Tackling fallout of climate change  

If one of the hottest places on earth-Sahara Desert near the Algerian town of Ain Sefra-is now covered with thick snow, can Bangladesh remain immune from similar caprices of Nature? The CNN in its report said, "It's quite a time for weird weather, and it doesn't get much weirder than snow falling in one of the hottest places in the world."

The town known as the 'Gateway to the Sahara', experienced a substantial amount of snow for reportedly the third time in 40 years. Parts of the area got nearly 15 inches of snow.

Bangladesh too experienced its lowest recorded temperature in 50 years last week as the mercury dropped to 2.6°C in Tetulia upazila in Panchagarh. The previous all-time low was 2.8°C, recorded in 1968 in Srimangal upazila of Moulvibazar district. It is the northern areas which have so far borne the brunt of the brutal cold, with at least 34 people dying of cold-related ailments in Rajshahi, Kurigram and Thakurgaon districts over the past one week.

Recent climatic conditions make it very urgent for Bangladesh's policymakers to draw up, in close consultation with internationally-acclaimed experts, a well-thought-out national plan to adapt to the worst climate scenario on the horizon in the days ahead. In fact, Bangladeshis, who had faced recurring floods in not-too-distant past, are ready to face the hazard if adaptation knowledge is made available to them.     

However, climate change issues have been mainstreamed in Bangladesh's sustainable development strategy aimed at becoming a middle-income country by 2021. Despite being a developing country, Bangladesh spends over one per cent of its GDP in combating climate change. The country has already reiterated its commitment to prioritising water sustainability issues in all of its economic, social and environmental actions.

One of the means to addressing the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation is afforestation. So Bangladesh has to  undertake massive projects for plantation programmes. In the coastal region, green belt should be created for protecting people from cyclones and tidal surges, coastal erosion and saline water intrusion. Around 67,000 hectares of land has been identified for afforestation in this region. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who earned accolades for her initiatives in tackling climate-change fallout, said her government would take necessary programmes for increasing tree coverage by two per cent in Bangladesh, from the existing 22 per cent to 24 per cent within the next five years.

But can she do it? A report by Thomson Reuters Foundation, said currently, Bangladesh spends money on climate change projects from two major government and donor-sponsored funds. The Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF) is a fund operated by the Bangladesh government, development partners and the World Bank. A separate Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) is financed solely by the government from public funds. Alongside the two major funds, there is spending to reduce climate change impacts by various non-government organisations, foreign sources, and even private households.

The report quoted Rezai Karim Khondker, a professor at the Dhaka School of Economics and head of the team building the climate fiscal framework, as saying that so far there has been no clear calculation of how much money is being spent on climate change and from which sources. "The framework aims at bringing coordination in climate change-related spending," he said.

Khondker said a large amount of money was needed to combat the impacts of climate change on low-lying Bangladesh. The framework will help keep a tally of the sources of funds and also of where those are being spent, and for what purpose.

Experts and various civil society organisations have also raised questions about transparency in climate fund spending and produced evidence of mismanagement of money. The Bangladesh chapter of Transparency International (TIB) last October released a study on climate fund governance which revealed political influence, nepotism and corruption in the selection of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to carry out work on the ground.

It said some groups paid 20 per cent of their allocation as 'commission' in order to be chosen for adaptation projects. Transparency International Bangladesh Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman told Thomson Reuters Foundation that civil society organisations have been demanding transparency and accountability in climate fund spending from the very beginning.

"There should be policy directives for spending funds in need-based projects. Transparency has to be ensured at the implementation level so that people who are in need benefit," he said.

Bangladesh is now losing 2.7 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) each year due to environmental degradation in urban areas, according to a recent World Bank (WB) study. Simultaneously, the WB analysis has also found that 5.3 million people in the country will be vulnerable to the effects of climate change by 2050, while this will also lead to reduction in agricultural productivity, increase in malnutrition and decrease in water availability.

"Enough money has been allocated from the top for digging ponds or canals across the country. But when that money flows to the grass-roots level, we find that almost 50 per cent of the canals have not been dug or 17 per cent of the ponds have not been excavated," said Anwar Hossain Manju, who was former Minister of Environment and Forests.

"The common perception is that politicians are corrupt. But the politicians cannot do anything without the cooperation of the administration," he added.

As a remedy, the WB experts have called for creating a National Environmental Protection Agency or Authority with a mandate for pollution management, including countrywide industrial wastewater management. They also called for establishing a separate 'environment cadre' in the civil service to attract and retain talented and competent individuals in the environment sector.

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