Bangladesh wants rich nations to pay the billions of US dollars it says it needs to help fight the effects of climate change because they are the biggest environmental culprits.
The impoverished South Asian nation — one of the world’s lowest emitters of greenhouse gases — will highlight its plight to the British government and other international donors in London on Wednesday.
Bangladeshi Environment Secretary Rezaul Kabir said that a study by the World Bank, leading donors and the Bangladeshi government had found the country urgently needed huge amounts of money to ensure its survival.
PHOTO: AP
“We need at least US$4 billion at least by 2020 to build dams, cyclone shelters, plant trees along the coast and build infrastructure and capacities to adapt to increasing number of natural disasters,” Kabir said.
Environmental experts say Bangladesh is experiencing more rainfall, flooding and droughts, as well as cyclones as a direct result of climate change.
Last year widespread flooding and a devastating cyclone caused crop and infrastructure damage worth US$2.8 billion — around 4 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP — a World Bank study found.
“We hope Western countries will grant the money as compensation for being the biggest carbon emitters,” Kabir said. “They are responsible for our woes and the increasing number of the disasters that befall on us.”
“In London, we will show where we are vulnerable and present our strategy to fight the greater number of floods, cyclones, a rise in sea levels and crop losses,” he said.
Bangladesh’s army-backed authorities this year launched a US$44 million fund dedicated solely to fighting the problems that the country faces as a result of climate change.
The Nobel Prize winning UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts rising sea levels will devour 17 percent of Bangladesh’s total land mass by 2050, leaving at least 20 million people homeless.
James Hansen, director of the US-based NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, paints an even grimmer picture, forecasting the entire nation will be under water by the end of the century.
One of Bangladesh’s leading environment scientists, Atiq Rahman — a co-author of the IPCC report — believes money is not enough and rich countries should feel obliged to offer assistance.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese