development; Anuj Sharma, co-founder of Earth Analytics; Hasna Jamiuddin Moudud, councillor of South and East Asia, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and Shamim Ahmed Mridha, founder of Eco-Network Bangladesh, were present on the first day of the conference as panel members.