Bangladesh, Maldives front runners in adapting to climate change impacts

The Daily Star: As the most vulnerable nations to climate change impacts, Bangladesh and the Maldives are becoming front runners in adapting to climate change impacts.

The ministers of Environment of Bangladesh and the Maldives at a high-level event organised during the annual United Nations Climate Summit convened at Doha discussed how their nations are prioritising climate change issues as a key developmental challenge and embracing actions aimed at increasing climate resilience of people and infrastructure through strategic national investments and innovative national climate financing.

According to recent estimates, 14.6 million people in the coastal areas of Bangladesh are vulnerable to inundation due to increased cyclonic surges, and this number will increase to 18.5 million by 2050 under moderate climate change scenarios, said a World Bank press release.

Over the last decades, the Bangladesh government has invested more than US$10bn to make the country less vulnerable to natural disasters. Measures as strengthening river embankments, building emergency cyclone shelters, and developing world class community based early warning system have significantly reduced the loss of life and livelihoods and property damages caused by extreme weather events…

A shipbreaking yard in Chittagong, shot by Stéphane M. Grueso, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license