Climate change adaptation: Bangladesh needs $230b till 2050

Bangladesh has a National Action Plan ready on climate change stressing  the need for $230 billion over next 27 years till 2050 to enhance its adaptation capacity, as the the COP 27, the biggest climate event, kicks off today in Egypt to tame the rising temperature.

The COP 27 is taking place in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh. Diplomats from nearly 200 countries gathering in the Red Sea resort for the November 6-18 conference are tasked with greening the global economy and helping the poor and climate-vulnerable nations, who have barely contributed to the problem, cope with evermore deadly storms, heatwaves, droughts and floods.

"This COP needs to demonstrate that there is a distinct shift from negotiations to implementation," UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell told journalists online.

Egypt must mark a leap from the long process of hammering out a treaty to ensuring that its goals are met, he added.

"Paris told us what needs to be done, and Glasgow defined how we need to do it," he said, referring to the landmark 2015 deal that sets a cap on global warming, and the summit last year in Scotland that finalised the treaty's rulebook.

"Sharm El-Sheikh is about getting stuff done -– moving from words to action."

Without a "historic pact" bridging the North-South divide, "we will be doomed, because we need to reduce emissions, both in the developed countries and emerging economies," UN chief Antonio Guterres said on last Thursday.

Last week the UN warned that "there is no credible pathway in place" for capping the rise in global temperatures under the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

COP27 will arguably boil down to a trio of interlocking priorities: emissions, accountability and money.

The creation of a separate pool of capital for "loss and damage" -- UN climate lingo for unavoidable and irreversible climate damages -- could be a make-or-break issue.

"This discussion has been going on for three decades," UN climate change chief Simon Stiell told journalists Friday. "The most vulnerable countries are tired, they are frustrated."

"The success or failure of COP27 will be judged on the basis of whether there is agreement on a financing facility for loss and damage," Munir Akram, Pakistan's UN ambassador and chair of the powerful G77+China negotiating bloc of more than 130 developing nations, told AFP.

Rich nations will also be expected to set a timetable for the delivery of $100 billion per year to help developing countries green their economies and build resilience against future climate change.

The promise is already two years past due and remains $17 billion short, according to the OECD, reports AFP.

Last year's COP26 in Glasgow prioritised reducing carbon pollution, mostly through sideline agreements orchestrated by host Britain to curb methane emissions, halt deforestation, phase out fossil fuel subsidies and ramp up the transition to renewable energy.

Nations agreed to review their carbon-cutting pledges annually and not just every five years, though only a handful of nations have done so in 2022.

A 22-member government delegation led by Shahab Uddin MP, minister for environment, forest and climate change, has gone to Egypt to participate in the conference.

A member of the team told The Daily Star that ahead of COP -27, Bangladesh has prepared the National Action Plan on climate change stating that an investment of $230 billion is required for 27 years (2023-2050).

The NAP has identified 113 interventions, including 90 high-priority and 23 moderate-priority ones. Bangladesh will need $8.5 billion per year, of it $6.0 billion per year from external sources or international climate funds and development partners. And it proposes to mobilise around 72.5 percent of the total investment cost by 2040.

Bangladesh will present its NAP on climate change at a side event during the COP conference, he said.

Asked, Mirza Shawkat Ali, director, Department of Environment, said

Bangladesh has already uploaded its NAP documents to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change website as the 40th country and as the 17th least developed country.

Regarding carbon reduction, he said Bangladesh has set a target to bring it down to 6.3 percent unconditionally.

The country would be able to reduce carbon up to 15.12 percent if it gets technical and financial support.

He said this year Bangladesh also joins hands with others in a global pledge to control the country's methane gas emission.