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Climate change and Bangladesh

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Md. Fouad Hossain Sarker:
The last 12 months have seen some important events and actions regarding climate change both globally as well as in Bangladesh. The article will review some of the key events and activities over the last year and point to important upcoming events.

Md. Fouad Hossain Sarker:
Science of climate change
The most significant development on the science of climate change is the rolling out of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report of Working Group -- 1 on the Science of emissions is already out and the Working Group -- 2 report on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation will come out in March 2014 with the final Working Group Report in Responses coming out later in 2014. In addition to these IPCC reports there will also be the third international conference on Adaptation Science in Fortaleza, Brazil in May 2014. Bangladeshi scientists have been playing a key role in the international science of adaptation and now loss and damage in particular. However, although a great deal of research gets done in Bangladesh, very little of it is of international quality. Hence, there is a need to improve the quality of the research in Bangladesh if it wishes to be taken credibly by the global scientific

Md. Fouad Hossain Sarker:
Global climate change Policy

The eighteenth conference of parties (COP18) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Doha, Qatar in December 2012 and COP19 held in November 2013 in Warsaw, Poland, saw a new global policy issue arise (in addition to the two existing ones on mitigation and adaptation) on Loss and Damage. After tough negotiations on this topic in Doha and then even tougher one in Warsaw we have emerged with a new Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage which was our key demand from the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group. Bangladeshi scientists, experts, negotiators and civil society played a critical role in achieving this success in Warsaw. Bangladesh has an opportunity to continue to lead other LDCs on this issue if we are able to seize the opportunity. It will require a concerted and collaborative effort from the government as well as research community and civil society.

Md. Fouad Hossain Sarker:
Community Based Adaptation

Bangladesh is already widely recognized as a leader in the rapidly emerging field of Community Based Adaptation (CBA) where we have hosted a number of the annual international CBA conferences. The seventh International CBA conference (CBA7) was held in Bangladesh in April 2013 with nearly 300 international participants from over sixty countries. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the closing speech was given by Mary Robinson the former president of Ireland. CBA 8 will be held in April 2014 in Katmandu, Nepal where the theme will be "Reaching Global Adaptation Funding to Local Communities". It is expected that there will be attendance from the major adaptation funders including the Chairs of the Adaptation Fund (AF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF). Bangladesh has an opportunity to take some more actions to support local level adaptation at home and share them at the second National Conference on CBA to be held in Dhaka in March 2014 and then to promote them at the international conference in Nepal in April.

Md. Fouad Hossain Sarker:
Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP)

At the national and local level the main activities have been the implementation of the  BCCSA through the two climate change funds, namely the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF) and Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF). The former has several hundred million US Dollars from donor countries such as the UK, Sweden, Australia, Denmark and others, while the latter has several hundred million from Bangladesh's own resources. Both funds have been supporting activities by government agencies and civil society as part of the BCCSAP. The experience of both these funds needs to be assessed and some longer-term ideas mooted on whether they should continue, be merged or replaced?

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