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BSS-51
PM-CLIMATE CHANGE
PM urges int’l community to fight climate change unitedly
DHAKA, April 08, 2019 (BSS) – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has described climate
change as a “security threat” to the existence of the planet, calling upon the
international community to work unitedly to combat the threat.
“Time to act on climate change is now. If anyone still doubts climate change, even
slightly, I invite you to visit Bangladesh … I’m ready to walk with you to show how
climate change silently impacts the lives of millions,” she wrote this in an article
published on the website of the World Economic Forum on March 26.
The World Economic Forum (WEF), based in Cologny-Geneva, Switzerland, was founded in
1971 as a not-for-profit organization. Its mission is to improve the state of the world
by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape
global, regional, and industry agendas.
Following is the article of the prime minister:
For three years in a row, the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report has
identified climate change as the gravest threat for global business and industry. The
report notes that “failure in climate change mitigation and adaptation – water crises –
natural disasters” will impact business and industry worldwide.
Nowhere has seen the impact of climate change as closely as Bangladesh. I was born in
pristine riverine rural Bangladesh. As I grew up in the countryside in the fifties and
sixties, we had inadequate electricity or roads. River and monsoon flooding were part
of our life. My father used to recount how lives and livelihoods of people were
intricately linked to land, rivers, wetlands and sea in Bangladesh.
Our life was then as comfortable as today, yet nature was not as challenging or
unpredictable as it is now. To our utter dismay, without contributing to environmental
destruction, we are confronted with a situation where Bangladesh is one of the most
climate-vulnerable countries in the world.
The world acknowledges how increasing cyclones, storm surge and monsoon flooding
challenge the livelihoods of people in Bangladesh. On our southern border, the Bay of
Bengal is getting increasingly acidic. With rising sea levels, one third of our
population risks displacement. Every year, we risk losing 2%-3% of our GDP as a result
of climate change impacts.
Deep in our active delta, every monsoon and every flood erodes the river banks.
Families become landless and helpless over night. Thousands of acres of precious
farmlands are lost. This is no surprise when our rivers carry nearly one quarter of the
entire load of sediment carried by all the major river systems in the world every year!
The erratic pattern and intensity of rainfall and rising heat make farming difficult
for people. As I interact with Bangladeshis across the country many also highlight the
growing drought during dry season. In early February, the UK Met Office predicted that
the decade of 2014 to 2023 will be the warmest in 150 years.
Our changing climate leads to the emergence of new pathogens. Diseases like malaria,
which we successfully eradicated, risk a comeback. Similar risks are evident in
diseases in cereals, livestock and poultry.
Temperature variation is also challenging for our fisheries industry. All these
seriously challenge our precious gains in development and our impressive poverty
eradication efforts.
Despite these challenges, Bangladesh today is the fourth largest in rice production,
fourth largest in fish production, fifth largest in vegetable production, and within
the top ten in horticulture. We also offer the world a magical fibre – jute – that can
help thwart climate change. We further developed stress-tolerant varieties of crops as
our own response to climate change adaptation. All these accomplishments have been
possible thanks to the continuing ingenuity and innovation of our farmers.
But, we are worried that we may not be able to sustain the progress that we have
made. Bangladesh notes a reluctance across the world to embrace climate change
mitigation efforts. Over the past decade, I have been telling the world how millions of
Bangladeshis are moving out of their ancestral lands because of river erosion, water
stress, salinity intrusion and arsenic contamination of groundwater.
A sense of hopelessness is gripping a population of nearly 160 million people. They
find their resources depleting, their capacity to cope reduced, and their support
shrinking. The climatic vulnerabilities accentuate social instability and cohesion
within and among communities. The net result is various types of strain at different
tiers of society.
I am less concerned about conventional “warfare”. Instead, I foresee climatic stress
causing tensions to simmer and sparking different forms of conflicts within
communities. We must rise above the politics of doubt, and accept that climatic
vulnerabilities lead to a fragile economy and risk human security.
We have substantial science, technology, innovation and finance at our disposal to
address climate change. A crucial missing piece is the will of the more affluent
segments in our societies to act ambitiously against climate change. We need to
transform our lifestyles, attitudes, systems, economies. Back in 2012, I pledged suo
moto in New York that Bangladesh will pursue a low-carbon development pathway, as our
commitment to the collective good of tackling climate change.
BSS/SH/KU/2110 HRS