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Bangladesh Climate Change Impacts and Vulnerability
According to the Third Assessment Report of IPCC, South Asia is the most vulnerable region of the world to climate change impacts (McCarthy et al., 2001). The international community also recognizes that Bangladesh ranks high in the list of most vulnerable countries on earth. Bangladesh’s high vulnerability to climate change is due to a number of hydro-geological and socio-economic factors that include: (a) its geographical location in South Asia; (b) its flat deltaic topography with very low elevation; (c) its extreme climate variability that is governed by monsoon and which results in acute water distribution over space and time; (d) its high population density and poverty incidence; and (e) its majority of population being dependent on crop agriculture which is highly influenced by climate variability and change. Despite the recent strides towards achieving sustainable development, Bangladesh’s potential to sustain its development is faced with significant challenges posed by climate change (Ahmed and Haque, 2002). It is therefore of utmost importance to understand its vulnerability in terms of population and sectors at risk and its potential for adaptation to climate change. To streamline activities of the Government of Bangladesh towards facilitating adaptation to climate change, the Climate Change Cell (CCC) has been established under the aegis of the Ministry of Environment and Forest – one of the focal points on climate change issues. Housed at the Department of Environment, the ‘Cell’ has initiated its activities with support from the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP), the DfID and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). With this document, the CCC made an effort to pull together the available knowledge on climate change impacts and vulnerability in Bangladesh, which is expected to help readers to understand the dynamics of the important concern. The task in hand was to review and synthesize the current knowledge base. An assignment was commissioned based on which the author designed a study to synthesize all the relevant findings available in the currently available literature so it helps in understanding the dynamics of climate change and define courses of action by various actors involved in the national development processes. The specific objective of the study was to prepare a synthesis for the general readership on climate change issues for Bangladesh. The modality of achieving this objective is to take note of all the important findings in published literature and put it in a form so that the product helps the readership to clearly understand the dynamics of climate change and relate it within the contexts of various relevant sectoral development. It is expected that the publication will help create awareness among the stakeholders and in near future, lead to an ‘informed decision making’ while considering development decisions in vulnerable areas and/or sectors. The synthesis is, therefore, envisaged as a tool to mainstream adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh, in order to achieve the goals and targets of Bangladesh’s Initial National Communication1 (MOEF, 2002) and the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA ) process....
Climate Financing for Sustainable Development
Bangladesh, being one of the most climate-vulnerable countries, must take swift actions to address climate change and reduce its severity. It should also increase investments in its infrastructure and population and adopt measures to ensure an economy with climate resilience and sustainable development. Although Bangladesh contributes minimally to global greenhouse gas emissions, it is severely affected by environmental and climate-relevant impacts, which hinder its development efforts and pose risks to public health. To tackle the challenges of climate change, Bangladesh has adopted a range of short-, medium- and long-term national policies and laws, including the Climate Fiscal Framework (CFF), Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP), National Adaptation Plan (2023-2050), and the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100. Additionally, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been integrated into the development agenda. BCCSAP and CFF provide guidance for allocation of resources in line with climate change objectives. BCCSAP encompasses six categories and budgetary allocations and expenditure data is generated based on these themes through the iBAS++ system for these thematic areas....
BANGLADESH NATIONAL CONSERVATION STARTEGY (CROP AGRICULTURE)
Agriculture plays a vital role in economic development of Bangladesh. It faces great challenges day as it has to confront climate change, loss of biological diversity, loss of soil fertility, water shortage, etc. Quality of land is deteriorating due to degradation of soil fertility (e.g. nutrient imbalance), soil erosion, soil and water pollution, depletion of soil organic matter, water logging, increased soil salinity, pan formation, acidification and deforestation. There is non-regulated and excessive use of groundwater and very little effort to augment surface water. Excessive and injudicious use of agro chemicals/fertilizers by the farmer, threatening soil and human health and degrading of agricultural environment and destroy agriculture biodiversity. Unfortunately, no long term strategy has been proposed to conserve agriculture biodiversity or effective use of agriculture biodiversity for improving food production. Obviously, to feed 150 million people is a great challenge. Modern agriculture systems should give attention to conserve agricultural biodiversity. Should adopt techniques of sustainable agriculture system like mixed farming systems, organic agriculture, integrated pest management, more use of organic fertilizers, crop rotation, recycling crop and animal wastes, no-tillage or minimum tillage agriculture, inter- cropping, multi-cropping, cover crops, etc. We have resources, techniques, and good examples, but need integration and patronization of good practices otherwise achieving self-sufficiency in food production but will not be sustainable. Agriculture plays a vital role in economic development of Bangladesh. It faces great challenges day as it has to confront climate change, loss of biological diversity, loss of soil fertility, water shortage, etc. Quality of land is deteriorating due to degradation of soil fertility (e.g. nutrient imbalance), soil erosion, soil and water pollution, depletion of soil organic matter, water logging, increased soil salinity, pan formation, acidification and deforestation. There is non-regulated and excessive use of groundwater and very little effort to augment surface water. Excessive and injudicious use of agro-chemicals/fertilizers by the farmer, threatening soil and human health and degrading of agricultural environment and destroy agriculture biodiversity. Unfortunately, no long term strategy has been proposed to conserve agriculture biodiversity or effective use of agriculture biodiversity for improving food production. Obviously, to feed 150 million people is a great challenge. Modern agriculture systems should give attention to conserve agricultural biodiversity. Should adopt techniques of sustainable agriculture system like mixed farming systems, organic agriculture, integrated pest management, more use of organic fertilizers, crop rotation, recycling crop and animal wastes, no-tillage or minimum tillage agriculture, inter- cropping, multi-cropping, cover crops, etc. We have resources, techniques, and good examples, but need integration and patronization of good practices otherwise achieving self-sufficiency in food production but will not be sustainable. As one of the signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Bangladesh is committed to conserving its biological diversity. Special attention should given in to conserve and use of its unique agricultural biodiversity....
Understanding climate change from below, addressing barriers from above: Practical experience and learning from a community-based adaptation project in Banglades
This report communicates the local, practical experiences and learning from one of the first action research projects on community-based climate change adaptation interventions in Bangladesh: Assistance to Local Communities on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction piloted by ActionAid Bangladesh and funded by the Embassy of Denmark. It is an action research project that facilitated local people’s analysis of their own vulnerability towards climate change and piloted a variety of community-based adaptation measures....
Aquaculture Sector Study Bangladesh
Aquaculture production in Bangladesh is geographically dispersed, with concentrations in the Northern-Central and South-Western districts. The regions with the highest fish production are Mymensingh, Jessore, and Comilla. Bangladesh (167 MN inhabitants) has been the fastest-growing economy in Asia-Pacific in recent years (average growth rate of ~8%). Fish is the most consumed source of animal protein in Bangladesh (58% of the total) and continues to rise due to increasing consumer purchasing power. Fish consumption in 2019 has been estimated at 21.8 kg per capita and has grown gradually during the past decade (1.6% CAGR 2015-2019). In FY 2017-18, the fisheries sector contributed 3.6% to the national GDP and employed 11% of the country’s population. Bangladesh produced 4.38 MN MT of fish in FY2018-19, of which over 50% (2.49 MN MT) is cultivated in closed water bodies. Bangladesh is the world's 5th largest producer of aquaculture products, outranked by China, Indonesia, India, and Vietnam. Out of the aquaculture production, the majority (1.97 MN MT) is cultivated in ponds, mainly focusing on three species: carp (961 kMT), pangasius (447 kMT), and tilapia (321 kMT), which jointly account for 93% of freshwater fish production in ponds. As of 2019, shrimps were the most widely cultured crustacean in Bangladesh, with a production of 125 kMT. Shrimp culture is widely practiced in extensive polyculture form, resulting in a high production of fish in shrimp farms (133 kMT). With consumers’ purchasing power improving, they gravitate towards higher value cultured species such as carps and newly-domesticated species. At the same time, demand for processed fish products in the domestic market, especially in urban areas, is estimated to increase exponentially. The aquaculture sector in Bangladesh has been growing steadily in recent years (5.3% CAGR from 2009-2019); however, it offers substantial room for further professionalization from a technical and commercial perspective, enabling the industry to become more sustainable, innovative, and more competitive. Main opportunities for improvement relate to the quality of fish and shrimp genetics & breeding, disease control & animal health management, the availability of high-quality feed, post-harvest practices, cold chain development, and supply chain inter-dependencies....
Coastal Zone Policy Bangladesh
The coast of Bangladesh is known as a zone of vulnerabilities and opportunities. It is prone to natural disasters like cyclones, storm surges, and floods. The combination of natural and man-made hazards, such as erosion, high arsenic content in groundwater, water logging, earthquake, water and soil salinity, various forms of pollution, risks from climate change, etc., have adversely affected lives and livelihoods in the coastal zone and slowed down the pace of social and economic developments in this region. The coastal zone differs from the rest of the country in several ways. A participatory and integrated approach promises to reduce conflicts by utilizing coastal resources and the optimum exploitation of opportunities. The Government, therefore, has formulated this coastal zone policy (CZPo) that would provide general guidance to all concerned for the management and development of the coastal zone in a manner so that the coastal people can pursue their lives and livelihoods within a secure and conducive environment. This CZPo may be revised if and when it becomes necessary. The coastal zone policy is unique in the sense that it is a harmonized policy that transcends beyond sectoral perspectives. The CZPo initiates a process that commits different Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to agree to harmonize and coordinate their activities in the coastal zone and elaborates the basis for a firm coordination mechanism. The coastal development process aims to meet, on an overall basis, National Goal for Economic Growth, Poverty Reduction & Social Development; Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, Code of Conduct for Responsible Mangrove Management and other international conventions and treaties including to achieve the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The goal of integrated coastal zone management is: to create conditions, in which the reduction of poverty, development of sustainable livelihoods and the integration of the coastal zone into national processes can take place....
ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN SOUTH ASIA OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENERGY SECTOR TRANSFORMATION
A sustainable energy system bears special significance to the member countries of the South Asia Subregional Cooperation (SASEC) Program. Accounting for over one-fifth of the world’s population, SASEC member countries still depend on fossil fuels, which have adverse effects on the environment and implications on energy security and climate change. As such, the wider deployment of renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies is a growing imperative in South Asia. Tackling climate change, building climate and disaster resilience, and enhancing environmental sustainability is an operational priority of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under its Strategy 2030. Through clean energy financing, ADB is actively supporting its developing member countries in their pursuit of low-carbon and climate-resilient development. This ADB study analyzes various issues regarding energy efficiency and the development of sustainable energy systems in SASEC member countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. It also provides an overview of the national institutions along with policies, laws, regulations, and initiatives on energy efficiency and conservation in these countries. Recognizing the important role that regional cooperation plays in the promotion of energy efficiency, this study discusses different avenues for collaboration among governments in the national, state, and local levels. It also highlights opportunities for changes in energy mix that are beneficial to these countries and others in South Asia. Various technologies that can be developed and deployed in the region to help conserve energy and save costs are also identified. The findings and information presented can provide national energy planners, policy makers, and other stakeholders in South Asia with a better understanding of how and why energy efficiency is essential to achieve sustainable and low-carbon economic development....
Bangladesh Environmental Conservation Rules 2023
Bangladesh Environmental Conservation Rules 2023 was published in March 5, 2023. It is to be mentioned that it was initiated in 1995. Various sections of this document have been modified at different times. However, in this updated version it was rigorously reviewed....
Footprint Evaluation Thought experiments (Thinking through how to embed environmental concerns into evaluation).
The Footprint Evaluation Initiative aims to ensure that all evaluations consider environmental sustainability, regardless of whether this is an explicit objective of the project, policy or program being evaluated. This report describes four ‘thought experiments’ undertaken as part of this project. The thought experiments explored whether it is relevant, feasible and useful to consider environmental sustainability in evaluation, how this might be done, what challenges and issues it raises, and what is needed to address these. This report aims to document and share what we learned during this process, provide concrete examples of how environmental sustainability might be considered in an evaluation, and share details of our thought experiment process that others might find helpful. The Footprint Evaluation Initiative is an international collaboration to support evaluators and evaluation managers to consider environmental sustainability in all evaluations, even when this is not a stated goal of the intervention. Footprint evaluation approaches focus on the ‘footprint’ that human systems make on natural systems. This requires attention to the nexus of human and natural systems and addressing effects across both systems. It is grounded in the premise that all evaluations should include consideration of environmental sustainability, even when this is not a stated goal of the intervention. This is so that decision-making can take into account the potential and actual impacts of planned interventions (projects, programs, policies) on the environment....
MUJIB CLIMATE PROSPERITY PLAN, DECADE 2030
Bangladesh faces increasing catastrophic impacts of climate change that could result in a 6.8% loss in GDP per year by 2030 if not addressed. For this reason, we need to build Bangladesh’s resilience to make sure that these impacts do not affect the country's prosperity. Thus, the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan Decade 2030 includes a number of ambitious new and strengthened adaptation efforts to build resilience in populations and ecosystems. Minimizing and averting loss and damage is at the heart of this plan. The Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan was launched under Bangladesh’s second tenure as president of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF). It works to counteract climate-induced damage and losses by equipping vulnerable communities, industry, and the government with the Mujib vision supported by optimized financing tools and models that will be key to the new risk management paradigm to bring about resilience and stability, especially for small businesses, vulnerable populations, and the economy....
Climate Change and Vulnerability of People in Cities of Asia
More than half the world’s population lives in urban areas and urbanisation trends are growing, with Asian cities at the heart of urban growth. Cities play an important role in the climate change arena, both as significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, and also centres of innovative activity for reducing emissions. However, cities are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. An understanding of their vulnerabilities, and how to reduce these vulnerabilities is imperative. This paper explores the sources of greenhouse emissions in Asian cities and the particular vulnerabilities of Asian cities to the impacts of climate change. Through a review of policies and field-based studies undertaken in two Asian megacities, Jakarta (Indonesia) and Mumbai (India), local community vulnerabilities are explored and innovative adaptive measures identified. The predominant climate related focus for communities researched in both cities was flood mitigation, where community adaptation included such things as raising the floor level of houses, storing clothing in plastic bags on high shelves, and collective community cleaning of rubbish from canals before the monsoon season arrived. However, many of these residents were placed at greater risk of future climate change, due to such things as lack of properly executed and enforced urban planning, poor provision and maintenance of basic services such as water supply, sanitation and waste collection, and poor disaster risk reduction planning. City governments have a role to play in reducing both greenhouse emissions, and vulnerability to climate change impacts, through activating “levers”, such as planning, regulation, purchasing power, network facilitation, education and their civic leadership role. Key words: cities, urban, climate adaptation, climate mitigation...
A CITIZENS’ GUIDE TO ENERGY SUBSIDIES IN BANGLADESH
Bangladesh started subsidizing the retail prices of energy products following independence in 1971. Today, with soaring global prices and rapidly rising demand for fuels, these subsidies take a heavy toll on government finances.This guide is intended to help citizens understand energy subsidies in Bangladesh. The guide discusses the size of subsidies to different energy types, the segments of society that benefit the most, and how they affect the country's economy and environment. It also highlights the process of reforming energy subsidies, drawing on the experience of Bangladesh and other developing countries....
Gender and Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform: Findings from and recommendations for Bangladesh
The report examines from a gender perspective the impact of subsidies and reform to kerosene in Bangladesh. The research was based around two overall research questions: “How do existing kerosene policies affect the welfare, productivity and empowerment of women and girls in low-income households?” and “How might this change given a change in subsidy policy or mitigation measures?” These questions were explored using secondary data, household surveys (that reached 630 households) and focus group discussions. The questions were answered within the context of hypotheses made during the scoping phase and literature review for the research. This research attempted to answer the above questions in relation to an income effect, energy use effect and an energy supply effect, from a gender perspective. The report is part of a broader project that also examined gender and fossil fuel subsidies in India and Nigeria. The research concludes with five overarching findings. First, overall fuel subsidies are not working well for poor women. Second, better targeting of support for energy access is both needed and possible. Third, subsidy reform needs to be undertaken with care, and mitigation measures are needed to protect poor women. Fourth, other factors could be significant for fuel switching and better access to cleaner fuels for women. Finally, investing in subsidy alternatives could empower women more directly. A summary of these and other findings, including those from across the three countries, can be found at the end of this report. Bangladesh is a “high-impact” country in that the total number of people without access to electricity or clean cooking is among the highest in the world. Like many countries, Bangladesh is reviewing energy subsidies, undergoing reforms, and increasing prices, but it also has goals to increase energy access and women’s empowerment. These reforms present an opportunity for policy-makers to deliver and target policies that cluster gender and energy access benefits toward poor, often rural, women and ensure that no one is left behind....
Bangladesh Enhancing Coastal Resilience in a Changing Climate
Coastal Bangladesh, fringed by the Bay of Bengal and home to over 40 million people, is a dynamic, unique, thriving environment full of opportunities. However, multiple risks are also at play, as the coast of Bangladesh sits on the frontlines in the battle against climate change. Among the most climate-vulnerable and disaster-prone countries in the world, Bangladesh, particularly the coastal zone of Bangladesh, is experiencing setbacks in its development because of the impact of natural hazards. Tropical cyclones and floods are frequently recurring events, while coastal and riverine erosion and salinity intrusion is a chronic phenomenon affecting millions of people along the coast each year. The Bangladesh: Enhancing Coastal Resilience in a Changing Climate report seeks to provide actionable guidance for enhancing coastal resilience based on in-depth analytical work supported by the World Bank. The work included extensive stakeholder consultations, expert interviews, field visits, data analysis, and numerical modeling to contribute to the design of sustainable climate-resilient coastal investments. The target audience of this report is intentionally broad, encompassing those at the strategic, operational, and technical levels, from decision makers to practitioners, and all those interested in the Bangladesh coast or are involved in programs to increase its resilience against natural hazards. Overall, this report Summarizes the key lessons from past interventions, which can guide the design for the next generation of coastal resilience programs; Takes a deep dive into how Bangladesh can adopt a more risk-based strategy following international best practices and Inspires what future interventions oriented towards more nature-based solutions could look like. Seven cross-cutting recommendations pave the way forward and offer an opportunity to strengthen the resilience of the coastal zone and build shared prosperity for decades to come....
Loss and Damage from salinity intrusion in Sathkira District, Coastal Bangladesh
Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) supported by United Nations University (UNU) has conducted a study to explore the interaction between salinity intrusion and rice production as well as drinking water supply in Shyamnagar Upazilla (Sub-district) under Satkhira district. The research has analyzed how people adapt to salinity intrusion and how much they can avoid loss and damage to rice production. It also looked at how people dealt with increasing salinity in drinking water and its impacts on health. Both quantitative (household survey) and qualitative tools (focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and community consultations) have been used to explore how the impact of salinity intrusion on rice production and drinking water leads to loss & damage among households. High level of salinity in the rice fields is being experienced by 81% of the households, at present, compared to 2% of Loss and damage from salinity intrusion in Bangladesh households a decade ago. Higher salinity levels in drinking water sources are causing waterborne diseases that primarily affect children and women. Most of the households in the study area face food crises more or less all around the year, and the crisis continues to worsen during August and September. The farmers have been practicing various measures to adapt to salinity in soil over the years. The most important adaptation option for the farmers is to cultivate saline-tolerant rice cultivars such as BRRI 47 and BINA 8. But after the occurrence of cyclone Aila in 2009, the salinity level in the study areas increased to a level reducing the productivity of these varieties. As a result, the study households have been incurring loss of harvests in the three consecutive years and the loss estimated at 1.9 million USD for the four villages surveyed....
National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA)
It is well recognized both in the scientific and negotiating community that Bangladesh would be one of the most adversely affected country to climate change. Low economic strength, inadequate infrastructure, low level of social development, lack of institutional capacity, and a higher dependency on the natural resource base make the country more vulnerable to climate stimuli (including both variability as well as extreme events). The National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) is prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF), Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh as a response to the decision of the Seventh Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The preparation process has followed the generic guiding principles outlined in the annotated guideline prepared by LDC Expert Group (LEG). The basic approach to NAPA preparation was along with the sustainable development goals and objectives of the country where it has recognized necessity of addressing environmental issue and natural resource management with the participation of stakeholders in bargaining over resource use, allocation and distribution. Therefore, involvement of different stakeholders was an integral part of the preparation process for assessing impacts, vulnerabilities, adaptation measures keeping urgency and immediacy principle of the NAPA. Policy makers of Government, local representatives of the Government (Union Parishad Chairman and Members), scientific community members of the various research institutes, researchers, academicians, teachers (ranging from primary to tertiary levels), lawyers, doctors, ethnic groups, media, NGO and CBO representatives and indigenous women contributed to the development of the NAPA for Bangladesh....
TRACKING SDG7: THE ENERGY PROGRESS REPORT 2018
The world is not currently on track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), which calls for ensuring “access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” by 2030. Current progress falls short on all four of the SDG7 targets, which encompass universal access to electricity as well as clean fuels and technologies for cooking, and call for a doubling of the rate of improvement of energy efficiency, plus a substantial increase in the share of renewables in the global energy mix. While overall progress falls short on meeting all targets, real gains are being made in certain areas. Expansion of access to electricity in poorer countries has recently begun to accelerate, with progress overtaking population growth for the first time in sub-Saharan Africa. Energy efficiency continues to improve, driven by advances in the industrial sector. Renewable energy is making impressive gains in the electricity sector, although these are not being matched in transportation and heating – which together account for 80 percent of global energy consumption. Lagging furthest behind is access to clean cooking fuels and technologies – an area that has been typically overlooked by policymakers. Use of traditional cooking fuels and technologies among a large proportion of the world’s population has serious and widespread negative health, environmental, climate and social impacts. More encouraging than global trends, however, are the strong performances evident within specific countries, across both the developed and developing worlds. These national experiences provide valuable lessons for other countries, and evidence is mounting that with holistic approaches, targeted policies and international support, substantial gains can be made in clean energy and energy access that will improve the lives of millions of people....
Evidence of Ecosystem Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Coastal Bangladesh
The Bay of Bengal is among the most climate change affected regions, with massive salinity intrusion, river erosion, increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Bangladesh is considered to be one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change because of its flat and low lying topography, funnel shaped coastline challenged by its high population density. This is exacerbated by high levels of poverty and reliance of various livelihoods on climate sensitive sectors including agriculture, fisheries and water resources. To tackle some of these issues, the Climate-Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL) project implemented by Winrock International and funded by USAID is designed to scale up and adapt successful co-management models to conserve ecosystems and protected areas (PAs) in Bangladesh, improve governance of natural resources and biodiversity, and increase resilience to climate change through improved planning and livelihoods diversification. Whilst there are CREL sites all across the country, this study evaluated CREL project based in coastal Bangladesh. This study aimed to gather evidence to address gaps in ecosystem based adaptation (EbA) to climate change so that this can be fed into policy and management of effective implementation of EbA measures. It does this by evaluation of a number of CREL project activities based in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. The evaluation was done through primary and secondary data analysis. Firstly secondary data provided by CREL was analyzed from four CREL sites (three entirely mangrove forest sites and one coastal island site with mixed ecosystems of mangroves and intertidal mudflats), and seeing how well they aligned with and fit into the EbA framework and strategy. The second part consisted of primary data collection, in the form of focus group discussions and interviews in three sites, and seeing how beneficiaries of the project perceived project activities and how well these fit EbA interventions. Results showed that several CREL activities met EbA criteria and utilized an ecosystem approach in diversifying alternate livelihoods to deal with the negative impacts of climate change. Some of these included poultry rearing, aquaculture and knitting. The project was also focused around natural resource management, and helped with knowledge generation and awareness of sustainable harvest, minimizing environmental impact, and protection of forests and wildlife. However in some areas, we found lack of adoption of an ecosystem based approach, where the villagers are able to earn livelihood but still suffer from freshwater shortage and flooding due to poor roads. There were also several other limiting factors such as lack of land, education, power struggle, poor governance and lack of innovation that limited adoption of ecosystem based adaptation. Overall, the findings from this study show that ecosystem based adaptation is prevalent in CREL activities but there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration for successful implementation of EbA in rural areas of Bangladesh. Limitations to adopting EbA strategies as seen in this study include: lack of land, assets and finances for vulnerable people to invest in adaptation strategies, land use conflict and community opposition. There were also knowledge gaps on innovations and technologies that can be used in implementing EbA. From our study we identified the following key issues that need to be addressed when designing future projects in remote areas of Bangladesh where a majority of people are poor and have limited resources: • Addressing social and political issues e.g. land rights, power struggle, weak local governance. • Focusing on transformation to sustainability, and enabling innovation in design and adaptation mechanisms. • Social energy for collaborative ecosystem-based aquaculture and agriculture development with the poor...
National Adaptation Plan of Bangladesh (2023‐2050)
With an underlying objective of reducing risks and vulnerabilities to climate change impacts, the NAP envisions building a climate-resilient nation through effective adaptation strategies that foster a robust society and ecosystems and stimulate sustainable economic growth. Six national adaptation goals have been set to achieve this vision: Goal 1: Ensure protection against climate change variability and induced natural disasters; Goal 2: Develop climate-resilient agriculture for food, nutrition, and livelihood security; Goal 3: Develop climate-smart cities for improved urban environment and well-being; Goal 4: Promote nature-based solutions for conservation of forestry, biodiversity, and well-being of communities; Goal 5: Impart good governance through integration of adaptation into the planning process; and Goal 6: Ensure transformative capacity building and innovation for CCA. The NAP implementation will seek to realize these six goals through 23 broad-scale strategies and 28 outcomes encompassing diverse aspects of safeguarding against climate-induced disasters. It will develop climate-resilient agriculture, infrastructure and other socioeconomic sectors through implementing inclusive and ecosystem-based adaptation, improved governance, enhanced climate finance and transformative capacity-building, and innovation. The NAP considered 11 climate stress areas in devising 113 interventions based on developed adaptation pathways and sectoral adaptation requirements. These interventions are aligned with the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 52 climate adaptation projects of the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 (BDP2100). They ensure the inclusion of women and people with diverse gender identities, the elderly, persons with disabilities, youth, ethnic communities and other socially disadvantaged groups throughout the NAP process. Recommended interventions are envisaged as being implemented in an integrated and coordinated manner through programmatic approaches instead of ad-hoc, project-based, short-term initiatives. This will increase the effectiveness of adaptation in advancing systems transitions while avoiding overlaps and/or misuse of investment and reducing maladaptation. Programme-based implementation will allow stakeholders the flexibility to select locally led adaptation actions from the 113 interventions and implement them based on local priorities....
Coastal Zone Management: an Analysis of Different Policy Documents
Starting from the early nineties, several ministries of the Government of Bangladesh released policy documents. While some ministries are still to draft a policy, others have already revised or are in the process of revision of their policy documents. In addition to two national strategic planning documents, the Government of Bangladesh so far has prepared more than a dozen sectoral policy documents, that are relevant for Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). In 2001, during the interim period of the PDO project, a first attempt was made to bring together from these policy documents all the statements relevant for the coastal zone. Eight policy documents and the Fifth Five-Year Plan (FFYP) were reviewed and results were presented in a discussion paper (PDO-ICZM, 2001). Since then, new policy documents have been released and some earlier released documents could be collected. The present working paper updates the previous discussion paper with information from 5 additional sectoral policy documents and the National Strategy for Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction (ERD, 2002). In this backdrop, it merits mention that the Government of Bangladesh has not yet adopted a formal Coastal Zone Policy. In September 1999, however, a document: “Integrated Coastal Zone Management: Concept and Issues” was released by the Ministry of Water Resources, that is identified as Policy Note of the Government. Based on this Note, a more formal policy will be drafted by the PDO-ICZM project...
Harnessing Nature to Build Climate Resilience: Scaling Up the Use of Ecosystem-based Adaptation
Understanding the current status and trends in EbA implementation is difficult because data on EbA practice, policy and finance are incomplete, scattered and insufficiently detailed. Assessing the extent of action is also complicated due to the large diversity of EbA measures, the wide range of socioeconomic contexts and sectors in which EbA can be applied, and the diverse range of stakeholder groups involved. Nevertheless, our assessment of available information (databases, publications, websites and reports) suggests that there is already substantial EbA action under way. There are at least several thousand EbA initiatives being implemented across the world, with support from a diverse suite of actors, including United Nations organizations, bilateral and multilateral development agencies, multilateral development banks and funds, international NGOs, research organizations, national governments, local communities and the private sector. Since many EbA initiatives are not labelled as such, the number of initiatives is certainly much larger than what is currently documented in the literature. EbA also has significant traction in the international policy arena and features prominently in the Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans of many (but not all) countries. In addition, numerous high-level policy initiatives, reports and declarations have called for greater deployment of ecosystem conservation, restoration and management in support of climate change adaptation. EbA is currently being funded by a small number of key bilateral donors, multilateral donors and climate and environment funds, with public finance for EbA in 2018 estimated to be between US$ 3.8 billion and US$ 8.7 billion in 2018 (Swann et al. 2021). Our assessment suggests that the pace of EbA activity is increasing, albeit at a slow rate. Several key bilateral and multilateral organizations have increased the number of projects using EbA to foster climate resilience. There is a growing number of organizations that have joined collaborative networks that support EbA action. There also appears to be a trend of increasing finance for EbA among some of the major bilateral and multilateral donors. Finally, there has also been a growing number of policy declarations and commitments by multilateral development banks, bilateral donors and others to increase the finance directed towards ecosystem-based approaches. The burgeoning number of publications, case studies, research and guidelines on EbA also points to growing interest in EbA and increased implementation. However, at the same time, the current level of level of EbA implementation falls far short of its potential. The number of EbA initiatives under way, while significant, is too little to have a meaningful impact on the hundreds of millions of people who are threatened by climate change. There is a significant funding gap for EbA, as the amount of available funding falls short of what is needed. International public finance for EbA, for example, still makes up less than 2 per cent of total climate finance flows. There have been numerous high-level calls (such as the Nature-based Solutions for Climate Manifesto (2019)1 , the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature (2020)2 , the Glasgow Climate Pact (2021; (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC] 2021b), and the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use (2021)3 , to better harness the conservation, restoration and management of ecosystems for delivering climate adaptation, and to significantly scale up financial support for NbS. In short, there is a growing consensus that EbA can play a much greater role in global adaptation efforts....
DELINEATION OF THE COASTAL ZONE
For integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), this document specifies a coastal zone in Bangladesh where the vulnerabilities and opportunities require special management approaches. The three basic natural system processes and events that govern opportunities and vulnerabilities of the coastal zone of Bangladesh are: tidal fluctuations; salinities (soil, surface water or groundwater); and cyclone and storm surge risk. Considering these three criteria, an assessment has been done to delineate the coastal zone. For each of these criteria, threshold values were specified, and corresponding impacted areas were determined. Based on these criteria, a proposal for coastal zone delineation was developed and subsequently discussed at different levels and finally at the 5th and 6th Inter-Ministerial Technical Committee meetings held on April 20, 2003 and October 25, 2003, respectively. As per the proposal and decisions of these meetings, coastal zone of Bangladesh consists of 19 districts (see Map of the coastal zone of Bangladesh) comprising 147 upazilas (see Tables) and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Further, a distinction has been made between upazilas facing the coast or the estuary and the upazilas located behind them. A total of 48 upazilas in 12 districts that are exposed to the sea and or lower estuaries, are defined as the exposed coast and the remaining 99 upazilas of the coastal districts are termed interior coast. In this working paper, approaches and methodologies, criteria and their justifications, threshold values for each of these criteria, data and analysis supporting the delineation and further sub-divisions are described. Tables and maps are presented at the end of the report....
Accelerating progress: An empowered, inclusive and equal Asia and the Pacific
Empowering people, ensuring inclusiveness and equality is fundamental to realizing sustainable development. What change is needed to strengthen empowerment and promote inclusion and equality of all people within our efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda, including its central aspiration to leave no one behind? This report helps to answer that question, by proposing a framework of four synergistic elements that can promote these intertwined objectives. The report illustrates how each element of the framework contributes to better Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) outcomes. It finds that where social norms support women’s participation in household decisions there are also better health outcomes for children. Similarly, reduced frequency of child marriage is associated with higher female educational attainment. It also shows that constitutional recognition of environmental rights is associated with improved environmental performance across the core environment-related SDGs....
Nationwide Climate Vulnerability Assessment in Bangladesh
Under the current climate conditions and due to its geographic location and topography, Bangladesh is exposed to a multitude of natural hazards such as floods, storm surges, droughts, riverbank erosion, etc. At the same time, new issues related to socio-economic factors and ongoing climate change impacts are emerging. Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns could affect, for instance, heat stress in the rapidly urbanising cities, groundwater depletion in rural productive areas, and so on. Emerging challenges from climate change include salinity intrusion and increasing coastal floods due to sea level rise. These impacts are threatening biodiversity, water resources, agriculture and settlements. A key question is, how to adjust development oriented planning to address issues triggered by climate change. There is a growing need for continuously updated and authentic information and data to enable the identification and monitoring of vulnerable areas and sectors in Bangladesh, and to design tailored adaptation strategies and measures. The elaboration of a Nationwide Climate Vulnerability Assessment (NCVA) is thus intended to provide the Government of Bangladesh with an evidence-based tool, prioritising adaptation funding and intervention within the country. This assessment was led by a team of international and national experts and was conducted through a systematic step by step approach applying participatory methods. The climate vulnerability was assessed for eight sectors at the Upazila level: Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Navigation, Transport and Infrastructure, Water Resources, Biodiversity, Natural Disasters and Human Health. With this, the NCVA may serve as a tool to take on an integrated climate vulnerability perspective beyond the commonly regarded domains of flood risk and water management....
The Bangladesh Delta A Lighthouse Case Study
Over the years, Bangladesh has invested in climate change adaptation and DRM to complement its development investments; the World Bank–supported CEIP embodies this two-pronged approach. In recent years, the country has embraced climate resilience based on adaptive management and integrated WRM/DRM as its long-term development strategy. The recently adopted BDP 2100 and its priority investment programs form the core of this strategy. While the implementation of the BDP 2100 is only just starting, putting ADM into practice will pose new challenges. First, the ADM principles will need to be adjusted to reflect local conditions and the country’s investment capability. Second, an enabling environment will have to be created. This entails setting up a legislative, governance, and M&E framework, based on clearly defined tasks and responsibilities and a mechanism for coordinating policies and activities across relevant agencies and ministries. In addition, adequate and predictable financing will be essential for the successful implementation of the BDP 2100 or any other delta plan. This has many dimensions: (1) the overall amount available and financing sources for the plan; (2) the distribution of total funds over the plan’s shorter-term strategies, climate change mitigation and adaptation, O&M, and pollution control; (3) the resources set aside for ADM-related investments (e.g., modeling); and (4) the funds reserved for supporting vital delta institutions such as governance bodies, water user groups, and stakeholder forums...
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) 2021, Bangladesh
The Paris Agreement (PA) was adopted by COP21 in 2015, and subsequently signed and ratified by 191 Parties. The sole aim is to change the current course towards combating climate change, harboring sustainable development pathway by limiting global warming within 1.5 - 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. One of the key elements of the PA is the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) previously referred to as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) before the ratification of PA. Bangladesh submitted its INDC to UNFCCC on 25 September 2015, for three sectors (Power, Industry and Transport). Subsequently, Bangladesh prepared the NDC Implementation Roadmap and Action Plan in 2018. Bangladesh’s INDC proposed for 12 million tons (5%) unconditional reduction in GHG emission from Business as Usual (BAU) scenario by 2030 and a further 24 million tons (10%) conditional reduction in GHG emission with support from the international community taking the base year 2011. As part of the global initiative, Bangladesh is updating the NDC incorporating additional sectors following IPCC guidelines. The updated NDC covers Energy, Industrial Processes and Product Use (IPPU), Agriculture, Forestry and other Land use (AFOLU) and Waste. For the NDC update, 2012 has been considered as the base year following the Third National Communication of Bangladesh, which details a comprehensive national GHG emission inventory for 2012. In this NDC update, information to facilitate clarity, transparency and understanding of Bangladesh’s NDC in line with the guidelines set out in Katowice decisions (COP24/CMA1) is presented in the form of template in the last part of this document. The NDC update aims to further mitigation actions that Bangladesh may take to tackle its growing emissions and play its role in global efforts. The NDC calls for a number of mitigation actions that will help limit the country’s GHG emissions. These actions will play a key role in realizing the move to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy and becoming a middle-income country whilst ensuring that it will not cross the average per capita emissions of the developing countries....
Expanding the Protected Area System to Incorporate Important Aquatic Ecosystems project
Aquatic mammals are very sensitive and one of the good indicators of climate changes. Now a day due to climate change and anthropogenic activities these animals are being threatened and some are going to be extinct, therefore global diversity of mammals are declining day by day. Here in the contrast of Bangladesh these species are generally threatened with extinction across their range. The possible causes for threatening dolphins include fishing activities, aquaculture into the meaningful boundary of cetacean sanctuary, aquatic pollution and climate change. Fry collection and over fishing in Sundarbans sanctuaries dramatically reduced the biodiversity, which affect on the food chain of dolphins. Additionally fishing net, dams and barrage construction on the migratory route restrict the movement of dolphins. In these circumstances this is the high time to take necessary initiation for the protection and conservation of cetacean’s species from extinct. Although many organizations around the world like IUCN, UNDP, AquaFish are continuously working on the protection and conservation of these aquatic and terrestrial organisms, and many regulations have been established on this issues. However, the problem is proper implementation of those regulations. Considering those problems the current research has been conducted with the aim to establish a biodiversity friendly guidelines on fisheries for the wildlife sanctuaries that will focus the level of fishing activities in the ecologically meaningful boundaries of cetaceans sanctuaries in sunderbans and also to find out the gap of policy implementation in fisheries management related to cetaceans, create alternative livelihood of coastal fisher communities as well as increasing awareness of the resource users in Sunderbans....
Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change SYNTHESIS REPORT
As developing countries weigh how best to revitalize their economies and craft a sustainable development path to boost living standards, they will have to factor in the reality that the global annual average temperature is expected to be 2º C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. A 2º warmer world will experience more intense rainfall and more frequent and more intense droughts, floods, heat waves, and other extreme weather events. As a result, it will have dramatic implications for how countries manage their economies, care for their people and design their development paths. Countries will need to adopt measures to adapt to climate change. These measures offer a way to make the effects of climate change less disruptive and spare the poor and the vulnerable from shouldering an unduly high burden. Against this backdrop, the global community adopted the Bali Action Plan at the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The plan calls for developed countries to allocate “adequate, predictable, and sustainable financial resources and new and additional resources, including official and concessional funding for developing country parties”1 to help them adapt to climate change. It also underscores that international cooperation is essential for building capacity to integrate adaptation measures into sectoral and national development plans....
The United Nations World Water Development Report 2018: Nature-Based Solutions for Water
Nature-based solutions (NBS) are inspired and supported by nature and use, or mimic, natural processes to contribute to the improved management of water. An NBS can involve conserving or rehabilitating natural ecosystems and/or the enhancement or creation of natural processes in modified or artificial ecosystems. They can be applied at micro- (e.g. a dry toilet) or macro- (e.g. landscape) scales. Attention to NBS has significantly increased in recent years. This is evidenced through the mainstreaming of NBS into a wide range of policy advances, including in water resources, food security and agriculture, biodiversity, environment, disaster risk reduction, urban settlements, and climate change. This welcome trend illustrates a growing convergence of interests around the recognition of the need for common objectives and the identification of mutually supporting actions – as illustrated best in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through its acknowledgment of the inter-dependency of its various Goals and targets....
Impacts of Climate Change on natural resoucre bases and peoples livelihood of south western coastal region of Bangladesh and Adaptation strategy in agricultural sector
The on-going climatic variability and climate change is modifying the environment, farming practices, farmer’s income and overall livelihoods of Bangladesh people particularly crucial for southern coastal region. A study was conducted to capture the farmer’s perception about climate change, climatic variation, soil salinity, tidal water effect, other bio-physical factors and adaptation measures against the changing environments. Six FGD was conducted in different villages of Jhalokati, Pirojpur, Bagerhat and Satkhira district of Bangladesh where climate change effect is more critical. Available climatic and soil salinity data was collected from concerned organizations for evaluation. For collating agricultural adaptation options different agricultural research organization scientists was contacted along with communities own experience and innovation. Community members(both men and women) believe that climate is continuously changing, creating unbearable heat wave round the year except in short winter period, rainfall is erratic and often excessive rainfall in a day/week, more cyclonic storm, higher tidal water pressure and increased water height in rivers, canal, increased soil and water salinity which causing loss of lives, crops, cultured fish, trees, livestock, houses and other properties. Farmers also reported very limited natural fish availability, increased pest and diseases of crops and diversified health hazards for human....
Policy Working Paper: Livelihood resilience in a changing world: 6 global policy recommendations for a more sustainable future
In 2013, the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Munich Re Foundation (MRF) began the five-year partnership research-to-action project Gibika (“livelihood” in Bengali) focused on livelihood resilience in Bangladesh. The Gibika project explores local research-based solutions and their transferability to other geographical and socio-economic contexts. As an important complement to the locally based Gibika project, the project consortium is organizing the annual Resilience Academy, which aims to foster a broader and more overarching discussion of livelihood development. The Resilience Academy emphasizes the global importance of understanding and supporting livelihood resilience, especially among the most vulnerable population groups. There are four important international processes that mark crucial milestones in 2015: The 3rd World Disaster Risk Reduction Conference on the Post Hyogo Framework in March 2015 in Sendai, Japan, the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the formulation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 21) in December 2015 in Paris....
CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE Sourcebook
Why is climate-smart agriculture needed? Between now and 2050, the world’s population will increase by one-third. Most of these additional 2 billion people will live in developing countries. At the same time, more people will be living in cities. If current income and consumption growth trends continue, FAO estimates that agricultural production will have to increase by 60 percent by 2050 to satisfy the expected demands for food and feed. Agriculture must therefore transform itself if it is to feed a growing global population and provide the basis for economic growth and poverty reduction. Climate change will make this task more difficult under a business-as-usual scenario, due to adverse impacts on agriculture, requiring spiraling adaptation and related costs. To achieve food security and agricultural development goals, adaptation to climate change and lower emission intensities per output will be necessary. This transformation must be accomplished without depletion of the natural resource base. Climate change is already having an impact on agriculture and food security as a result of increased prevalence of extreme events and increased unpredictability of weather patterns. This can lead to reductions in production and lower incomes in vulnerable areas. These changes can also affect global food prices. Developing countries and smallholder farmers and pastorals in particular are being especially hard hit by these changes. Many of these small-scale producers are already coping with a degraded natural resource base. They often lack knowledge about potential options for adapting their production systems and have limited assets and risk-taking capacity to access and use technologies and financial services....
PARIS AGREEMENT
PARIS AGREEMENT The Parties to this Agreement, Being Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, hereinafter referred to as "the Convention", Pursuant to the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action established by decision 1/CP.17 of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention at its seventeenth session, In pursuit of the objective of the Convention, and being guided by its principles, including the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances, Recognizing the need for an effective and progressive response to the urgent threat of climate change on the basis of the best available scientific knowledge, Also recognizing the specific needs and special circumstances of developing country Parties, especially those that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, as provided for in the Convention, Taking full account of the specific needs and special situations of the least developed countries with regard to funding and transfer of technology, Recognizing that Parties may be affected not only by climate change, but also by the impacts of the measures taken in response to it, Emphasizing the intrinsic relationship that climate change actions, responses and impacts have with equitable access to sustainable development and eradication of poverty, Recognizing the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger, and the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems to the adverse impacts of climate change, Taking into account the imperatives of a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs in accordance with nationally defined development priorities, Acknowledging that climate change is a common concern of humankind, Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity, Recognizing the importance of the conservation and enhancement, as appropriate, of sinks and reservoirs of the greenhouse gases referred to in the Convention, Noting the importance of ensuring the integrity of all ecosystems, including oceans, and the protection of biodiversity, recognized by some cultures as Mother Earth, and noting the importance for some of the concept of "climate justice", when taking action to address climate change, Affirming the importance of education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information and cooperation at all levels on the matters addressed in this Agreement, Recognizing the importance of the engagements of all levels of government and various actors, in accordance with respective national legislations of Parties, in addressing climate change, Also recognizing that sustainable lifestyles and sustainable patterns of consumption and production, with developed country Parties taking the lead, play an important role in addressing climate change....
টেকসই উন্নয়নে জলবায়ু অর্থায়ন: বাজেট প্রতিবেদন ২০১৮-১৯
নব্বইয়ের দশকে গণতান্ত্রিক ব্যবস্থায় উত্তরণের পর থেকে বাংলাদেশ সামাজিক সূচকে ঈর্ষণীয় অগ্রগতিসহ টেকসই প্রবৃদ্ধির ধারা অব্যাহত রেখেছে। এ সময়ে দেশের মাথাপিছু আয় যেমন অব্যাহতভাবে বৃদ্ধি পেয়েছে তেমনি উল্লেখযোগ্যভাবে হ্রাস পেয়েছে দারিদ্রের হার। বাংলাদেশ সহস্রাব্দ উন্নয়ন লক্ষ্য অর্জনে সফলতার পাশাপাশি টেকসই উন্নয়ন অভীষ্ট (এসডিজি) অর্জনের পথে যাত্রা শুরু করেছে। এবছর বাংলাদেশ স্বল্পোন্নত দেশ হতে উত্তরণের সকল মানদন্ড অর্জন করেছে- যা আমাদের উন্নয়ন অগ্রযাত্রায় একটি বিশিষ্ট মাইলফলক। উন্নয়ন চিন্তকগণ এ বিষয়ে একমত যে, বাংলাদেশের অন্যতম গুরুত্বপূর্ণ উন্নয়ন চ্যালেঞ্জ হচ্ছে জলবায়ু পরিবর্তনজনিত বিরূপ প্রভাব- যা নারী, শিশু, ক্ষুদ্র নৃগোষ্ঠী এবং সমাজের অন্যান্য সুবিধাবঞ্চিত জনগোষ্ঠীর জীবন ও জীবিকার উপর মারাত্মক প্রভাব ফেলছে। জলবায়ু পরিবর্তনের প্রভাব মোকাবেলায় সরকারের প্রতিশ্রুতিসমূহ জাতীয় পরিকল্পনা এবং জলবায়ু সংক্রান্ত নীতি কাঠামোতে বিধৃত হয়েছে। দেশের পরিবর্তিত উন্নয়ন অগ্রাধিকারের প্রেক্ষাপটে জলবায়ু পরিবর্তন কৌশল ও কর্মপরিকল্পনা (বিসিসিএসএপি) প্রণয়ন এবং এ কর্মকৌশলে চিহ্নিত বিভিন্ন থিমেটিক এরিয়ার অধীন কর্মসূচিগুলোকে বাস্তবায়নের জন্য নিজস্ব উৎস থেকে বাংলাদেশ জলবায়ু ট্রাষ্ট ফান্ড (বিসিসিটিএফ) গঠন জলবায়ু পরিবর্তনের প্রভাব মোকাবেলায় সরকারের দৃঢ় অঙ্গীকারেরই প্রতিফলন। অধিকন্তু, জলবায়ু অর্থায়নকে সরকারি আর্থিক ব্যবস্থাপনায় সংগ্রথিত করার পথনক্সা হিসেবে ২০১৪ সালে সরকার বাংলাদেশ ক্লাইমেট ফিসক্যাল ফ্রেমওয়ার্ক (বিসিসিএফ) প্রণয়ন করে- যা বাজেট বরাদ্দকে জলবায়ু বিষয়ক নীতি-কৌশলের সাথে সম্পৃক্ত করার ক্ষেত্রে একটি তাৎপর্যপূর্ণ অগ্রযাত্রা। এসব যুগান্তকারী পদক্ষেপ গ্রহণে উদ্ভাবনমূলক উদ্যোগ এবং বলিষ্ঠ নেতৃত্ব দানের জন্য মাননীয় প্রধানমন্ত্রীকে ২০১৫ সালে জাতিসংঘের পরিবেশ বিষয়ক সর্ব্বোচ্চ সম্মাননা “চ্যাম্পিয়ন্স অব আর্থ” এ ভূষিত করা হয়। আমি অত্যন্ত আনন্দিত যে, অর্থ বিভাগ প্রথম ‘‘জলবায়ু সুরক্ষা ও উন্নয়নের লক্ষ্যে বাজেট প্রতিবেদন ২০১৭-১৮”–এর সাফল্যে অনুপ্রাণিত হয়ে এবছর ২০টি মন্ত্রণালয়ের উপর দ্বিতীয় প্রতিবেদন প্রকাশ করতে যাচ্ছে। গতবছরের ন্যায় এবারও এ কাজে অর্থ বিভাগ কর্তৃক ইউএনডিপি-র অর্থায়নে বাস্তবায়নাধীন জলবায়ুর ঝুঁকি মোকাবেলার অর্থায়নকে সরকারি ব্যয় ব্যবস্থাপনায় অন্তর্ভুক্তকরণ (আইবিএফসিআর) প্রকল্প হতে সহযোগিতা প্রদান করা হচ্ছে। পূর্ববর্তী বছরের অভিজ্ঞতার আলোকে পাঠকদের প্রত্যাশা পূরণের লক্ষ্যে একটি সর্বতোমুখী (comprehensive) পদ্ধতি ব্যবহার করে এবছরের প্রতিবেদনটি প্রণয়ন করা হয়েছে। আমি আশা করি, পূর্ববর্তী বছরগুলো থেকে লব্ধ অভিজ্ঞতা আগামী বছরগুলোতে এই প্রতিবেদনে উপস্থাপিত বিশ্লেষণকে সমৃদ্ধতর করে তোলায় যথেষ্ট সহায়ক হবে।...
Poverty and Climate Change: Reducing the Vulnerability of the Poor through Adaptation
Despite international efforts, poverty has become more widespread in many countries in the last decade, making poverty reduction the core challenge for development in the 21st century. In the Millennium Declaration, 189 nations have resolved to halve extreme poverty by 2015 and all agencies involved in this paper are committed to contribute to this aim. However, climate change is a serious risk to poverty reduction and threatens to undo decades of development efforts. This paper focuses on the impacts of climate change on poverty reduction efforts in the context of sustaining progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and beyond. It discusses ways of mainstreaming and integrating adaptation to climate change into poverty reduction and sustainable development efforts. The chief messages emerging from this paper are: ● Climate change is happening and will increasingly affect the poor. ● Adaptation is necessary and there is a need to integrate responses to climate change and adaptation measures into strategies for poverty reduction to ensure sustainable development...
An Action Plan for Adaptation in Bangladesh Agriculture under Climate Change
Bangladesh agriculture has come a long way over the last quarter of a century, which accounts for around 16% of GDP at present. Crop sub-sector contributes the lion's share to it, 9 percentage points at the moment. Agriculture in Bangladesh is influenced by climate, its seasonal characteristics and different climatic variables such as temperature, rainfall, humidity, day-length etc. Consequently, climate change as indicated by a rising trend in average temperature and volatility of the precipitation regime will affect agriculture to an extent. On average, weather related natural hazards such as flood and drought as well as salinity already affect respectively 34%, 15% and 4% of total households affected by all hazards and associated with 23%, 6% and 3% respectively of total damage and losses occurring in Bangladesh during 2009-14. Among the sectors, crop cultivation experienced the highest damage and loss (around 36%). The frequency and severity of all these hazards may increase over time as climate change unfolds and with it the prospects for agriculture in general is also going to be uncertain possibly jeopardising food security in the country. For future food security it is absolutely necessary to understand how Bangladesh agriculture can advance in future under climate change. Adaptation to these climatic and related uncertainties thus becomes an urgent task for the country. At its sixteenth session the Conference of Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took a decision and further elaborated at its seventeenth session in Durban to initiate the process of formulating National Adaptation Plans (NAP) as a way to facilitate effective planning in least developed countries (LDCs) to address climate change issues. The present study is an attempt to prepare an adaptation plan for crop agriculture, which is expected to be an integral part of such a NAP process as and when it begins....
Adaptation Gap Report 2023
Despite the clear signs of accelerating climate risks and impacts worldwide, the adaptation finance gap is widening and now stands at between US$194 billion and US$366 billion per year. Adaptation finance needs are 10–18 times as great as current international public adaptation finance flows – at least 50 per cent higher than previously estimated. This is the main conclusion of a comprehensive assessment of the literature and new analyses to provide updated estimates of the costs and needs of adaptation in developing countries, as well as the international finance flows required to address these needs. The report also provides updates on adaptation planning and implementation and concludes that global progress on adaptation is slowing rather than showing the urgently needed acceleration. In view of ever-increasing weather extremes such as a multi-year drought in East Africa, flooding in China and Europe, and extreme heat and wildfires in the United States of America and Canada, among others, narrowing the adaptation finance gap is of particular importance because of the high benefits that investments in adaptation can offer in terms of reducing climate risks and improving equity and climate justice. Left unchecked however, increasing climate risks will inevitably lead to more climate-related losses and damages. Therefore, the Adaptation Gap Report 2023 (AGR 2023) also focuses on loss and damage to support Parties in the negotiations following the decision at the twenty-seventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 27) in Sharm El-Sheikh to establish a loss and damage fund and funding arrangements for vulnerable developing countries....
RETHINKING, EXTENDING, REUSING: HARNESSING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Rapidly evolving digital innovations are influencing all sectors of society, creating unprecedented opportunities to accelerate sustainability and circularity. With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Internet of Things and Big Data, we are unlocking new ways of exploring our value chains, allowing us to understand, address and communicate pressures, hotspots and impacts – in terms of environmental, social and economic issues. However, an exponentially accelerating digital world brings new risks to our people and planet, from the digital divide to resource use and unmanaged e-waste. These risks cannot be ignored if we are to sustainably make use of digital technologies for our planet and prosperity. Now is the time to work together to harness the power of technologies to promote a circular economy, while addressing barriers and challenges, to ensure sustainability for all. This report brings together more than 30 cross-disciplinary experts from the fields of digital technologies, circular economy, consumer behaviour and sustainable financing to define a critical path with short-term recommendations for both the public and private sector. Rethinking product use and manufacturing, extending product lifespan and reusing materials effectively are fundamental to sustainably transform our systems. For instance, in a circular economy, AI could drastically minimize the unnecessary plastic present in 30 per cent of our packaging. Moreover, as predicted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, if we use AI to help eliminate food waste, the global economy could benefit from up to US$127 billion per year in 2030. With this, the One Planet Network commits to co-develop transformative initiatives with market leaders and innovators to accelerate the shift to a circular economy by means of digital technologies....
STATE OF CLIMATE ACTION 2023
At the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28), the world can jump-start an urgently needed course correction on climate change as Parties respond to findings from the first Global Stocktake. As the crux of the Paris Agreement’s mechanism for ratcheting up ambition, this process offers leaders across government, civil society, and the private sector the chance not only to issue a report card on implementation of the Paris Agreement thus far, including progress made in limiting global warming to 1.5°C, but also to provide a roadmap for combatting this crisis. These same leaders can then respond decisively to the Global Stocktake’s findings by making concrete commitments at COP28 that, together, serve as a powerful springboard for greater ambition and more immediate climate action. Governments, for example, can start by negotiating a decision that prioritizes critical mitigation actions this decade, such as phasing out unabated fossil fuels in electricity generation, halting deforestation and degradation, and shifting to zero-carbon transportation. A successful Stocktake should also inform the next round of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in 2025, prompting countries to strengthen existing economywide and sector-specific targets for 2030, as well as set new ones for 2035 and beyond....
Living with water climate adaptation in the world’s deltas: Lighthouse cases for scaling up and accelerating water adaptation in delta countries
The report is intended primarily for an audience of governments in delta countries: policy-makers, central and federal governments, and local governments including mayors and municipal councils. It aims to raise delta adaptation efforts up the political agenda by highlighting significant achievements and good practices where learning can be shared, supporting the policy dialogue on water adaptation and resilience, unlocking avenues for collaboration among policy-makers and technical advisors, and building awareness and capacity. The report’s secondary intended audience is financiers, insurance companies, water experts, and practitioners. It sheds light on financial opportunities, risks and barriers for institutional and private investors, and other economic stakeholders related to climate-change adaptation in delta countries....
GREENING MARKETS: MARKET-BASED APPROACHES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN ASIA
This report reviews past and ongoing applications of market-based instruments (MBIs) to address air quality, water, and waste management in Asia and provides recommendations for the use of MBIs for more efficient and effective environmental management....
Climate-induced migration and modern slavery: A toolkit for policy-makers
Contemporary forms of slavery are often categorised as slavery, slavery-like practices, bonded labour, debt bondage and forced sexual exploitation. These are all interrelated and constitute a continuum. According to the Global Estimate of Modern Slavery, 40.3 million people are living in slavery worldwide, which disproportionately affects the most marginalised, such as women, children and minorities. Climate change and climate-induced migration heightens existing vulnerabilities of slavery. Drivers of vulnerability to modern slavery are complex and impacted by many layers of risk. While several socio-economic, political, cultural and institutional risks shape vulnerability, they are increasingly considered to be made worse by climate change impacts and environmental degradation. Climate-induced displacements are becoming unavoidable. The rise of sea levels, salination and flooding are already forcing entire coastal communities – in countries such as the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Sierra Leone – to relocate. And as climate shocks are set to intensify, many more millions will be displaced by climate change in the coming decades. The World Bank estimates that by 2050 climate change will force more than 143 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America from their homes. Climate change policies increasingly recognise climate-induced migration and displacement as an issue. The Cancún Adaptation Framework (CAF), adopted during COP16 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010, provides a conceptual framework to navigate the complexities of climate mobility. CAF recognises three modes of mobility due to climate impacts – migration, displacement and planned relocation – allowing for specific climate policies aligned with the distinct features, mobility patterns and outcomes of each impact.5 In 2015, the Paris Agreement on climate change was an unprecedented development of action on migration and climate with the formal inclusion of ‘migrants’ in its Preamble....
Climate finance in the agriculture and land use sector – global and regional trends between 2000 and 2018
Climate finance is a fundamental element of the global development agenda and has been accelerating in recent years. Yet between 2000 and 2018 the share of global climate finance in the agriculture and land use sector has decreased, passing from an average of 45 percent of the total flows at the beginning of the millennium, to 24 percent in 2013 where it has since stayed. The total sum of contributions to the agriculture and land use sector between 2000 and 2018 amounted to USD 122 billion, representing 26 percent of the global climate finance flows to all sectors. This report aims to increase the understanding of the climate finance trends in the agriculture and land use sector at global and regional scale, providing insights for UN agencies, international finance institutions, national governments of both donor and recipient countries, and governmental and non-governmental stakeholders. By looking at the main features of climate finance, including the source and geographical destination of resources, climate objectives and gender sensitivity, the analysis establishes the key trends in agriculture and land use sector in the period 2000-2018. In addition, it identifies gaps which may affect the stagnated trend relative to other sectors. This study focuses on the quantitative analysis of data available in the climate-related development finance database of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Further qualitative analysis could build on this work to research the different trends that influence climate finance distribution. Type of climate finance Climate finance provided to the agriculture and land use sector is predominantly concessional and developmental, meaning that it has more generous terms than market ones, and is primarily aimed at economic development (89 percent). Climate finance flows to other sectors rely less on this financing type (71 percent), which might indicate that they are more capable of attracting diverse types of climate lows which are not concessional and not primarily developmental. Main providers and climate objectives Despite calls for diversification, DAC members are still the main providers of climate finance. The allocations from the private sector are marginal and mainly directed to Global and Regional projects. The DAC members direct 33 percent of their resources to adaptation and 36 percent to mitigation in the agriculture and land use sector, compared to 23 percent and 59 percent respectively to all sectors at the global level. For the multilateral development banks, the difference between the climate objective of finance is even more accentuated, with 66 percent of contributions going to adaptation and 30 percent going to mitigation in the agriculture and land use sector, compared to 24 percent and 74 percent, respectively, to all the sectors at the global level. Regional findings When looking at region-specific climate finance allocations in the agriculture and land use sector, the principal recipients in the assessed period were countries in Africa and Asia, attracting 30 percent and 32 percent of flows respectively. For all regions, 2010 marked the first year of reported allocations to climate change adaptation in the agriculture and land use sector . There was an overall decrease in allocations to mitigation in agriculture and land use sector (allocations to climate mitigation were dominant only in Europe), and strong preference to allocate to projects with a cross-cutting objective. In the assessed period, Asia attracted more diverse types of financial flows (including non-concessional and from Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), compared to other regions. A loan was the dominant financial instrument for climate finance allocations in agriculture and land use sector in Asia, as opposed to a grant in Africa. Climate finance to the most vulnerable Of the USD 3.6 billion of climate finance in the agriculture and land use sector allocated to Small Islands Developing States (SIDS), the Caribbean SIDS received the largest share, followed by the Pacific and the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and South China Sea (AIMS) SIDS. The resources were almost equally distributed among the different climate objectives in the majority of the SIDS sub-regions. Climate change adaptation was the dominant climate objective in the Pacific SIDS and the Caribbean SIDS, attracting USD 500 million and USD 746 million worth of allocations respectively. Between 2000 and 2018, the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) received a total of USD 32 billion to support activities in the agriculture and land use sector, with DAC members as main resource partners. The majority of contributions were directed to climate adaptation activities. The sector specific allocations were predominantly in the agriculture development sub-sector, environment and biodiversity and food security sub-sectors in all the regions. The climate finance to crop production, livestock and fisheries remained marginal between 2000 and 2018. Gender lens Around 52 percent of climate finance allocated to Africa was qualified as ‘principal’ or ‘significant’ for gender issues. In all other regions, the share of the ‘not significant’ gender marker was between 35 percent in Asia and 60 percent in the North Africa and Middle East, which means that the funded activities did not target gender equality. In Africa, Asia, America and Europe, more than one fifth of all climate finance was not reviewed from a gender perspective and the gender marker was not defined. Whereas in North Africa and Middle East, only 2 percent of activities remained undefined, and the vast 98 percent had the gender marker. All climate finance should be subject to gender screening, and the assessment points to further effort needed for the agriculture and land use sector, particularly considering the acceleration in the global climate finance flows....
Are livestock always bad for the planet? Rethinking the protein transition and climate change debate
Urgent climate challenges have triggered calls for radical, widespread changes in what we eat, pushing for the drastic reduction if not elimination of animal-source foods from our diets. But high-profile debates, based on patchy evidence, are failing to differentiate between varied landscapes, environments and production methods. Relatively low impact, extensive livestock production, such as pastoralism, is being lumped in with industrial systems in the conversation about the future of food. The narrative that ‘meat and milk are bad’ because livestock production is a major greenhouse gas emitter is widespread, promoted by international agencies, campaign groups, corporations and governments. This overarching narrative has led to generalised policy prescriptions, applicable to some western diets and to some forms of livestock production. Of course, caveats are sometimes applied, but policy and media messages tend to simplify, meaning that the vast differences between industrial and extensive livestock production are often neglected in policy and campaign messages. As a result, inappropriate policies could do great damage to livelihoods, landscapes and the life chances of people reliant on extensive livestock production, including pastoralism. Such systems involve many millions of people across rangelands covering over half the world’s land surface. Where do the figures that are widely shared in the media and in policy debates come from? This report delves into the assumptions and uncertainties that are central to these influential calculations. Life cycle assessment models are frequently used, but the data are often derived from a limited set of cases, mostly from industrial systems particularly from Europe and North America. We identify 10 core assumptions and gaps in such assessments. These centre on the limitations and biases of the data; the way systems are analysed – what’s included and excluded; and how baselines are defined and alternatives assessed. For example, due to the lack of data from many parts of the world, assumptions on livestock emissions are based on studies of intensive, contained, industrial systems, with data often extrapolated to extensive livestock production. Additionally, the impact of different greenhouse gases is assessed in controversial ways. Methane, emitted in large quantities from livestock systems, has very different impacts on global warming compared to carbon dioxide, for example. Wider environmental benefits offered by extensive livestock systems to ecosystem services, landscape protection and carbon sequestration may be missed by a narrow life cycle assessment. In extensive systems, carbon cycles are complex, with much spatial and temporal variation and particular hotspots for emissions and also for carbon and nitrogen storage. What are we comparing livestock emission figures against? If extensively grazed livestock are removed, what replaces them? Many imagine the return of a ‘wild’ ecosystem, but numerous studies show that wildlife and termites in ‘natural’ systems may produce equivalent emissions, if not more. In many settings where extensive livestock production is central to people’s livelihoods, there are few land use alternatives, as crop farming and tree growing are not feasible. A wider systems approach is therefore urgently needed for assessing livestock-related emissions in low-input, extensive systems including pastoralism, allowing for a more targeted and realistic approach to mitigation. A focus on the systems of production rather than just on the products (such as meat and milk) is essential. A systems approach would acknowledge movement across rangelands and account for the benefits to ecosystem services and potential carbon sequestration. Analyses of industrial systems equally must include the costs of cropped feed, fossil fuel intensive processing, transport, marketing and infrastructure. Understanding extensive livestock systems therefore requires more research into how to manage emissions in rangelands, while still securing livelihoods and environmental benefits. This research must include livestock keepers who know their production systems and the possibilities of making use of rangelands sustainably. A more balanced approach to global debates about changing diets is also required. The provision of high density animal protein is essential for nutrition in many parts of the world, especially for poorer people and children. This cannot easily be replaced by plant-based or industrially manufactured alternatives. Low input livestock production, including from pastoralism, is an essential provider of healthy diets. This of course contrasts with the clear need to transform diets in other places, where over-consumption of industrially produced animal-source foods creates both health and environmental problems. Extensive livestock systems of course still remain contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and must be central to locally attuned mitigation efforts. But such multifunctional livestock systems also offer important benefits: in safeguarding the environment; reducing poverty and expanding livelihood opportunities; improving access to protein in diets; and enhancing economic development through markets and exchange. Livestock, therefore, are not always bad for the planet, and the debate on climate change and the protein transition urgently needs to become more sophisticated. Low-impact, extensive livestock systems, including pastoralism, can show a way to the future. Ensuring that pastoralists’ and smallholder livestock keepers’ voices are heard is a question of climate justice. Climate policy must avoid dangerous impositions, while ensuring that currently silenced perspectives are heard in the debate. Discussions on global climate policy and debates about food systems must make sure this happens. This report offers some recommendations on how this can be done....
An Examination of the Least Developed Countries in the IPCC AR5 WGII
The Fifth Assessment Report of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released in 2014. It examines the impacts of climate change, inherent vulnerabilities and adaptation responses across the globe. The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are identified as being particularly vulnerable to climate change due to economic and capacity barriers. This paper examines the LDCs within the IPCC report to highlight how climatic impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation are portrayed for these countries. It illuminates a need for a greater focus on the LDCs by the IPCC and for further research concentrated on the LDCs in general, in order to enhance the state of knowledge on LDCs and appropriately guide related policy....
Assessing the Costs of Climate Change and Adaptation in South Asia
South Asia, home to about 1.5 billion people, nearly a third of whom are still living in poverty, faces a major challenge in achieving rapid economic growth to reduce poverty and attaining other Millennium Development Goals in an era of accentuated risks posed by global climate change. The impacts of climate change are likely to result in huge economic, social, and environmental damage to South Asian countries, compromising their growth potential and poverty reduction efforts. Countries in the greater Himalayas region—which includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, northern India, and Nepal—are facing increased frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events resulting in flooding, landslides, damage to property and infrastructure, devastation of agricultural crops, reduction of hydropower generation, and negative impact on human health. The coastal areas of Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka are at high risk from projected sea level rise that may cause displacement of human settlements, saltwater intrusion, loss of agricultural land and wetlands, and a negative impact on tourism and fisheries. This Asian Development Bank (ADB) study examined the economic costs associated with the impacts of climate change and the cost and benefits of adaptation in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The study aimed to (i) assess the biophysical impacts of climate change in the region, including individual country impacts, and (ii) estimate the total economic loss to the countries in the region by 2100, taking into account the different scenarios and impacts projected across vulnerable sectors, and then to estimate the magnitude of funding for adaptation measures required to avert such potential losses. Results of the study will aid development of future policies and programs for climate change adaptation in the region, including initiatives for regional cooperation and capacity building in climate change management. The study covered the following sectors: agriculture, terrestrial ecosystems, water, marine and coastal resources (except Bhutan and Nepal), health, and energy. The study was coordinated with other ongoing and planned climate change initiatives in the region and builds on existing studies. However, no previous study of the whole region exists....
Climate Change Action Plan 2021-2025: Supporting Green, Resilience and Inclusive Development
The Climate Change Action Plan 2021–2025 aims to advance the climate change aspects of the WBG’s Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development (GRID) approach, which pursues poverty eradication and shared prosperity with a sustainability lens. In the Action Plan, we will support countries and private sector clients to maximize the impact of climate finance, aiming for measurable improvements in adaptation and resilience and measurable reductions in GHG emissions. The Action Plan also considers the vital importance of natural capital, biodiversity, and ecosystems services and will increase support for nature-based solutions, given their importance for both mitigation and adaptation. As part of our effort to drive climate action, the WBG has a long-standing record of participating in key partnerships and high-level forums aimed at enhancing global efforts to address climate change....
Equity and inclusion for disaster risk reduction: building resilience for all
As a guide to some of the important aspects of the successor agreement to the existing Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) recently produced ‘The future framework for disaster risk reduction: a guide for decision- makers'.1 By presenting evidence in the form of data, facts and summary messages, this guide included eleven modules which highlighted what a new agreement should cover. The modules ranged from rethinking the architecture of the framework, to linking disaster risk reduction (DRR) with climate change-related considerations. The vulnerability and inclusion module brings together evidence on opportunities raised by adopting an inclusive approach to ensure effective DRR. This new working paper makes the case for increased attention to wider issues of vulnerability, inclusion and empowerment, which are needed to assist policy-makers and international agencies to negotiate the successor agreement to the HFA....
Roots for the Future: The Landscape and Way Forward on Gender and Climate Change
In 2008, under the auspices of the Global Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA)—a first-of-its-kind multistakeholder network to advance gender-responsive climate change policies, plans, and actions—the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), together with key partners including especially UNDP, WEDO, and the Government of Finland, created the Training Manual on Gender and Climate Change (https://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/eng_version_ web_final_1.pdf). While not a training manual per se, this publication is intended as a full update and overhaul to the 2008 manual content. In other words, this publication was inspired by the 2008 manual, its authors, and its thousands of users, who have continued to request up-to-date information on policy, planning, and— especially—concrete examples of action on the ground. It is therefore a celebration of progress and results achieved. Even more importantly, this publication joins the global call for implementation that is fair and equitable—and demonstrates that is possible. The target audience is wide: from policy makers at international level who seek a political framework upon which to advance decision-making in line with women’s rights and gender equality mandates; to grassroots practitioners who might benefit from best-case project strategies; to those entirely new to these topics but curious to understand the basics or the links–this publication is written for you. Some readers may be gender experts while some may be climate change or sector-specific professionals; this publication aims to fill knowledge gaps and possibly inspire new questions, as well as solutions. The language, while technical, has been drafted to be as ‘user-friendly’ as possible....
EIA GUIDELINES FOR INDUSTRIES
The Government of Bangladesh, with a view to providing for conservation and improvement of environmental quality, and controlling and mitigating pollution of the environment, enacted the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act (BECA), 1995, which became effective from June 1, 1995. Section 12 of this Act stipulates that “No industrial unit or project shall be established or undertaken without obtaining environmental clearance from the Director General, Department of Environment in the manner prescribed by the rules”. Section 12 (4) of the Act (as amended in 2010) provides the guidance to adopt detailed rules on, inter alia, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report, Preparation of Environmental Management Plan, Judging of Public Opinion, Public Access to Information, Structure and Function of the Environment Clearance Committee, Minimum Necessary Conditions for Clearance, Appeal, etc. within the context of obtaining the Environmental Clearance Certificate. The Environmental Conservation Rules (ECR), 1997, the main subsidiary legislation of the BECA, provides specific rules and procedures for various categories of projects in relation to their approval prior to construction and operation. For projects and activities listed within the Red category, the ECR requires that an Initial Environmental Evaluation (IEE) be first submitted for approval. This should be accompanied with the terms of reference for an EIA, which is to follow the IEE. The EIA study is to be based on terms of reference that have the prior approval of the DoE. Conducting an EIA study and preparation of an EIA report are the responsibilities of a project proponent who may get this done either through in-house resources or through consultants. Further, the responsibility for carrying out review of the EIA report before according clearance, rests on DOE. Right after promulgation of the ECR, 1997, DoE published the EIA Guidelines for Industries in 1997 outlining simpler procedure to be followed for preparing EIA and their review. Now DoE considers it desirable to revise that book of guidelines by taking into account the present environmental status as well as the need for rapid economic development of Bangladesh. These considerations have essentially been kept in view while revising the handbook of general EIA Guidelines for Industries....
Bangladeshi arsenic and salt mitigation sourcebook and decision support tool
This publication contains the detailed description of the ASTRA arsenic- and salt-mitigation tool developed in the framework of the BRAC WASH II programme. In essence, this work is a supporting compendium and tool for decision-makers, practictioners and education institutes. It’s main objective is to aim understanding and identification of potentially appropriate technological solutions to tackle the widespread arsenic and salinitiy problems in the water sources of Bangladesh. Confirm the currently available solutions, the work leans towards the removing or mitigating of arsenic and – where treatments are included – solutions that mainly concern disinfection and (in)filtration. The contained information draws on both Bangladeshi and international research and practical experience. The general mitigation strategy is explained as the identification of potentially appropriate water supply methods for implementation in Bangladesh. The identification process is based on a multidisciplinary assessment and matching of method functionality with the intended local context. This book contains both the critical reviews and practical information of all potentially applicable technical mitigation methods to aid decision-makers and engineers. In the first chapter of the publication, the growing water stress and its key drivers in Bangladesh are listed and detailed. This sourcebook section enables the proper understanding of mitigation methods through a range of critical reviews that can either treat or circumvent arsenic- or salt-contaminated sources. Three mitigation routes are outlined that include water supply or treatment methods. These mitigation options are to (i) target arsenic- or salt-free groundwater, (ii) treat arsenic- or salt-contaminated groundwater or (iii) disinfection of alternative, non-groundwater sources. Utilizing one or more of the identified mechanisms, 26 specific technological methods are identified as eligible for the Bangladeshi water sector context. Their in-depth descriptions are given in chapter 6 of this book. The descriptions of technical, institutional, ecological and socio-economic features are completed by eligibility matrices. The matrices demonstrate quality of functioning according to local- or project-specific criteria and allow users to assess performance of the method in the context of application. The description of the content of the decision-suport tool are coupled to the manual on how to use it and the related online version. Finally, a discussion is offered that tackles indirect considerations that Bangladeshi water experts could apply to further improve the sustainability of the local water sector. The chosen structure of this publication allows two distinctively different utilizations. Decision-makers and engineers may view potential approaches first before formulating specific strategies to mitigate the arsenic-related problems. As the compendium section is also possible to use without the more theoretical initial parts, especially field experts are hoped to benefit from the technology information sheets and matrices during multistakeholder processes of water projects....
Advancing Human Development in Bangladesh Looking Ahead
The year 2021 marks the Golden Jubilee of the independence of Bangladesh. The whole nation is celebrating this milestone with immense pride and joy. When Bangladesh was born in 1971, in the aftermath of a liberation war, marked by death, destruction and torture, the world could have never comprehended that this new-born nation would be an example of development miracle within a span of just 50 years. But, the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose Birth Centenary the nation has celebrated last year, had a dream and a vision. Following his vision, Bangladesh started its journey towards development by tackling a varied range of odds and taking advantage of different opportunities. This journey has put the country on an enviable development trajectory over the past five decades, with an even more admirable and accelerated pace of development specially during the last decade. This has only been possible based mainly on the long term vision of the Father of nation, along with the ingenuity, creativity and hard work of the people of Bangladesh, and, last but not the least, due to the exceptional political leadership of the country. So, Bangladesh and its people have every reason to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Independence of Bangladesh. In 1971, after a nine-month bloody liberation war Bangladesh emerged, from the ashes of destruction like a phoenix. Initially, there were lots of doubts expressed about the future of the new country. No doubt there were many twists and turns faced by Bangladesh on its way to development, but over the years, the country has not only remained on a steady path to success, but has succeeded in pushing that trajectory even to a higher level. So, it is only natural that, the achievements of the development milestones in the last decade have earned Bangladesh a lot of praise and appreciation from the global community....
Addressing Climate Risks: Mainstreaming Climate Change in Development Project Planning and Budgeting in Bangladesh
Because of its topographical characteristics, geographic location, and high population density, Bangladesh is considered to be highly at risk to climate and weather-related and geophysical hazards. The World Climate Risk Index 2021 places Bangladesh as the seventh worst-affected country by extreme weather, although it contributes only 0.56% of global greenhouse gas emissions.1 The topography of Bangladesh can be described as low and flat, with more than half of the land at less than 6 meters above mean sea level, and traversed by major drainage systems of the Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Meghna rivers. The Bay of Bengal in the south, the mountain ranges in the east, and the Barind Tract in the northwest contribute to the persistence of natural hazards in Bangladesh for centuries....
Bangladesh Education Sector Review
Over 300,000 teachers serve in 76,000 formal primary schools and 95 percent of the primary sub-sector students are enrolled in formal schools. There are eleven types of formal primary schools. Over 55 percent of the teachers serve in the 37,700 government primary schools and these teachers are permanent full-time teachers. A Government Primary School teacher on the average receives a salary of Tk 4,000/ per month. Another 25 percent of the teachers serve in the government assisted registered non-governmental schools and the government pays 90 percent of their salaries. About 10 percent of the teachers serve in the Ebtidayee Madrassah schools and the government through the Madrassah Board also pays 90 percent of their salaries. This means that nearly 90 percent of the teachers are full-time regular teachers and the government pays their salaries. The balance 10 percent serves in all other eight types of schools and are largely part-time teachers. They are given a monthly honorarium of Tk 500 - Tk 750. This includes the teachers in the government run Community and Satellite Schools. In addition to these, there is nonformal primary schools run by the non-governmental organizations and between 4 percent - 8 percent of the primary students are enrolled in those schools. Although in the official hierarchy of the bureaucracy a primary school teacher holds a very low level a teacher is a well-respected person in society. The recruitment of teachers to government primary schools is centrally controlled. Government needs to recruit about 3,500 teachers annually to meet the attrition due to retirement. The requisite minimum qualification to become a primary school for a female candidate is Senior School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) for a male candidate. The lower level of qualification for female candidates was introduced in 1990 to increase the percentage of female teachers in the system to encourage and facilitate the enrollment of the girl child. All candidates to become a teacher in a government primary school have to appear for a competitive selection test and an interview and the selected candidates are appointed at district level to the schools where vacancies exist. However, due various types of influences the objective recruitment and efficient deployment of teachers is much hindered. Although there is a fairly well established institutional framework for teacher training and support, these institutions seriously suffer professional deficiencies. There are 54 Primary Teachers Training Institutes (PTIs) and they offer a one-year in-service training course leading to the Certificate in Education for primary teachers. About 95 percent of the teachers in government primary schools have this qualification. On the contrary, 90 percent of the teachers in the registered non-governmental schools and Ebtidayee Madrassahs have not received any formal teacher training. All the part-time teachers in all other types of schools, including the nonformal schools, receive only 14 days of training as pre-service training. Primary teacher is also supported with regular in-service training through sub-cluster training and Upazila Resource Center training activities. There is a sub-cluster training system, which provides one-day in-service training to all primary teachers every two months. Upazila level Resource Centers (URCs) are being established to s provide further support to teachers at local level. The selection process, deployment as well as the teacher training system are deficient in many ways. Poor quality of the teaching is recognized as one of the key variables contributing to the low level of learning achievement in primary schools. The institutional culture in all institutions of the education sector, particularly at schools, ii teacher training institutes, and field offices contributes to the poor quality of teaching and learning. The general lethargy and lack of initiative, lack of professionalism, lack of trainers and teachers, poor deployment of trainers and teachers, lack of self initiatives and incentives for the Trainers, Headteachers and teachers to improve their professional status, lack of independence and total control of all activities by the center, lack of facilities, lack of culture of reading and learning, poor quality of academic supervision, the practice of deputation of teachers to other jobs with no replacement of staff, teachers giving preference to tutoring to earn more by neglecting the routine teaching, and unethical practices such as irregular attendance, non-attendance of classes, lack of linkages between and amongst higher learning institutes, etc have established an institutional culture that contributes to poor learning achievement in children.. There are many development partners involved in primary sub-sector teacher development. However, the quality of the teacher and teaching has not improved at any noticeable level particularly due to the poor quality of training, deficiencies in the training and supervisory systems, and the lack of coordination and monitoring of training activities. Any further inputs to teacher development should be directed at management of change of institutional culture without which other physical and material inputs would not bring about the expected outcomes in the teacher to support quality improvement in learning....
Population and Housing Census 2022 (আদমশুমারি ও গৃহগণনা ২০২২)
A Population Census is the total process of planning, collecting, compiling, evaluating, disseminating and analyzing demographic, economic and social data at the smallest geographic level pertaining, at a specified time, to all persons in a country or in a well-delimited part of a country. The Population and Housing Census consists mainly of two parts- The Population Census and The Housing Census. After the independence of Bangladesh, BBS conducted the first Population Census in 1974. Following the ten-years periodicity, the 6th population and housing census was supposed to be conducted in 2021, but it was not possible due to the global pandemic, COVID-19. Therefore, the census is conducted immediately after the COVID-19 during 15-21 June 2022 all over the country at a time. As per the Statistics Act, 2013, previously conducted “Adamshumari” is now termed as “Janoshumari” in Bengali. It is the first digital census in the history of the country. In the census, data collection is conducted using digital device Tablet following the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) method. The census preparations are carried out through three zonal operations. Under these, a number of preparatory activities such as formation of enumeration areas (EAs), recruitment of enumerators and supervisors, preparing maps, updating of geo-codes, identifying training centers, enlisting the restricted etc. are undertaken. A web-based Integrated Census Management System (ICMS) is developed to control and manage the first digital census operation. Subsequently, all census-controllingmaps including EAs are integrated with geo-code through ICMS. With a view to monitoring data collection activities centrally, along with their quality, through the ICMS, a Network Operations Centre (NOC) is established at the BBS Headquarters....
ENSURE HEALTHY LIVES AND PROMOTE WELL-BEING FOR ALL
‘Leaving no one behind’ is the global aspiration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals are articulated recognising that progress in different sectors are mutually dependent, and hence an integrated, yet targeted approach is required to achieve a global vision. We are now into the second year of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The current progress report, released in July 2017, notes that the implementation must be accelerated by the member states involving key stakeholders. Although progress has been made on many fronts in health, the report says malnutrition, maternal and under-five mortality remain key challenges to date. By showing that the progress has been uneven, the report specifically calls for harnessing the power of data to effectively track the progress of the SDGs. Having accessible, reliable, timely and disaggregated data has been a major challenge in international and national systems of reporting. UNU-IAS, as a research think tank, has made a significant commitment to contribute towards evidence-based multi-lateral policy processes through transdisciplinary research and capacity building. In this context, the 2030 Agenda is an important focus area for the institute....
Human Development Report: Report 2021/2022, Uncertain times, unsettled lives Shaping our future in a transforming world
We live in a world of worry. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which has driven reversals in human development in almost every country and continues to spin off variants unpredictably. War in Ukraine and elsewhere, more human suffering amid a shifting geopolitical order and strained multilateral system. Record-breaking temperatures, fires and storms, each an alarm bell from planetary systems increasingly out of whack. Acute crises are giving way to chronic, layered, interacting uncertainties at a global scale, painting a picture of uncertain times and unsettled lives. Uncertainty is not new. Humans have long worried about plagues and pestilence, violence and war, floods and droughts. Some societies have been brought to their knees by them. At least as many have embraced emerging, unsettling realities and found clever ways to thrive. There are no inevitabilities, just tough unknowns whose best answer is a doubling down on human development to unleash the creative and cooperative capacities that are so essentially human. Novel layers of uncertainties are interacting to create new kinds of uncertainty— a new uncertainty complex— never seen in human history (figure 1). In addition to the everyday uncertainty that people have faced since time immemorial, we are now navigating uncharted waters, caught in three volatile crosscurrents: • The dangerous planetary change of the Anthropocene.1 • The pursuit of sweeping societal transformations on par with the Industrial Revolution. • The vagaries and vacillations of polarized societies. Navigating this new uncertainty complex is hampered by persistent deprivations and inequalities in human development. The past decade finally placed inequality under a spotlight, but less illuminated were the ways that inequalities and uncertainty contribute to insecurity and vice versa. The variation in opportunity and outcome among and within nations is mirrored by— and interacts with— the volatility that people experience in their lives. Complicating matters is a geopolitical order in flux, hamstringing a multilateral system designed for postwar, not postmillennium, challenges and creaking under the weight of naked national interests....
HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND EXPENDITURE SURVEY: HIES 2022
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has completed the seventeenth round of HIES from January to December 2022. In HIES 2022, BBS made significant developments by selecting the quality enumerators, conducting residential training, introducing CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing), improving data collection tools, substantially increasing the number of food and non-food items based on COICOP (Classification of individual consumption by purpose), and implementing continuous monitoring and supervision etc. Therefore, significant measurement enhancements have been reflected in consumption, income and expenditure aggregates. The salient features of the Final Report of the HIES 2022 are as follows: Household Living Standards and Socio-economic Status have Improved The HIES 2022 data finds that household-level access to electricity has increased to 99.3% in 2022 from 75.9% in 2016 and 55.3% in 2010. Similarly, 92.3% of HHs have access to improved toilet facilities, and 96.1% have access to improved source of drinking water. Notably, Bangladesh’s literacy rate (7 years and over) rose significantly to 74.0% in 2022 from 65.6% in 2016 and 57.9% in 2010. Household Monthly Average Income has Increased Significantly The household’s average monthly income has increased in nominal terms to TK. 32,422 in 2022, from Tk. 15,988 in 2016 and TK. 11,479 in 2010. Household Monthly Total Expenditure has Increased The HIES 2022 data reveals that the HH’s monthly total expenditure has increased nominally to TK. 31,500 in 2022 from TK. 15,715 in 2016 and TK. 11,200 in 2010. Consumption Pattern has been Changing Over Time The HIES 2022 data illustrates that the share of food and non-food consumption expenditures in the HHs has changed. Non-food expenditures are increasing gradually. The percentage of food consumption expenditure is 45.8%, and non-food consumption expenditure is 54.2% in 2022, compared to 47.7% for food and 52.3% for non-food in 2016. The average rice consumption per person per day is 328.9 gram in 2022 which was 367.2 gram in 2016, 416.0 gram in 2010, 439.6 gram in 2005 and 458.5 gram in 2000. On the other hand, the vegetables and meat consumptions have increased gradually....
STATE OF CLIMATE ACTION 2023
At the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28), the world can jump-start an urgently needed course correction on climate change as Parties respond to findings from the first Global Stocktake. As the crux of the Paris Agreement’s mechanism for ratcheting up ambition, this process offers leaders across government, civil society, and the private sector the chance not only to issue a report card on implementation of the Paris Agreement thus far, including progress made in limiting global warming to 1.5°C, but also to provide a roadmap for combatting this crisis. These same leaders can then respond decisively to the Global Stocktake’s findings by making concrete commitments at COP28 that, together, serve as a powerful springboard for greater ambition and more immediate climate action. Governments, for example, can start by negotiating a decision that prioritizes critical mitigation actions this decade, such as phasing out unabated fossil fuels in electricity generation, halting deforestation and degradation, and shifting to zero-carbon transportation. A successful Stocktake should also inform the next round of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in 2025, prompting countries to strengthen existing economywide and sector-specific targets for 2030, as well as set new ones for 2035 and beyond....
Final Report: Assessment and Scoping Mission for DFID Bangladesh’s New Climate Change Programme
Bangladesh is extremely climate vulnerable and will be even more so due to climate change. There are high existing impacts in Bangladesh from current climate variability from floods, cyclones, and droughts, exacerbated by the already very high level of multidimensional poverty. In addition, the country faces extremely large long-term challenges from climate change, in particular from sea level rise and higher cyclone intensity and frequency. In South Asia – and Bangladesh particularly - projections indicate there will be more frequent extreme events coinciding with zones of considerable poverty (IPCC, 2014; and CDKN, 2014)....
GLOBAL CLIMATE RISK INDEX 2021
This year’s 16th edition of the Climate Risk Index clearly shows: Signs of escalation climate change can no longer be ignored- on any continent or in any continent or in any region. Impacts from extreme weather events, which countries should understand as warning in order to be prepared for more frequent and/or more severe events in the future. The storms in Japan show: Also high-income countries are feeling climate impacts more clearly than ever before. Effective climate change mitigation and adaptation to pr minimize potential damage is therefore in the self-interest of all countries worldwide....
Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change Mitigation
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios for emission reductions are clear. In order to keep temperature rise close to the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5°C we must achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. The scenarios show that this will require, in addition to a massive and rapid decarbonization, a significant contribution from land-based options. Nature-based solutions provide the best way of delivering these land-based options, through protection, restoration and sustainable management of natural carbon sinks and reservoirs. Moreover, there is additional mitigation potential from nature-based solutions in coastal and marine ecosystems....
National Strategy on Internal Displacement Management
Bangladesh is progressing with an action plan to transform itself into a middle-income country by 2024, an upper-middle-income country by 2030, and a developed nation by 2041. The Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR) has adopted the National Strategy on Internal Displacement Management 2021 to ensure the inclusion of the displaced population in the development process. Hopefully, implementing this Strategy will help prevent displacement, ensure physical and financial rehabilitation of the displaced and create scope for achieving the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Delta Plan 2100....
Global Warming of 1.5°C
Many countries considered that a level of global warming close to 2°C would not be safe and, at that time, there was only limited knowledge about the implications of a level of 1.5°C of warming for climate-related risks and in terms of the scale of mitigation ambition and its feasibility. Parties to the Paris Agreement therefore invited the IPCC to assess the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and the related emissions pathways that would achieve this enhanced global ambition....
Tackling Flooding in Bangladesh in a Changing Climate
Nearly 60% of Bangladesh’s population is exposed to high flood risk, a greater proportion of the population than in any other country in the world other than the Netherlands, and around 45% are exposed to high fluvial flood risk, the highest figure in the world (Rentschler et al., 2022). Climate change is exacerbating this risk and causing damage with an increasingly high financial and humanitarian cost. This policy brief examines the physical and socioeconomic factors that make Bangladesh so vulnerable to flooding, particularly in a changing climate, before reviewing how the country has addressed this challenge to date and how it might respond better in the future....
Building Resilience to Natural Disaster and Major Economic Crises
Building resilience to multiple shocks is one of the most pressing contemporary development challenges faced by Asia and the Pacific. Economic crises and natural disasters are on the rise and know no boundaries; they straddle wide geographic areas, spread across all sectors of economic activity, and endanger our communities. For communities still living in fragile and conflict-affected States, each shock erodes their capacity to cope with the next disaster or crisis on the horizon. They are twice as likely to be undernourished and their children three times as likely to be out of school, while they receive less than half the amount that Governments in other countries spend on education, health and security. These communities are stuck in life-long vulnerability traps from which it is very difficult to break out....
UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Acknowledging that change in the Earth's climate and its adverse effects are a common concern of humankind. Concerned that human activities have been substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, that these increases enhance the natural greenhouse effect, and that this will result on average in an additional warming of the Earth's surface and atmosphere and may adversely affect natural ecosystems and humankind....
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: Handbook
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change provides the basis for concerted international action to mitigate climate change and to adapt to its impacts. Its provisions are far-sighted, innovative and firmly embedded in the concept of sustainable development. With 189 Parties, the Convention has nearly a universal membership. This handbook aims to help governments, researchers and others interested in the international climate change negotiations navigate through the complex web of activities undertaken by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP) to advance the implementation of the Convention....
BANGLADESH CLIMATE FISCAL FRAMEWORK
Since the adoption of the current CFF in 2014, the government adopted SDG’s as its new development framework in 2015 and adopted a five-year comprehensive PFM reform strategy (2016-2021). This has changed the whole PFM landscape upon which the CFF was built. There are also emerging gaps such as limited attention to fiscal policy, private sector engagement, and developments in the international arena in this area. Therefore, there is an overriding need to tune the CFF with these changes. Accordingly, the task of updating the document was taken up under the IBFCR Project of Finance Division in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)....
Bangladesh First Biennial Update Report;To the United Nations Framework Convention;on Climate Change
Bangladesh, a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and one of the least GHG emitter. The Bangladesh Government understands the urgency and relevance of collective action to achieve the Convention’s goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would minimize the risk of severe anthropogenic interference with the climate system. As part of its global obligations, Bangladesh is going to submit this First Biennial Update Report (BUR1) to the UNFCCC. Preparing the BUR necessitates a thorough investigation, technical and administrative arrangements, and stakeholder engagement in many related tasks and activities. The Government of Bangladesh (GoB), represented by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), and its technical arm, the Department of Environment (DoE), initiated to prepare the BUR1....
Coastal Ecosystem-based Adaptation How Nature Protects Our Shores
Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is the utilization of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of a strategy to aid people in adapting to the adverse effects of climate change. In coastal areas, this involves managing mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass, dunes and wetlands to strengthen the ecosystem services they provide, building their resilience to climate impacts, as well as that of nearby communities. EbA is especially important in coastal regions, as nearly 2.5 billion people (about 40 per cent of the global population) live within 100 km of the coast (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [UN DESA] 2019). Marine and coastal ecosystems also harbour an enormous variety of the world’s biodiversity, and they provide many valuable ecosystem services (Barbier et al. 2007), such as providing natural sea defences against coastal flooding and erosion. Fish is a key component of the diets of over 1 billion people, and it is estimated that 40–120 million people are employed in the fisheries sector alone (World Bank 2012; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO] 2020). Coastal ecosystems also help sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide (Adame et al. 2021; Bertram et al. 2021), mitigating the impacts of climate change. However, coastal ecosystem services are increasingly undermined by human activities, including fishing, aquaculture, shipping, natural resource extraction, unsustainable coastal development, and pollution (United Nations [UN] 2021), which are further exacerbated by the negative impacts of climate change. These impacts include increased water temperatures (associated with coral bleaching events), greater strength and frequency of storms (Hoegh Guldberg et al. 2018), and ocean acidification due to higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the water. In addition, sea level rise is contributing to increased flooding, storm surges and coastal salinization as seawater intrudes farther inland, harming coastal ecosystems and livelihoods, and affecting fresh water availability (Dasgupta et al. 2014)....
Ecosystem-based Adaptation in Agriculture A Path to Climate resilient Food Systems
Conventional agriculture has been the major driving force of increased yields over the past decades and still makes up most agricultural production practices. However, this food production system and a significant amount of associated waste (approximately 30 per cent of global production) has come at a cost, depleting or polluting bodies of water, replacing natural ecosystems, and eroding the rich ecosystem underlayer supporting microorganism biodiversity, the basis of soil fertility. To compensate, more ecosystems are continually converted to agricultural or grazing land. In the course of a global analysis conducted in 2020, researchers found more than 90 per cent of the conventionally farmed soils they studied were thinning, while 16 per cent had lifespans of less than a century, and nearly 33 per cent had a lifespan under 200 years (Evans et al. 2020). Additionally, conventional agriculture’s steady march into ecosystems and the reliance on a handful of crops such as corn, rice and wheat – which constitute over 40 per cent of the world’s calorie intake (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO] 2018) – have greatly diminished genetic diversity, rendering our food systems highly vulnerable to a variety of shocks (Campbell et al. 2017). Climate change only adds to all these problems. For example, by 2050, it is predicted that agricultural yields could drop by up to 25 per cent by 2100 (Wing et al. 2021) due to climate impacts. This picture is worse for regions like sub-Saharan Africa, where social fragility and poverty (a lack of assets to rely on during shocks) compound the effects of climate change. Furthermore, major ongoing global crises – such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine – are serving to deepen the pressures on the world’s food systems by constraining exports and skyrocketing the price of food....
Adaptation Gap Report 2022
Climate risks are increasing as global warming accelerates. Strong mitigation and adaptation are both key to avoiding hard adaptation limits. Climate impacts are increasing across the globe. A multi-year drought in the Horn of Africa, unprecedented flooding in South Asia, and severe summer heat and record-breaking droughts across multiple regions of the northern hemisphere, among others, point to mounting and ever-increasing climate risks. According to the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC WGII AR6), the world will face severe climate risks before the end of this century, even under low-emission scenarios. Ambitious, accelerated action to adapt to climate change is therefore paramount, together with strong mitigation efforts. However, even ambitious investment in adaptation cannot fully prevent climate change related impacts. Hence, dealing with losses and damages cannot be avoided and must be addressed adequately at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and at national levels....
COUNTRY CLIMATE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT
Bangladesh’s vulnerabilities to climate change will put development progress at risk in the coming decades. Building on three decades of growth and poverty reduction, the Government of Bangladesh’s (GoB) Vision 2041 aims to achieve country upper-middle income status by 2031 and high-income status by 2041, while eliminating extreme poverty by 20311 and absolute poverty by 2041. These goals will require navigating the increasingly severe impacts of climate change. As the world’s seventh most climate risk-affected country, with 185 extreme events recorded and 0.38 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants over the past two decades,2 Bangladesh must adapt rapidly to climate change while simultaneously accessing cleaner, more efficient technologies that support development, leverage co benefits (such as in health, air and water quality) and limit emissions....
ANALYSIS OF RESILIENCE MEASUREMENT FRAMEWORKS AND APPROACHES
The resilience concept is on a journey from scientific niche towards widespread operational application. A wide range of frameworks and approaches, emerging from a diverse set of sectors and organizations, exists to guide, diagnose, measure, and evaluate resilience. This briefing report aims to stimulate early thinking around the landscape of resilience measurement and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). The document is not a technical discussion of measurement principles but rather an overview of commonly used approaches in the field. It was elaborated in collaboration with members of the Resilience Measurement, Evidence and Learning Community of Practice (CoP) who have provided invaluable contributions and feedback that reflect their knowledge of resilience measurement. A first draft of the paper was presented and circulated at the CoP’s first core group meeting in May 2016 with a sample of 20 frameworks. After the convening, members of the CoP provided advice on the structure of the final report and suggestions for expanding the sample and analysis to an additional 25 frameworks and resilience treatises. Further, this report was designed to inform the second meeting of the CoP, determine areas of commonality across major resilience approaches, and identify areas where the CoP can advance the field of resilience measurement....
CLIMATE STRATEGY 2022-2023
Climate change is a global crisis. As temperatures and sea levels rise, people around the world are increasingly seeing heat waves, droughts, foods, cyclones, and wildfires upend their lives. The effects of climate change are not equal – they disproportionately impact the poorest and most marginalized communities we work to support every day. Climate change affects virtually everything that USAID does and threatens the development progress we have supported over more than 60 years. Climate change increases water and food scarcity, displacement, and the need for humanitarian assistance, as well as contributes to conflict and disrupts economic stability. Yet at the same time, our response presents an opportunity to improve livelihoods. Decarbonizing economies means less air pollution that negatively affects health. Building climate-resilient infrastructure means people are safer when disaster strikes and reduces the need for costly repairs after every storm. Investing in green jobs presents an opportunity to make workforces more equitable and inclusive. This decade will be decisive for the future of our planet, and USAID is poised to galvanize the lasting changes necessary to combat climate change. USAID’s convening power, global presence, longstanding partnerships, and breadth of technical expertise position us to make a real difference in this critical global fight. We also recognize that those of us who are responsible for much of the damage caused by the climate crisis have an obligation to those least responsible for causing it. That is why USAID has developed a new Climate Strategy that will guide our work through 2030 in a way that is truly different....
RESILIENCE MEASUREMENT-MEL APPROACHES IN PRACTICE
Supported by Windward Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation, the Resilience Measurement, Evidence, and Learning Community of Practice (CoP) brings together leading specialists and practitioners in conceptualizing, measuring, monitoring, and evaluating resilience – to learn from one another and to determine the priorities for growing the field and creating a compelling base of evidence. Itad contributed to the second convening of the CoP, held 21-22 July 2016 at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome, where a series of case studies proved an integral part of the activities. In order to inform the CoP’s work programme and strategy, CoP members undertook two critical pieces of analysis in the early stages of the CoP’s formation: • analysis of resilience measurement conceptual frameworks, led by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), which built upon the first convening’s “Resilience Measurement Frameworks and Approaches – A Bird’s Eye View” • analysis of the experience in terms of the challenges and lessons of MEL practitioners in operationalizing resilience measurement frameworks, and of the experience and lessons of CoP stakeholders. The work presented here was conducted under an existing grant from The Rockefeller Foundation to Itad.1 It was designed to “support strengthening the Foundation, grantees and partners to infuse and integrate resilience thinking into their work and to create an enabling environment for partners and grantees to better understand how to use resilience in planning programs.” This particular component of the grant was designed to capture, present, discuss, and synthesize the experience of a set of resilience measurement stakeholders in order to highlight the challenges and lessons of operationalizing resilience measurement-MEL frameworks. The report draws on the reflections of a set of leading specialists and practitioners in resilience measurement presented at the second convening of the CoP. It shares their combined experience and knowledge related to designing and operationalizing resilience measurement and resilience monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems for the largest, most innovative and prominent resilience-strengthening programs globally. In addition, the report presents a summary of the Resilience Measurement Approach in Practice (RMAP) process, and the headline findings and reflections from the second convening. The report concludes with some initial implications and headline recommendations to feed into the design and commissioning of the CoP....
Ecosystem-based Adaptation Stakeholder (Dialogue Report)
This report is an output of the Global EbA Fund, which is implemented jointly by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The publication was made possible through the generous contribution of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) under the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV). Founded in 2010 by UNEP, the Global Adaptation Network (GAN) is a global platform for the dissemination and exchange of knowledge on adaptation to climate change. An umbrella organisation active in most continents, GAN is made up of various regional networks and partners that provide knowledge dissemination services in their respective regions. Through its partners, GAN bridges the local and global levels. GAN disseminates climate adaptation knowledge through the organisation of conferences, funding opportunities, webinars, peer-to-peer learning exchanges, collecting evidence and case studies, supporting partnerships between universities and city officials, and more. In particular, GAN strives to advance the practice ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), an approach that uses biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people and communities adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. A key part of this work is the implementation of the new Global EbA Fund. Launched in March 2021 and funded by IKI, the fund is a quickly deployable mechanism for supporting innovative approaches to EbA. More specifically, GAN, in partnership with the Fund’s implementing partner IUCN, brings together global and regional adaptation networks in Africa, AsiaPacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to raise awareness of the Global EbA Fund and help identify and overcome barriers to scaling up EbA across different sectoral groups. GAN conducted a stakeholder dialogue process from March to October 2021, via a combination of an online survey and several regional dialogues, all focusing on overcoming key barriers for upscaling EbA. Through this participatory process, GAN’s regional networks were mobilized, and in total, more than 120 practitioners and experts responded to the survey, and more than 500 people participated in the various dialogues. The survey and some dialogues were available in English, French and Spanish. This report aims to provide an overview of the main findings and conclusions of this process, with a focus on the main characteristics of EbA initiatives and the barriers preventing their adoption, implementation and upscaling, both globally and in three specific regions: Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The report is therefore divided into four main sections, with one focusing on the global level, and three region specific sections with information tailored to different regional contexts. It is intended for EbA practitioners and experts, policymakers, investors, and other interested actors that wish to learn more about EbA and the ways in which EbA can be more effectively implemented and scaled up....
Cyclone Sidr and Its Aftermath: Everyday Life, Power and Marginality
This PhD research is about power struggle and marginality in peoples’ everyday life in the aftermath of the cyclone Sidr. This research explores how everyday vulnerabilities of a coastal community, which is ignored in the powerful knowledge framing, limit peoples’ ability to withstand a cyclone. It reiterates the idea that the conditionality, which makes an individual, a group or a community susceptible to a natural event, is a legacy of our engagement with the environment and, thus, scrutinise our knowledge on that particular event. From a theoretical interest in environment society studies, my work strives to understand affected communities’ quotidian experiences of their livelihoods, after being affected by Cyclone Sidr, through rebuilding, relief support, access to natural resources in land, water and forest, alternative income opportunities, patron-client networks, and local power dynamics. The whole research is based on an ethnographic account in three proximate villages, Gabtola, Mazer Char and Sonatola Model Village, adjacent to the Sundarbans. This research examines the following research questions – i) How are communities’ everyday livelihoods, mediated through their broader societal, political and economic networks, informing their ability to cope with a cyclone event, and thus connected with cyclone knowledge?; ii) How are the complex interface of environmental change, livelihood options and power dynamics reciprocally linked with cyclone rhetoric?; and iii) Whose views are reflected in the development of cyclone knowledge and practice in Bangladesh? Being a native Bengali speaker, knowing local dialects, having previous work experience of academic research on disadvantaged and rural communities, power dynamics and development, I was in an advantageous position to carry out this highly sensitive work. This research contributes to the idea of vulnerability and resilience by portraying the importance of considering local power dynamics in shaping environment-society relationship. In addition, this research also enlightens on local development and economic aspects through unpacking issues in regard to relief and rehabilitation, fishing and forest use. These theoretical contributions, reciprocally, back up methodological underpinnings of it. More importantly, this research explores the interface of cyclone, power and livelihoods and echoes voices of marginal people with a view to them having their space in policies....
Building resilience for adaptation to climate change in the agriculture sector.
This workshop was a follow-up of the Joint OECD-INEA-FAO Workshop on Agriculture and Adaptation to Climate Change, which was held in June 2010. One of the conclusions of that 2010 Workshop was that, as climate change brings new uncertainties, adds new risks and changes already existing risks, one of the most effective ways for agriculture to adapt to climate change could be to increase its resilience. This is why this workshop started from the various types of risks to which agriculture is prone, considered the impact that climate change is expected to have on them, and discussed various risk management strategies, depending on types of risks, and the country and region in question. This two-day workshop consisted of four sessions including setting the scene, types of risks and risk management, case studies and, finally, tools, policies and institutions....
Journal of Engineering Science
Restoration of any river is indispensable to conserve and restore the surrounding environment. River restoration through dredging is one of the primary solutions for rehabilitation of rivers those get silted up causing adverse impacts on the state of the river channel and its morphology. Restoration of old channel now dead but once a flowing channel is a very complex tasks and need cautious attention regarding selection of its alignment, reexcavation volume and sustainability of dredge channel. Uses of modeling tools are very crucial for understanding the scenarios on future performance after rehabilitation and its sustainability. An in-depth study has been performed to restore the Old Madhumati River, which is situated in the southwest region of Bangladesh. Once it was a free-flowing river now became silted up causing serious environmental degradation in the surrounding area. Under this obstinately changing morphological condition of Old Madhumati River, the study included review, collection of time series satellite images, scenario development for cross-sections, velocity, setting the alignment of dredging, estimates of dredging using mathematical modeling which will authenticate sustainability. Careful investigation was conducted to examine whether the dredged canal needs supplementary measure to keep it hydraulically alive throughout the year or not including preliminary study on the environmental impacts....
INTEGRATED PROTECTED AREA CO-MANAGEMENT (IPAC)
Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change due to high population density with immense poverty, its geographical location near the Bay of Bengal and flat deltaic topography. It’s high level of poverty and depleted ecosystem increase the vulnerability to the climate change, which has hindered the sustainable development goal of the country. Sustainable development in Bangladesh requires ensuring equitable economic growth, which is built upon a solid foundation of ecological and socio-economic resilience and key to this is an effectively managed and integrated Protected Area (PA) network of forests and wetlands. The Nishorgo Network brings government and community stakeholders together to conserve a large number of forest and wetland PAs across Bangladesh through co-management. Co-management shares the roles, rights and responsibilities of PA conservation between government and PA-dependent communities, ensuring broad benefits of climate change adaptation and mitigation accrue to Bangladesh as a whole while PA-dependent communities benefit directly from increased capacity to adapt to climate change as well as through climate change-friendly livelihoods development opportunities. Nishorgo Network has built climate change adaptation capacity through the facilitation of nearly 1000 community based climate change vulnerability assessments and action plans. Aggregated at the PA landscape level, these adaptation plans provide the basis for Upazila- and District-level climate change adaptation plans. More importantly, the planning process provided a unique opportunity for local communities to become informed, work together to find a voice, and become advocates for building climate change adaptation into local development planning. Key to achieving scale in community climate change adaptation planning was the training and empowerment of nearly 1,000 Nishorgo Shahayaks (community facilitator / volunteers). Over the past year, a flipchart was developed and field tested, and then 35 batches of (an average of 30 Nishorgo Shahayaks) community facilitators participated in 3-day training programs that built skills in community facilitation, adult education, ecosystem conservation, and climate change vulnerability assessment and action planning. Nishorgo Shahayaks then returned to their communities and rolled-out climate change vulnerability assessment and action planning through a series of weekly and monthly meetings. This has resulted in more than 200,000 Bangladeshi’s with increased understanding of and capacity to adapt to climate change as well as nearly 1000 community action plans that are currently being aggregated into more than 20 PA landscape-level climate change action plans. The report summarizes the adaptation plans prepared by ranking vulnerabilities and relevant adaptation measures based on the local community perception. The report will be useful for preparing PA dependent communities to build climate resilient PAs and local community livelihoods....
Climate Resilient Agriculture in Coastal and Flood-plain Regions of Bangladesh
This project has two thematic areas: ‘Combating Gender Based Violence’ and ‘Climate Change Adaptation’. Under its ‘Climate Change Adaptation theme, the project intends to support the most vulnerable communities to deal with climate change impacts on their lives and livelihoods in Bangladesh. Because of its geo-physical location, Bangladesh is prone to natural disasters such as tropical cyclones, tornadoes, droughts, floods, storms, and storm surges. Agricultural production is adversely influenced by erratic rainfall, high temperature, increased salinity, drought, flood, river erosion, storm and storm surge, cold wave, and heavy fog. Agriculture is the prime sector of livelihoods of rural people who account for majority of the population in the country. Given this context, the project intends to promote context specific, eco-system friendly and climate adaptive agricultural practices in coastal and flood plain regions. Therefore, a comprehensive study was planned to assess climate change impacts on agriculture, to understand community and institutional responses and needs, and to identify climate resilient agricultural practices with a major focus on climate smart technologies in these two climate vulnerable areas....
Endowed wisdom; Knowledge of Nature And Coping With Disasters In Bangladesh
This book explores the fascinating endowed potential of rural communities to cope with disaster. Indigenous knowledge is rooted in centuries of experience and offers a mighty reservoir of tradition and understanding that some may consider a basic strength of disaster management in Bangladesh....
Master Plan of Haor Area;Volume I
Haors with their unique hydro-ecological characteristics are large bowl shaped floodplain depressions located in the north-eastern region of Bangladesh covering about 1.99 million ha (19,998 sq km) of area and accommodating about 19.37 million people. There are 373 Haor/wetland located in the districts of Sunamganj, Sylhet, Habiganj, Maulvibazar, Netrakona, Kishoreganj and Brahmanbaria. These 373 Haor cover an area of about 859,000 ha which is around 43% of the total area of the Haor districts. It is a mosaic of wetland habitats including rivers, streams, canals, large areas of seasonally flooded cultivated plains and beels. The haor region has long been lagging behind mainstream national development although the economic development of Bangladesh is moving steadily at a moderate pace. The government has taken many initiatives including the preparation of national and regional strategies to steer economic growth and has accordingly prepared plans over the years to boost the country’s development. It is difficult to foresee the country’s overall progress without the development of the haor region as it covers a major part of the country and population which deserves special development initiatives. The future challenges in the context of climate change are also a major concern for the sustainable development of the region. Therefore, a Master Plan is required for this area to harness the development potentials by addressing the issues as well as to gain comprehensive understanding on the present hydrological and hydro-morphological characteristics and conditions, land-use patterns, ecological sensitivity and water quality situation. The Bangladesh Haor and Wetland Development Board (BHWDB) has taken the initiative to prepare a comprehensive Master Plan with a view to preserve, protect and restore the ecosystem as well as to protect the people of this area from natural disasters and improve the livelihood of poor people. The objectives of the Master Plan are to develop the resources of the area as rapidly as possible so as to promote the welfare of the people, provide adequate living standards, social services, and opportunity, and aim at the widest and most equitable distribution of income and resources without degradation of the haor ecology and biodiversity. Implicit in the plan is an increase in production and distribution of all kinds of goods and services which together generate and sustain healthy growth towards a modern economy. The outcome of this planning exercise is in harmony with the Vision 2021, the 6th Five Year Plan and other relevant policies and plans of the Government of Bangladesh (GoB). This Master Plan is a framework plan for developing the haor areas through optimal utilisation of natural and human resources for the next 20 years (up to FY 2031-32). The Plan has been formulated following the principles of the IWRM. It will be implemented on the short, medium and long term basis with the provision of updating and incorporating rationale changes in demand. It has been formulated in an integrated manner envisioning mainly flood management, environmental sustainability, production of crop, fisheries and livestock, expansion of education, settlement and health facilities, road communication, navigation, water supply and sanitation, industry, afforestation, tourism, use of mineral resources and generation of power and energy....
Master Plan of Haor Area; Volume II
Haor with their unique hydro-ecological characteristics are large bowl shaped floodplain depressions located in the north-eastern region of Bangladesh covering about 1.99 million ha (19,998 sq. km.) of area and accommodating about 19.37 million people. There are 373 haor/wetlands located in the districts of Sunamganj, Habiganj, Netrakona, Kishoreganj, Sylhet, Maulvibazar and Brahmanbaria. These 373 haor cover an area of about 858,000 ha which is about 43% of the total area of the haor region. It is a mosaic of wetland habitats including rivers, streams, canals, large areas of seasonally flooded cultivated plains and beels. This Master Plan is a framework plan for developing the haor region through optimal utilisation of natural and human resources for the next 20 years (up to 2032). The Plan has been formulated following the principles of the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). This is a definite framework plan for the integrated development of haor area thereby ensuring preservation of haor, wetlands and their ecosystem. It will be implemented on the short, medium and long term basis with provision for updating and incorporating rationale changes in demand and land use....
Master Plan of Haor Area;Volume III
This report provides a detailed description of the individual investment projects that have been developed based on Development Area (DAs) identified under the Master Plan of Haor Area. Each project has been formulated to achieve the specific objectives of its relevant DA as well as the overall objectives of the Master Plan in an integrated way....
Climate change and food security: risks and responses
End hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition is at the heart of the sustainable development goals. At the same time, climate change is already impacting agriculture1 and food security and will make the challenge of ending hunger and malnutrition even more difficult. The effects of climate change on our ecosystems are already severe and widespread, and ensuring food security in the face of climate change is among the most daunting challenges facing humankind. While some of the problems associated with climate change are emerging gradually, action is urgently needed now in order to allow enough time to build resilience into agricultural production systems. In spite of considerable progress, almost 800 million people are chronically undernourished, 161 million under-five year old are estimated to be stunted. At the same time 500 million people are obese and 2 billion lack the essential micronutrients they need to lead healthy lives. Population and income increase as well as urbanization are driving increased and changing food and feed demand. FAO estimates that, to satisfy the growing demand driven by population growth and diet changes, food production will have to increase by at least 60 percent in the next decades....
Climate Smart Disaster Risk Reduction Interventions in Agriculture Sector-Flood Hazard.
Climate Change is inevitable and the agriculture and water sectors are the most vulnerable. Recent studies have shown that due to climate change, the world is moving towards scenarios of either too much, or too little, water. Agriculture is an open system and provides livelihoods for 60% of the world’s population. More than 2.2 billion people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods in Asia. Thus, climate induced natural hazards, especially floods, are likely to affect the sector as well as the livelihoods of the dependent population considerably. This Practitioners Guide Book is for the use of local Government Employees engaged in mainstreaming Climate Smart Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) practices for development planning at local government level in the Asian Region. This Practitioners Guide Book focuses on three Asian countries, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Nepal. We sincerely hope that the Practitioner’s Guidebook on Climate Smart Disaster Risk Reduction Interventions in the Agriculture Sector, with special reference to flood hazards, will contribute to the various DRR initiatives in these three countries and in Asia as a whole....
Integration of Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in SAARC Region
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a concept and practice for reducing the disaster risks through systematic efforts by analyzing and managing the causal factors of disasters. It includes the measures adopted for reduced exposure to hazards and measures for lessening the vulnerability, management of land and the environment, and the improved preparedness for adverse events (UNISDR, 2009). Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), on the other hand, refers to the adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, in order to contain harm or exploit beneficial opportunities (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change-UNFCCC). Both DRR and CCA represent policy goals; the former is concerned with a widely known problem of disasters and the other with an emerging issue of climate change. While these concerns have different origins, they overlap a great deal through the common factor of weather and climate and the similar tools used to monitor, analyze and address their adverse consequences. It makes sense, therefore, to consider them and implement in a systematic and integrated manner. There has been very little information in public domain as to how the regional DRR and CCA are carried out in South Asia. Whether these are dealt separately or as embedded components of each other. Without such knowledge, it would however be difficult to develop an enabling environment and a roadmap for the practical integration of these two areas of practice, for reducing the adverse impacts of events which do not recognize the geographic and political boundaries. This study has therefore been carried out as a first step to shed light on the practices on the fronts of DRR and CCA. It will provide a snapshot on as to how DRR and CCA are undertaken and integrated, if at all, in the region. It does so by taking stock of past and the ongoing regional initiatives and by looking into the role of certain organizations in the implementation process. It will also discuss the key developments in the areas political thought processes and at the level of policy and institutional mechanism, which are considered to be instrumental in facilitating the integration of DRR and CCA agendas in the region. This study aims to operationalize the Thimphu Declaration on Climate Change by contributing to improve regional planning and programming for DRR and CCA, and highlights areas for cooperation among regional and sub-regional organizations. It also aims to support both national and regional stakeholders engaged in the field of DRR and CCA, such as governments, non-governments organizations, intergovernmental agencies research and technical organizations, U.N. agencies etc. for enhancing the regional planning, programmes and cooperation....
IRBM for Brahmaputra Sub-basin Water Governance, Environmental Security and Human Well-being
The Brahmaputra sub-basin—spread over Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and India and part of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin—has historically been endowed with abundant water. Yet the populations who live in the region have not benefited from the natural wealth of the sub basin; the levels of poverty are high. Traditional development theory makes a direct correlation between scarcity of natural resources (like water) and poverty. In the case of the Brahmaputra sub-basin, however, the paradox is clear: “ample water, ample poverty”. The situation is not expected to improve in the future, and the governance of the Brahmaputra will continue to be a huge challenge. Environmental security and the promotion of human well-being are two of the most crucial aspects of such difficult task. 'Environmental Security' is defined in this report as “a state of absence of conflicts in the complex and interconnected relations in and between the biological, social, economic and cultural processes of human societies and the natural environment.” It depends on various factors such as the dynamics in the natural environment, population change, and degree of access to environmental resources. It is in this context that this report examines the tenets of Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM), where ecology and ecological economics of water are defined as important cornerstones. This report challenges the notions of “surplus” and “deficit” river basins—concepts that are used often in current literature on India's water resources—and highlights the lack of an ecosystem perspective in the country's river basin management. This absence creates an important void in India's policymaking and practice and is true in the case of the management of the Brahmaputra sub-basin. The report utilises the Drivers-Pressures-State-Impacts-Response (DPSIR) approach to understand the critical management challenges in the sub-basin. The four-fold management challenges for the Brahmaputra are: floods, bank erosion, and shifting of river flows; hydropower projects within the Indian territory creating situations of conflict, and the hydropower projects in the Tibet region of China; proposed water transfer projects entailing the interlinking of rivers; and the concerns of global warming and climate change. These management challenges are magnified by the lack of an ecosystem perspective, which creates threats at the social-economic-ecological interface of human existence, through the critical ecosystems-livelihoods linkages....
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
The Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a comprehensive assessment of the scientific, technical and socio economic literature relevant to impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. It builds upon the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, the three Special Reports of the Sixth Assessment cycle: ‘Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty (SR1.5)’; ‘Climate Change and Land: An IPCC Special Report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems (SRCCL)’; ‘IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC)’, and the Working Group I contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. The report recognizes the interactions of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societies, and integrates knowledge more strongly across the natural, ecological, social and economic sciences than earlier IPCC assessments. The assessment of climate change impacts and risks as well as adaptation is set against concurrently unfolding non-climatic global trends e.g., biodiversity loss, overall unsustainable consumption of natural resources, land and ecosystem degradation, rapid urbanisation, human demographic shifts, social and economic inequalities and a pandemic. Working Group II introduces several new components in its latest report: These include the novel cross-chapter papers which provide focused assessments and updates from the special reports and include coverage of topics such as biodiversity hotspots, cities and settlements by the sea, deserts and desertification, mountains, tropical forests as well as the Mediterranean and polar regions. Another new component is an atlas that presents data and findings on observed climate change impacts and projected risks from global to regional scales, thus offering even more insights for decision makers. The Working Group II Report is based on the published scientific and technical literature accepted for publication by 1 September 2021....
Climate Resilience WASH Programming in Coastal Areas of Bangladesh
Lack of potable water, proper sanitation and poor hygiene behavior and practice cause a huge toll and tremendous burden among people and coastal areas of Bangladesh are one of the major victims of this. It is clear that climate change will affect the medium of water most of all: affecting the source of water supplies; and water quality (e.g., pollution) and hygiene. Poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) exacerbate the impact of the climate change in the coastal Bangladesh. It causes and reinforces each other in a different way. This report draws on the end line evaluation of a project implemented by WaterAid Bangladesh in two sub-districts of Satkhira district to address the need of climate resilience WASH system. Under the initiative of behavioral change, this project focused on school to orient students on WASH. For instants, WaterAid has intervened in 152 schools of 11 unions at Shyamnagar and Ashasuni upazilla where WFP continued school feeding initiatives. In these schools WaterAid has provided support for drinking water and sanitation facilities along with improved hygiene practice. Among water and sanitation facilities in schools, project installed 93 Rainwater Harvesting System (RWHS), constructed 78 new latrines and 42 latrines were repaired. To improve hygienic practice in school project provided training to students and school management committee on water safety plan, improve sanitation, hygienic behavior, disaster and menstrual hygiene management....
Climate Change 2022; Mitigation of Climate Change
The Working Group III (WG III) contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a comprehensive and transparent assessment of the scientific literature on climate change mitigation. It builds upon the WG III contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in 2014, the WG I and WG II contributions to the AR6, and the three AR6 Special Reports: Global Warming of 1.5°C; Climate Change and Land; and The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. The report assesses progress in climate change mitigation and options for reducing emissions and enhancing sinks. It evaluates the societal implications of mitigation actions, without recommending any specific options....
Gender in coastal and fisheries resource management: A Regional Synthesis Report
Coastal communities in South and Southeast Asia are strongly tied to marine and coastal resources and ecosystems which are vital for their food security and livelihoods. Meanwhile, the rampant expansion of the global economy is leading to rapid changes of coastal and marine resources due to overfishing and hasty coastal development. This has severe consequences for different groups of women and men from communities at the forefront when it comes to experiencing the hardships of declining marine resources and degradation of coastlines. Gendered experiences in fisheries and coastal resource management are often overlooked. To redress this gap, IUCN’s Mangroves for the Future (MFF) programme recognizes that the involvement, contribution and role of both men and women are important to the function and well-being of coastal communities, while gender equality is fundamental to conservation and sustainable development. Gender equity and equality are upheld as fundamental guiding principles in the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). In the Southeast Asian region, gender perspectives have been highlighted in the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Plan of Action on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security for the ASEAN Region Towards 2020. With the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Asia Center, MFF has supported the development of a Regional Gender Analysis to improve knowledge and understanding of the state of women’s and men’s engagement in environmental decision-making and to explore drivers of inequality and the constraints they pose to women in fisheries and coastal contexts. The study project covered 12 countries in South and Southeast Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam....
Defining Adaptation and Distinguishing It from Other Development Investments
As the effects of climate change become more discernable in ecosystems, economies and communities, the urgency of understanding, preparing for and adjusting to its impacts grows. Indeed, adaptation has become integral to responding to the climate crisis and securing sustainable development outcomes around the world. While there is a growing consensus around the need for adaptation, a unifying operational definition does not yet exist particularly for guiding resource allocation and/or investment decisions. However, researchers and practitioners alike agree on some of its core features: adaptation is an ongoing, iterative process that precludes characterizations of a final adapted state; its overarching aim is to reduce the vulnerability of people and places to both current and future risks and changes; it requires climate information even if uncertain or rudimentary-to understand why and what kind of adjustments are needed; its execution and benefits are often context-specific, as both the manifestations of climate change and abilities to respond to them are shaped by local circumstances; and adaptation often involves planning for or managing uncertainty.....
Climate Change 2022: Impact, Adaptation and Vulnerability
This report recognizes the interdependence of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societies and integrates knowledge more strongly across the natural, ecological, social and economic sciences. The assessment of climate change impacts and risks as well as adaptation is set against concurrently unfolding non-climatic global trends e.g., biodiversity loss, overall unsustainable consumption of natural resources, land and ecosystem degradation, rapid urbanization, human demographic shifts, social and economic inequalities and a pandemic....
Rural Renewable Energy Project (RREP), Sierra Leone Endline Impact Evaluation Report
In rural Sierra Leone, household CO2 emissions come almost entirely from lighting and cooking. Prior to electrification (at baseline), the primary lighting sources were battery-powered lamps and solar lanterns for 90 percent of respondents, with 1.8 percent respondents reporting the use of diesel generators. Energy used for cooking was primarily through either firewood or charcoal for 99 percent of respondents prior to electrification. RREP community residents are quickly transitioning from more traditional fossil fuel energy sources to mini-grids. We find that respondents in RREP communities change energy use: households in RREP communities are more likely to have access to light and less likely to use diesel generators for lighting. The same holds when we restrict the analysis to connected households. However, it will take time for this transition to have a substantial impact on the environment (e.g. reduced CO2 emissions) and livelihoods (e.g. allow people to adopt more “productivity enhancing technologies”). We do not yet see a significant reduction in the use of other high-emissions energy sources, such as kerosene or firewood for both cooking and lighting. This is not surprising so soon after electrification: the energy transition to "cleaner technologies" requires time and investment in information and other marketing/financing strategies. Cleaner appliances for lighting and cooking can be expensive, and the investment necessary represents a substantial hurdle for cash-strapped households. Should appliances for cleaner lighting and cooking become more abundant/accessible and get cheaper (possibly through temporary subsidization), uptake should increase if evaluated over a longer duration of time....
Climate Change 2021; The Physical Science Basis
The Working Group I (WGI) contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focuses on a full and comprehensive assessment of the physical science basis of climate change, based on evidence from more than 14,000 scientific publications available by 31 January 2021. This Report reflects recent climate science advances resulting from progress in, and the integration of, multiple lines of evidence, including: in situ and remote observations; paleoclimate information; understanding of climate drivers and physical, chemical and biological processes and feedbacks; and global and regional climate modelling; as well as advances in methods of analyses and insights from the growing field of climate services. The AR6 WGI Report builds on the WGI contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in 2013, and the AR6 Special Reports1 released in 2018 and 2019. The report considers the current state of the climate in the long-term context, the understanding of human influence, the state of knowledge about possible climate futures, climate information relevant for climate-related risk assessment and regional adaptation, and the physical science basis on limiting human-induced climate change....
Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2009
Bangladesh is one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world and will become even more so as a result of climate change. Floods, tropical cyclones, storm surges and droughts are likely to become more frequent and severe in coming years. Many would say that the signs of the future changes have already begun to become apparent. These changes will threaten the significant achievements Bangladesh has made over the last 20 years in increasing income and reducing poverty, and will make it more difficult to achieve the MDGs. It is essential that Bangladesh prepares now to adapt to climate change and safeguard the future well-being of its citizens. The Government of Bangladesh’s Vision is to eradicate poverty and achieve economic and social well-being for all the people. This will be achieved through a pro-poor Climate Change Management Strategy, which prioritizes adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and also addresses low carbon development, mitigation, technology transfer and the mobilization and international provision of adequate finance. The Climate Change Action Plan is built on six pillars. The needs of the poor and vulnerable, including women and children, will be prioritized in all activities implemented under the action plan. The Climate Change Action Plan comprises immediate, short, medium and long-term programmes....
Technical dialogue of the first global stocktake
This synthesis report on the technical dialogue of the first global stocktake is based on inputs received throughout the process and discussions held during each of the three meetings of the technical dialogue and serves as an overarching and factual resource that provides a comprehensive overview of discussions held during the technical dialogue, identifying key areas for further action to bridge gaps and addressing challenges and barriers in the implementation of the Paris Agreement. It provides an assessment of the collective progress towards achieving the purpose and long-term goals of the Paris Agreement and informs Parties about potential areas for updating and enhancing their action and support, as well as for enhancing international cooperation for climate action....
Impacts of climate change on fisheries and aquaculture
The technical paper has been prepared by over 90 scientists from over 20 countries with a view to assisting countries in the development of their National Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Climate Agreement, the next round of which is to be submitted by 2020, both for adaptation and mitigation actions. The publication contextualizes the topic of climate change in fisheries and aquaculture in terms of poverty alleviation and the implementation of existing policy commitments, such as UN Agenda 2030 and the Paris Climate Agreement, and takes into account current and expected socio-economic dependencies on the sector. It includes marine and inland capture fisheries, as well as aquaculture, recognizing that the level of evidence and responses at global, regional and national scales will differ between sub-sectors. Projections of future catch potentials for marine fisheries are used to describe the expected trends by Exclusive Economic Zone, while regional chapters covering eighteen regions provide a finer analysis of marine capture fisheries and climate change implications in terms of ecological impacts, social and economic development, consequences for fisheries management and examples of recommended or already implemented adaptation options. The sector of Inland fisheries, highly vulnerable to climate change because of the low buffering capacity of water bodies, is analysed in 149 countries and in 8 selected river basins. Short and long-term impacts of climate change on aquaculture are described and presented through country by country analyses of global vulnerability. The Technical Paper also investigates the impacts of extreme events, as there is growing confidence that their number is on the increase in several regions, and is related to anthropogenic climate change. It explores the damage and loss to the fishery and aquaculture sectors and calls for a shift from reactive disaster management to proactive risk management. Moreover, the technical paper provides a toolbox of existing and recommended fisheries and aquaculture risk reduction, adaptation and disaster response, as well as guidance for the development and implementation of sectoral adaptation strategies....
CLIMATE RISK COUNTRY PROFILE - BANGLADESH
Projected average temperature rises in Bangladesh are broadly in line with the global average. The highest emissions pathway (RCP8.5) projects a rise of 3.6°C by end of the century, above the 1986–2005 baseline, compared to a rise of 1.0°C on the lowest emissions pathway (RCP2.6). • Rises in minimum and maximum temperatures are considerably higher than the change in average temperature and are concentrated in the period December–March. • Increased frequency of periods of prolonged high heat are a major threat to human health and living standards in Bangladesh, particularly in urban environments and for outdoor laborers. • Livelihoods in Bangladesh’s coastal zone, which include many of the poorest communities, are under threat from saline intrusion and degrading natural resources linked to climate change. • Flash, river, and coastal flooding are likely to be exacerbated by intensified extreme rainfall, tropical cyclones, and associated storm surges, placing lives, infrastructure, and the economy at risk. • Without adaptation, the number of people exposed to an extreme river flood is expected to grow by 6–12 million by the 2040s, and the number of people facing coastal inundation could grow by 2–7 million by 2070s. • Food production and the agricultural sector could face reduced yields driven by temperature rises in the growing season, saline intrusion, increased drought frequency, flooding and waterlogging. • Climate impacts are not restricted to the coastal zone and hotspots of vulnerability can be found across the country. Global modelling and local evidence all suggest that poor and marginalized groups and women are likely to suffer disproportionately in a changing climate. Unless rapid global decarbonization can be achieved, inequalities are likely to widen. • Despite recent progress in disaster risk management, adaptation and disaster risk reduction are still urgent priority in Bangladesh as the livelihoods and well-being of millions of people are threatened...
BANGLADESH’S AGRICULTURE, NATURAL RESOURCES, AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT SECTOR ASSESSMENT AND STRATEGY
This country sector assessment (CSA) considers the context and issues facing the agriculture, natural resources, and rural development (ANR) sector in Bangladesh; it also identifies needs and opportunities for Asian Development Bank (ADB) support. Our findings inform the bank’s ANR strategy for Bangladesh. This CSA reviews (i) sector performance, including constraints and opportunities; (ii) government policies, strategies, and plans for the sector; and (iii) ADB and other development partners’ support and experience in the sector. Based on our analysis and findings, this assessment identifies strategic directions and investment priorities for ADB in Bangladesh’s ANR sector, in line with the country partnership strategy (CPS) 2021–2025...
Bangladesh Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR)
Evidence from the last decade shows that the parts of Bangladesh exposed to multiple overlapping shocks have witnessed relatively slower poverty reduction. In the years ahead, climate change is likely to continue to slow the progress on poverty reduction. The poor and most vulnerable populations are most impacted due to their reliance on agriculture and other climate-sensitive natural resources for income and livelihoods. With higher frequency of climate related shocks and disasters vulnerable populations and the chronically poor will face long lasting and multigenerational effects, resulting in costly coping strategies such as divesting productive assets and curtailing investments in human capital (e.g., nutrition and education). Migration costs are often prohibitive. Strong, adaptive social protection measures to enable poorer households to overcome barriers to internal mobility, are needed. Those households assigned monetary incentives to temporarily out-migrate during the lean season (monga) are likely to do so, suggesting the presence of significant credit constraints....
CLIMATE FINANCE IN BANGLADESH: SITUATION ANALYSIS
USAID/Bangladesh asked the Climate Economic Analysis for Development, Investment, and Resilience (CEADIR) Activity to conduct a situation analysis on climate finance in Bangladesh. The purpose was to assess the policy environment, institutional arrangements and the government’s capacity to access and implement climate change projects; and explore modalities for achieving a functional institutional arrangement for managing climate finance in Bangladesh. The assessment consisted of a literature review and key informant interviews with USAID and other donors, implementers, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB), and civil society representatives. CEADIR reviewed government policies, strategies, and plans as well as annual reports and assessment documents related to climate change finance and implementation. CEADIR focused the analysis on three general aspects of the climate-related finance experience: enabling environment, institutional structures and functions, and institutional capacity. CEADIR reviewed government policies, actions, regulations, and strategies and the experience with domestic and external resources for climate finance. The key enabling environment challenges for climate finance are the need for greater high-level commitment in setting priorities and improving governance, accountability, and transparency. Some of the identified problems included large amounts of unaccounted funding and failure to adhere to mandated processes for project review and implementation monitoring. CEADIR focused on two main institutional structure issues—coordination of whole-of-government strategic planning and monitoring, reporting, and verification capacity. The delineation of climate finance roles and responsibilities across ministries was not sufficiently clear. However, key informants did not agree on whether the lead coordination role should be taken by Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Ministry of Finance (MoF), Ministry of Planning (MoP), or a new ministry or commission. There were also concerns on the limited focus of monitoring and reporting on tracking project expenditures rather than identifying implementation issues and results. Donors have invested significant resources to help the GoB develop and sustain technical and financial capacity related to climate finance. Nevertheless, there were still commonly reported gaps in systems, tools, and skills for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventories, vulnerability assessments, adaptation planning, and project preparation that have limited the country’s ability to compete for external finance. The GoB has relied heavily on the staff and consultants of development partners in designing or analyzing projects, preparing reports, and developing strategies rather than sustainable government capacity development. Despite a wide range of views on how to strengthen Bangladesh’s climate finance system, there was general agreement on four priorities: 1. Demonstrating greater political will by elevating climate changes issues in the development agenda and using the authority and convening power of government; 2. Strengthening political and technical leadership on climate change to make better policy, regulatory, investment, and implementation decisions; 3. Increasing coordination and collaboration of public sector institutions for cohesive and harmonized action; and 4. Improving the accountability and transparency of GoB processes and systems for full compliance with international standards for financial management, reporting, and verification....
BANGLADESH CLIMATE AND DISASTER RISK ATLAS Hazards—Volume I
Climate change is a reality, and Bangladesh is one of the countries considered most vulnerable to it. Most development projects in Bangladesh have inherent sensitivity to changing climate and its impacts, and this sensitivity may lead to significant losses affecting the country’s overall economy. It is crucial to have a better understanding of the impacts of climate change, natural hazards, and disasters on different development projects—especially for the Bangladesh Planning Commission, as the country’s central planning organization responsible for approving and allocating budget resources to all development projects in the country. Such understanding of a complex issue is one of the recent imperatives in policy formulation, decision-making, and development planning that, in turn, are further enabled and strengthened by holistic, integrated geospatial perspectives. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is closely associated with the Government of Bangladesh on climate change adaptation and disaster resilience through its operations in water resources management including flood and riverbank erosion management, coastal town protection, and other projects. This is part of Operational Priority 3 in ADB’s Strategy 2030 that focuses on tackling climate change, building climate and disaster resilience, and enhancing environmental sustainability. In this context, ADB recognizes the value of easy-to-use technical resources that promote country capacity for climate risk assessment and adaptation planning processes. The Bangladesh Climate and Disaster Risk Atlas is a major output of Establishing a Climate Risk Screening System for Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into National Development Budgeting Activities in Bangladesh, under an ADB regional knowledge and support (capacity development) technical assistance. This atlas aims to promote the sustainable development of Bangladesh’s agriculture and water resources sectors and their various components, by enhancing the understanding of stakeholders on the variability of climate change scenarios, other hazards, exposures, vulnerabilities, and their combinations as risks, to which these sectors are exposed. The geospatial maps of Bangladesh based from the geographic information system (GIS) presented in this two-volume atlas will be very useful for the country’s policymakers and development partners, in crafting climate change and disaster resilient overall development plans . The Bangladesh Planning Commission, particularly its Programming Division, has taken the initiative to mainstream climate change adaptation along with disaster risk reduction, poverty alleviation, and gender in all projects under the country’s Annual Development Programme (ADP). To support the designing of climate-resilient projects, in 2014 the Planning Commission published a Development Project Pro-Forma/Proposal Manual in which an Integrated Climate Change, Disaster, and Environment (ICCDE) Framework has been incorporated to support the country’s response to risks associated with climate change. This atlas, based on the ADB framework underpinning the climate risk screening and climate risk vulnerability assessment (CRS/CRVA) processes and tools, supports the ICCDE Framework by presenting spatial information and maps necessary for assessing future development investments in terms of their risks to climate and geophysical hazards. It is appreciated that the Planning Commission intends to mainstream and adopt these to evaluate, establish, and address the climatic sensitivity of development projects in Bangladesh. Building on the exemplary partnership between Bangladesh and ADB, this atlas is another product promoting knowledge and development with well-designed and targeted interventions that positively contribute to the country’s growth. It targets concerned stakeholders with current or planned development activities in Bangladesh, including the public and private sectors, nongovernment organizations, research and academic community, development partner agencies, other financial institutions, and the general public. Apart from the overall visualization and spatial analysis for CRS/CRVA, the hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and risk maps contained in the atlas will be useful for a wide range of other practical applications such as infrastructure planning and design, hazard mitigation, and disaster-proofing, thus ensuring development continuity in the country. It is envisioned that the Bangladesh Climate and Disaster Risk Atlas will significantly contribute to rendering important sector development investments more resilient to hazard-specific risk scenarios in the short, medium, and long terms. We hope users will be able to derive maximum benefits from the information presented in this publication....
BANGLADESH CLIMATE AND DISASTER RISK ATLAS Exposures, Vulnerabilities, and Risks—Volume II
Climate change is a reality, and Bangladesh is one of the countries considered most vulnerable to it. Most development projects in Bangladesh have inherent sensitivity to changing climate and its impacts, and this sensitivity may lead to significant losses affecting the country’s overall economy. It is crucial to have a better understanding of the impacts of climate change, natural hazards, and disasters on different development projects—especially for the Bangladesh Planning Commission, as the country’s central planning organization responsible for approving and allocating budget resources to all development projects in the country. Such understanding of a complex issue is one of the recent imperatives in policy formulation, decision-making, and development planning that, in turn, are further enabled and strengthened by holistic, integrated geospatial perspectives. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is closely associated with the Government of Bangladesh on climate change adaptation and disaster resilience through its operations in water resources management including flood and riverbank erosion management, coastal town protection, and other projects. This is part of Operational Priority 3 in ADB’s Strategy 2030 that focuses on tackling climate change, building climate and disaster resilience, and enhancing environmental sustainability. In this context, ADB recognizes the value of easyto-use technical resources that promote country capacity for climate risk assessment and adaptation planning processes. The Bangladesh Climate and Disaster Risk Atlas is a major output of Establishing a Climate Risk Screening System for Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into National Development Budgeting Activities in Bangladesh, under an ADB regional knowledge and support (capacity development) technical assistance. This atlas aims to promote the sustainable development of Bangladesh’s agriculture and water resources sectors and their various components, by enhancing the understanding of stakeholders on the variability of climate change scenarios, other hazards, exposures, vulnerabilities, and their combinations as risks, to which these sectors are exposed. The geospatial maps of Bangladesh based from the geographic information system (GIS) presented in this two-volume atlas will be very useful for the country’s policymakers and development partners, in crafting climate change and disaster resilient overall development plans. The Bangladesh Planning Commission, particularly its Programming Division, has taken the initiative to mainstream climate change adaptation along with disaster risk reduction, poverty alleviation, and gender in all projects under the country’s Annual Development Programme (ADP). To support the designing of climate-resilient projects, in 2014 the Planning Commission published a Development Project Pro-Forma/Proposal Manual in which an Integrated Climate Change, Disaster, and Environment (ICCDE) Framework has been incorporated to support the country’s response to risks associated with climate change. This atlas, based on the ADB framework underpinning the climate risk screening and climate risk vulnerability assessment (CRS/CRVA) processes and tools, supports the ICCDE Framework by presenting spatial information and maps necessary for assessing future development investments in terms of their risks to climate and geophysical hazards. It is appreciated that the Planning Commission intends to mainstream and adopt these to evaluate, establish, and address the climatic sensitivity of development projects in Bangladesh. Building on the exemplary partnership between Bangladesh and ADB, this atlas is another product promoting knowledge and development with well-designed and targeted interventions that positively contribute to the country’s growth. It targets concerned stakeholders with current or planned development activities in Bangladesh, including the public and private sectors, nongovernment organizations, research and academic community, development partner agencies, other financial institutions, and the general public. Apart from the overall visualization and spatial analysis for CRS/CRVA, the hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and risk maps contained in the atlas will be useful for a wide range of other practical applications such as infrastructure planning and design, hazard mitigation, and disaster-proofing, thus ensuring development continuity in the country. It is envisioned that the Bangladesh Climate and Disaster Risk Atlas will significantly contribute to rendering important sector development investments more resilient to hazard-specific risk scenarios in the short, medium, and long terms. We hope users will be able to derive maximum benefits from the information presented in this publication....