Bangladesh emits just 0.5% of global carbon but loses 2-3% of GDP annually to climate-related disasters, says PM’s special assistant
Climate-vulnerable nations must receive grant-based financing for loss and damage rather than loans, while regional blocs must forge stronger cooperation to tackle accelerating environmental disasters, experts and delegates said at a conference in Dhaka.
Addressing a dialogue organised by the Centre for Governance Studies (CGS), speakers underscored that developing countries should not bear the financial burden of a global crisis they did not create.
Pointing to Bangladesh’s climate vulnerability, Saimum Parvez, special assistant to the prime minister for environment, forest and climate change, said Bangladesh generates just 0.5 percent of global carbon emissions but loses 2 to 3 percent of its gross domestic product annually to climate-induced disasters.
“Climate finance should be grant-based, it should not be loan-based. We should not pay for something that we are not responsible for,” he said, describing the current global climate finance architecture as inherently unfair.
Referring to a recent side event of the United Nations General Assembly organised by Nepal, he contrasted Switzerland’s effective early-warning systems, which helped avert casualties during a glacial avalanche, with devastating floods in Nepal that left thousands missing due to resource and technological constraints.
Weeks after the catastrophe, Nepal was still struggling to access loss and damage funds, he said.
To build long-term resilience, the Bangladesh government has undertaken locally led adaptation programmes, including planting 2 crore mangrove trees this year and plans to plant a total of 25 crore trees over the next five years to create coastal green belts.
Non-governmental organisations such as BRAC have also introduced salt-tolerant crops, including sunflower, to help communities cope with coastal salinity, he said.
Turning to regional geopolitics, panelist Sabyasachi Dutta, executive director of Asian Confluence, India, said the Bay of Bengal faces growing contestation, while climate vulnerability makes cooperation inevitable among SAARC, ASEAN and BIMSTEC countries.
Transboundary threats, including recent floods in Nepal and glacial lake outburst floods in Sikkim, require shared disaster-management mechanisms, joint governance of undersea cables and artificial intelligence, and tailored capacity-building for border communities, he said.
Another panelist, Tara Marwah, policy adviser for Asia and the Pacific at the Asia Foundation, warned against overly militarised approaches to climate-induced migration.
Treating displaced people as threats erodes institutional trust and overlooks essential post-displacement needs such as housing, services and employment, she said.
Judith Mwaniki, director of the Development Programme at the Consortium for Economic Research and Development Studies, Kenya, moderated the session.
Source: The Daily Star
