Adapting to climate change 'key to survival’ of Bangladesh

Mizan Rahman in the Gulf Times: Bangladesh’s leading environment expert has said the country needs to adapt to climate variability on an urgent basis as climate change and climate variability are now real.

“Science is clear, we need political will to achieve success both in adaptation and mitigation,” said Prof Ainun Nishat, vice chancellor, BRAC University.

He was presenting his keynote paper titled ‘Climate Change Challenges, Global Politics and Future of Bangladesh’ held in Rajshahi city yesterday.

He told the seminar that there is evidence of climate vulnerabilities like excessive rainfall, untimely and irregular heavy rain, increase in tidal bores, increase in cyclonic conditions, variation in tidal flow, increase in frequency of flash flood, and changes in timing, temperature variation, change of seasonal cycle, cold winter days, increase in droughts and dry spells, storms and hailstorms, increased surface temperature and increase in number of insects.

Nishat mentioned that all 195 countries in the world admit that climate change is happening and adaptive measures should be adopted but developing nations like Bangladesh and especially the least developed countries have no capacity to address the adverse impact alone....

NASA image of the Ganges River delta