The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is set to adopt a plan to spend $230 billion over the next 27 years in an effort to save Bangladesh from the impacts of climate change.
The National Adaptation Plan that requires investments between 2023 and 2050 awaits approval from the Cabinet. “And the plan may be approved soon,” said Md Mizanul Hoque Chowdhury, additional secretary of the environment ministry.
The government took the initiative to design the plan ahead of November’s COP27 UN climate change conference in Egypt to highlight the damage caused by climate change in Bangladesh and how the country can be compensated.
The environment ministry assigned the responsibility of preparing the plan to the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services, a private climate change research institute.
Bangladesh loses 1.3 percent of its GDP every year due to climate change, according to CEGIS’ calculations. The country’s GDP stood at $465 billion in the 2021-22 fiscal year and it lost $4.65 billion.
Losses, by one estimate, may amount to more than 2 percent of GDP in 2030 and 9 percent in 2050 if no effective action is taken on climate change.
Bangladesh will be forced to spend $8.5 billion annually to deal with the considerable damage caused by climate change. Another $230 billion will be needed in the 27 years from 2023 to 2050. The adaptation plan will be implemented through six major climate change mitigation agendums.
Losses, by one estimate, may amount to more than 2 percent of GDP in 2030 and 9 percent in 2050 if no effective action is taken on climate change.
WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF EXPENDITURE?
Malik Fida A Khan, acting executive director of CEGIS, said, “To protect the country from environmental disasters, this huge monetary amount will not only be drawn from the government’s Annual Development Programme but a significant portion of the expenditure will be provided by the developed world, the United Nations and donor agencies.”
“Whenever we participate in climate conferences or COPs, we are asked about the extent of damage caused by climate change. So far, we have been unable to provide numbers.”
“Now, we have prepared a long-term planning document detailing how much we lose from the effects of climate change and how we can be compensated for the loss.”
“Donors want to see our documents during talks. So, the government has devised this new plan. We will take this plan to the climate conference or COP. We will present it to the climate fund, the developed world, donors and UN agencies.”
It will serve as one of the most important documents for Bangladesh in terms of collecting money from development partners during international negotiations, said Malik.
“Now, we can discuss how much money the donors will provide. They may want to know about the high-priority sectors in the plan. Then they might talk about collaborations.”
“Afterwards, we will fix how much money we have to provide. Then we will decide how much we can actually provide.”
HOW THE PLAN WAS FORMULATED
Bangladesh is constantly facing climate change disasters due to its geographical location — most of its land is close to sea level, according to the draft plan. The country is dependent on water resources, agriculture, fisheries and livestock, and the dangers and risks to these sectors are increasing due to the impacts of climate change.
Climate-related disasters such as severe cyclones and floods, untimely heavy rains, frequent monsoon and flash floods, urban floods and long-term waterlogging, extreme heatwaves, droughts, rising sea levels and salinity intrusion, sea surface warming and increased acidity have detrimental effects on people’s lives and socio-economic conditions as well as disrupting overall development and progress.
At the COP21 climate conference, the Paris Agreement called for each country at risk to adopt a National Adaptation Plan. The environment ministry initiated the formulation of the plan to contribute to global efforts for adaptation by taking risk and vulnerability into account.
This plan will help to continue the trend of sustainable and climate-resilient development in Bangladesh by formulating and implementing medium and long-term adaptation strategies to mitigate the future risks of climate change.
The draft plan also states that the views and suggestions of all national and local stakeholders in the country have been prioritised to ensure a participatory process and to determine adaptation strategies to address the risks of climate change.
For this reason, more than 35 consultative workshops, over 100 group discussions and personal interviews have been organised across the country at the national, district and upazila levels.
In addition, discussions were held with more than 5,000 people. To ensure social inclusion, views of gender-sensitive communities, disabled, elderly and youth communities, ethnic communities and communities left behind have been sought throughout the exercise.
At the same time, opinions have been taken from representatives of all levels of society, including government and private officials, local government departments and field-level officials, district and upazila public representatives, students, community-based organisations, engineers and planners.
ABOUT 20M MAY GET DISPLACED
The adaptation plan identified 14 climate change-related disasters and 11 areas prone to climate disasters in Bangladesh.
Most of these areas are vulnerable to more than one climate change-induced disaster. The disasters are likely to become more severe and frequent in the future.
As a result, overall infrastructure, livelihoods and ecosystems will be disproportionately affected, and potentially about 20 million people can end up as climate refugees.
ADAPTATION GOALS
The adaptation plan is looking to address the impacts of climate change by building a climate-resilient nation to achieve a thriving society, biodiversity conservation and sustainable economic growth. It set six goals:
Protection from sudden and slow natural disasters caused by climate change
Development of climate-resilient agricultural systems to ensure food, nutrition and livelihood security
Building a climate-resilient city to preserve the city environment and ensure a prosperous civic life
Encouraging environment-friendly adaptation to conserve forests and biodiversity and improve the lives of local communities
Strengthening good governance
Ensuring capacity building and innovative initiatives
As many as 23 adaptation strategies have been identified to meet these six goals, the proper implementation of which will play an important role in achieving the 28 identified results at the national level and reducing the risks caused by climate change.