Climate change barriers and initiatives in Bangladesh

Climate change barriers and initiatives in Bangladesh

• 1.
  1 CLIMATE CHANGE BARRIERSAND INITIATIVES IN BANGLADESH Barriers in General:  About 88% of the landmass is consisting of floodplain, sitting in a delta (Rashid, 1991);  The topography is flat and majority of the landmass lies within 10 meters above mean sea level;  The geographic location is such that it is heavily influenced by monsoon and the landmass consisting of only 7% of the combined catchment areas of three great rivers, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna (GBM), which has to drain over 92% of rainfall runoff generated in the combined GBM catchment, that too within four and a half months (June to mid-October) (Ahmad et al., 1994);  The monsoon season is followed by a prolonged dry season, where lack of appreciable rainfall and almost continuous evaporation from the top soil give rise to aridity and subsequent (phonological) moisture stress (Asaduzzaman et al., 1997; Karim et al., 1998);  The rivers are braided and still undergoing erosion-accretion cycle, resulting in severe erosion in one bank and accretion in the other (Rashid, 1991)  The inverted funnel shaped shoreline is located on the path of cyclonic storms and associated surges, both occurring in the northern Indian Ocean (Ali, 1999)  The neap tides during peak monsoon are high enough to penetrate into coastal plains those are apparently protected by embankments, leaving entire area under such embankments inundated with saline water (Ahmed, 2008).  Beside these hydro-geophysical reasons, developmental factors also exacerbate the disasters and climate change impacts. These include: population density, high poverty, income inequality, fragile infrastructure, limited integration of disaster risk into national and local planning and low human development progress (Ahmed, 2013). Barriers Faced by Govt. towards Effective Implementation of CCA (Climate Change Adaptation):  Understanding, Knowledge and Capacity: Particularly in tiers below the central Government level, GOB officials have been lacking in terms of understanding, knowledge and management skills to deal with CCA.  Weak Capacity: GOB Officials and elected office bearers of local government institutions (LGI, e.g., Union Parishads, Pourasava Councils, Municipal Corporations,
• 2.
  2 etc.) have lackingin management skills to deal with needs emanated from impacts of climate change.  Priorities are not set out: Having the lack in prioritization of thematic projects and programmes, relevant ministries and their officials are finding it difficult to identify projects that might be more useful towards reducing vulnerability.  Weak Integration with Development Efforts: There exists a general lack in understanding regarding the fact that most of the development activities have direct or indirect linkages with impacts of climate change.  Weakness in Implementation, Monitoring and Shared Learning: Recognizing that adverse impacts of climate change will be location specific, it is generally recommended that CCA sensitive projects should be designed through a proper participatory process, involving local people and vulnerable groups in particular.  Lack of Financing: The lack of financial resources towards meeting the objectives of both adaptation and low carbon development. The US$10 Billion requirement for the 10 year period appears too high for a Least Developed Country (LDC) such as Bangladesh to bear on its own.  Institutional Coordination: Climate change adaptation is a multi-dimensional response and to be dealt with by the involvement of multiple institutions through a coordinated fashion.  Lack of Ability of Energy Saving Sectors: Energy saving industries/sectors have limited capacity to coordinate with National Board of Revenue to periodically review and reset conducive tax and tariff structures towards better management of demand side. Climate Change Initiatives:  Climate Change Adaptation  Promoting a whole-of-government approach for climate change readiness  Enhancing Understanding, Knowledge and Capacity  Enhancing Management Skills  Prioritization and Costing of Programmes and Projects  Coordination  Strengthen Integration of CCA with Development Efforts  Improved Implementation, Monitoring and Shared Learning  Enhance CCA Financing  Integration of Gender Responsiveness in Project Design  Low Carbon Development  Enhance understanding on mitigation
• 3.
  3  Improve capacityin analysis and seizing available opportunities  Enhance capacity of energy saving sectors  Improve coordination and communication among institutions  Ensuring investment in research and innovations  Disaster Risk Management  Knowledge, skills and capacity for Disaster Risk Reduction  Decentralization and local level mainstreaming of DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction)  Build National Disaster Management Capacity and Financing Systems