The water of the Buriganga River is pitch black and no aquatic life survives. Despite this it is still called the lifeline of Dhaka. Life is very busy by the Buriganga. Loaded with cabbages, a country boat has just reached the Chan Mia ghat (boat station) at the Sadarghat, the biggest river port of the capital of Bangladesh. 

“The boat has arrived. I need to work,” Jalil Mia says and walks towards it. Two other workers give him a hand to unload the cabbages. Jalil, 41, moved to Dhaka a year ago, following the devastating cyclone Sidr which hit the country in November 2007 and left him penniless. He came to Dhaka from Bhola island, situated at the estuary of the Meghna River, around 400km south of the capital. 

“Luckily we survived that night as we went to take shelter at a cyclone centre. But my house and all the furniture and even the utensils – everything was washed away,” he says. 

Once a farmer, now a slum-dweller
Bhola is surrounded by the Meghna on three sides, with the Bay of Bengal to the south. Over the last two decades the island has gradually narrowed because of the Meghna’s erosion. Erosion is nothing unusual in Bangladesh. But the threat of climate change has made the country much more vulnerable.

Now Jalil, once a farmer, lives in a slum in the capital with his family. His two daughters, Yesmin and Rabeya, are going to school again. But his son Palash, a 13-year-old, has had to take a job at a glass factory in the old part of the city.

Bangladesh’s Institute of Water Modelling has shown that Bhola, home to over two million people, had a landmass of 1550 sq km in 1973, but only 1400 sq km today. The same thing is happening to other islands in the Bay of Bengal.

Many people from Kutubdia island have moved to Cox’s Bazar on the mainland, where they call their neighbourhood “Kutubdia Para” (village). “We did not want to forget our island. So we named our village after it,” said one old man, Mohammed Nasu Mia.

Catastrophe as sea levels rise
A report by the Refugee Studies Centre says that Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to rising sea-levels and in the top ten in terms of the percentage of its population living in low-lying coastal zones. Over 140 million people live there today, 40 million of them in the coastal area.

Dr. Ainun Nishat, the country representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), says Bangladesh is on average just 10 metres above sea level, but the coastal region is even lower. “Roughly 20 per cent of our country’s landmass will be under water if sea levels rise by 89 centimetres. Such a catastrophe would displace roughly 18 million people,” he told a recent climate seminar. Loss on that scale, in such a densely populated country, would be a disaster he said.

Environmental migrants swell Dhaka’s population
Every year thousands of homeless people like Jalil and his family move to Dhaka because of natural calamities. Today around 12 million people live in the city, around 3.4 million of them slum-dwellers. Dhaka is growing at 3 per cent annually, one of the fastest rates in the world. 

The government has begun working to increase the adaptive capacity of communities suffering from the impacts of climate change. But it has no immediate plans for displaced people – like Jalil and Nasu Mia. 
In a visit to two south-western districts, Khulna and Satkhira, I saw how clearly the local community is aware of the effects of climate change. But many are unsure of the science, and some believe increasing natural calamities are signs of God’s punishment for wrongdoing.

Ingenious solutions are not enough
With the help of NGOs local people have been collecting rainwater and storing it in huge clay pots to use in winter when the natural salinity of their water supply increases – one impact of climate change.  In seasonally flooded areas, they have developed ingenious floating rafts with a bamboo base, upon which water hyacinth is piled and then covered by other aquatic plants or coconut husks to form a seed bed ready for planting. These floating gardens, called baira, are increasingly popular.

In another scheme called the Char livelihood project, supported by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), local people have learnt to build houses on raised plinths so they are not submerged when the chars (small river islands) flood. But even efforts like these will not be enough to stop people migrating to escape the effects of a changing climate. 

Call for climate refugee rights
Bangladesh’s finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhit, has even said international migration is one of the country’s major adaptation strategies.In December 2008 member states of the UN Climate Change Convention held their 14th summit – COP-14 – in the Polish city of Poznan. Bangladesh, speaking for the least developed countries, demanded that the opportunity of international migration for climate change victims should be included in the new global climate deal under discussion.

Raja Devasish Roy, the chief of the Bangladesh delegation, said world leaders should come up with a solution for those who will be forced from their homes. Other vulnerable countries supported Bangladesh’s proposals.
 
At present there is no international law to protect the rights of people like Jalil. UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, does not recognise climate or environment refugees, as they are not listed under the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention. Now some experts suggest the Convention should be amended to allow for environmental displacement.

Future Floods of Refugees, a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council, advocates a new and separate international convention to protect the rights of climate refugees. It has also recommended a new international environment migration fund with contributions from industrialised nations under what it calls “the polluter pays” principle.

Already, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there are around 25 m climate refugees, while there could be as many as 150 m by 2050. Jalil, Nasu Mia and their families are in a very long queue.

Amid the global financial turmoil, the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2008 began yesterday in Poznan, Poland, with the hope of reaching a consensus among least developed, developing and developed countries on signing a new treaty during next year’s conference in Copenhagen.

The treaty, if signed, would succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate treaty, which expires in 2012.

The Poznan summit has been termed “the half-way mark of the road to Copenhagen” as decisions made by representatives of developed and developing countries are to be clinched in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. Those will be enforced in 2013, the year after the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Danish Premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen spoke during the inauguration of the conference. Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Yvo de Boer, Conference President and Polish Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki and the Mayor of Poznan Ryszard Grobenlny also addressed the opening session held at the international conference centre. here

Mr Tusk said despite Poland being heavily dependent on coal, it is taking up the challenge of reducing carbon emissions.

“We are here to discuss how to step up our fight against climate change and develop a new common path to development and cooperation,” he said.

Mr Rasmussen said combating climate change was the right green choice, the right economic choice and also the right political choice.

Climate change will only grow stronger if we do not act now, he said. Therefore the financial crisis should not lower the priority of the commitment to other urgent issues like climate change and poverty alleviation, said Mr Rasmussen.

Turning the economy from high carbon to low carbon intensity does not slow down growth, he said, adding, “We must agree to reduce global CO2 emissions 50% by 2050.”

Reminding his audience that unmitigated climate change will impose a significant cost on the economy, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said delaying actions now would only make future actions more costly.

Around 9,000 participants including government officials, NGO workers, scientists, and journalists from 190 countries have gathered in Poznan to attend the two-week-long conference. The high-level segment of the conference (December 11 and 12) will be attended by around 150 environment ministers.

This part of the conference will be inaugurated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and attended by the President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo, Prime Minister of Sweden Fredrik Reinfeldt and Prime Minister of Tuvalu Apisai Ielemia.

A 16-member delegation comprising Bangladesh government officials and NGO workers is attending the conference. Raja Debasish Roy, special assistant to the chief adviser, will act as the head of the Bangladesh delegation.

Even though the Poznan conference is taking place amid global financial crisis and economic recession, it is expected to produce progress on several important issues, particularly for developing countries, in the run up to 2012. These include adaptation to the impacts of climate change, finance, technology and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

In the context of adaption, member countries are expected to put the finishing touches to the Kyoto Protocol’s Adaptation Fund so that it is ready to roll out projects in 2009.

Bangladesh, the country most affected by extreme weather events cyclone Sidr and floods in 2007, has emerged top of a global climate risk index announced here by researchers.

An international NGO, Germanwatch, prepared the index of 170 countries, the Global Climate Risk Index 2009, and released it yesterday at the conference centre here where the UN climate change summit is taking place.

Bangladesh is top with a climate risk index (CRI) of 3.00, while North Korea took second position with 10.33 and Nicaragua came third with 12.25.

Bangladesh tops the index with a death toll of 4,729 last year from natural calamities, and an additional absolute loss of property worth more than $10 billion.

Pakistan is another country from South Asia that is also among the top 10 countries, coming fifth with a CRI of 13.17.

Speaking at the index release presentation, Sven Harmeling, senior adviser for climate and development of Germanwatch and author of the report, said: “Bangladesh, despite last year’s impacts, is also one of the outstanding examples of countries which have invested significantly and effectively in developing disaster reduction and adaptation strategies.”

Harmeling also praised the adaptation strategy of Bangladesh and told journalists its recent Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan can serve as a model for many other countries and deserves the support of the international community.

Based on information from the NatCat (Natural Catastrophe) service of Munich Re, the German insurance group, and from the government of Bangladesh, the authors prepared the index by combining the indicators of total number of deaths, deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, absolute losses in millions in purchasing power parities and losses per unit of gross domestic production (GDP).

Among the top ten nationson the list, Oman was in fourth position, Bolivia sixth, Papua New Guinea seventh, Vietnam eighth, Greece ninth and Tajikistan tenth.

But analysing the data of the last decade (from 1998 to 2007) the average position of Bangladesh is second with a CRI score of 10.92 following Honduras with 6.75.

Though the average death toll in Bangladesh in the last decade was 1,093, the average per 100,000 inhabitants was 0.70, compared with Honduras’s 8.5.

But in Honduras the average death toll in the last decade is only 579, almost half the Bangladeshi figure.

The average loss of property in Bangladesh due to natural disasters was put at more than four billion US dollars.

Among other South Asian countries, India is in seventh position among the countries most affected in the last decade with a death toll of 4,532 on average.

Christoph Bals, executive director of Germanwatch, and Maarten Van Aalst, from the International Red Crescent Climate Center, were also present at the presentation of the report.

Bangladesh, on the second day of the UN Climate Change Conference here, has demanded that an international climate change adaptation centre under UN auspices should be set up in Dhaka. The centre would research ways of adapting to climate change.

Bangladesh made its demand at the vision-sharing meeting of the G-77 Group on behalf of the least developed countries (LDCs) yesterday.

The Bangladesh delegation said climate change funding, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), must be in addition to the existing official development assistance (ODA) commitments of 0.7 percent of industrialised countries’ gross national product (GNP).

Bangladesh’s proposal also said current arrangements, known as responsibility-based mechanisms, must be revised to make the contributions of developed countries mandatory.

The Bangladesh delegation asked as well for a mechanism to be developed, with the help of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to create an index on the vulnerability of people in each country to climate change.

It demanded the creation of an effective environment for climate-change adaptation, nationally, regionally and internationally, with the support of appropriate institutions.

“We proposed the setting up of the head office of the International Adaptation Centre in Dhaka,” said a Bangladeshi government official. However, all parties attending the conference have to agree on this.

Bangladesh urged a long-term global goal on tackling climate change. Its proposals also said the goal should be determined according to the undertakings of developed countries on emission cuts, technology transfer, finance and capacity building.

Mr Reazuddin, director technical of the department of environment, presented the proposal at the meeting.

Meanwhile, Oxfam International in a report yesterday estimated that more than $50 billion could be raised each year if developed countries bought, at auction, the right to only 7.5 percent of their emission units.

The money should be handed to a new multilateral adaptation finance mechanism under the UNFCCC. Oxfam yesterday released the report, called “Turning Carbon into Gold”, which also suggested that other new finance mechanisms in the aviation and shipping sectors could generate another $28 billion.

Around 9,000 participants including government officials, NGO workers, scientists, and journalists from 190 countries have gathered in Poznan to attend the two-week-long conference.