Bangladesh News

Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday called for immediate actions at national, regional and global levels to face the impacts of climate change that poses threats to food security and livelihoods of millions.

“We must act immediately for two reasons — our mitigating actions will take time to have an impact, and the costs of doing nothing are simply too great to allow,” he said at the concluding session of a five-day international symposium on climate change and food security in South Asia at Sonargaon Hotel in the capital.

Jointly sponsored by the government of Bangladesh, University of Dhaka, Ohio State University, World Meteorological Organisation, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-Escap), the symposium was attended by around 250 delegates from 17 countries.

The greatest challenge that Bangladesh faces is lifting some 50 million people out of poverty, but this already-formidable challenge is made all the more difficult for Bangladesh because global warming has started to affect food production, helping to raise food deficit over the last two decades, the chief adviser (CA) said in his address as the chief guest.

Climate change affects food production directly through changes in agro-ecological conditions and indirectly by affecting growth and distribution of income, he said. The frequency and severity of events such as cyclones, floods, hailstorms and droughts can hamper crop yields and local food supplies, he noted.

“Considering that agriculture remains the principal source of income for a vast proportion of the South Asian population, especially in Bangladesh, the negative impact of climate change on production will lead to significant negative shocks in income,” Fakhruddin said.

Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to climate change in its given geography, he said. “As a low-lying mega-delta with three large river systems, accompanied by heavy rainfall, floods have become an annual calamity. The melting of the Himalayan glaciers and huge sediments carried by the rivers coupled with restricted drainage further worsen the situation,” he added.

There is an empirical evidence that even a one-metre rise in sea level would submerge one fifth of Bangladesh — thus an estimated 25 to 30 million people would be displaced as ‘climate refugees’. The Maldives could disappear entirely and floodplains of India, Pakistan, Myanmar and huge coastal belt areas could face permanent inundation, the chief adviser pointed out.

Referring to scientists’ warnings that ‘business as usual’ approach would not reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he demanded deeper cuts in such gas emissions by the developed countries.

“Developed countries must provide adequate additional resources to tackle climate change,” he said. “It is a global issue that demands a global response, and I hope that the world community, particularly historically high greenhouse gas emitters, will come forward to provide assistance in tackling the losses of climate change so that we can cope with the adverse impacts and maintain food security.”

He went on, “Countries like Bangladesh will otherwise suffer the most from a problem to which we have contributed little — this is not just a practical issue, but a fundamental moral issue.”

Fakhruddin emphasised defining the impact of climate change on key aspects of food production and rural populations at risk. He called for implementation of farm-level adaptation strategies to maximise food production, united actions by scientists, farmers, fishermen, civil society, businesses, media and policymakers and researches to develop high yielding and drought, flood and salinity-tolerant crops, capacity building of people and construction of multi-purpose shelter houses in coastal zones.

Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson also addressed the concluding session.

Other speakers at the session, chaired by Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Dr SMA Faiz, included FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific Changchui He, special assistant to the CA on environment and forests Raja Debashish Roy, Education Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, Ohio State University Professor Rattan Lal, MVK Sivakumar of World Meteorological Organisation and AHM Mustafizur Rahman, chief coordinator of the organising committee.