Bangladesh needs coastal embankments for climate mitigation: Momen
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today said Bangladesh needs to build embankments with renewable energy facilities along the coastal belt as part of "climate mitigation" to save its people from becoming climate migrants due to the rising sea level.
"To protect our people from getting inundated by the rising sea level and river erosion, and from becoming climate migrants, we need to create embankments high and wide enough to sustain in times of natural disasters," he said.
Dr Momen said mangrove forestation around these embankments would work both as buffers during natural calamities like cyclones and surges, while also working as carbon sinks.
"We can also use the space on the embankments for installing solar panels and wind turbines to produce electricity for the nearby off-grid areas, and the national grid," he said
The foreign minister made the remarks while virtually inaugurating a two-day "Climate Camp 2021" organised by a local non-government organization named Earth Society, marking World Environment Day.
British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson, Convener of the Climate Parliament Bangladesh Nahim Razzaq MP, Special Envoy of CVF Presidency of Bangladesh Abul Kalam Azad, Resident Representative, UNDP, Bangladesh Sudipto Mukerjee and Country Lead European Climate Foundation (ECF) Monower Mostafa also spoke at the inaugural session.
Following the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, the Climate Camp brings together the youth of Bangladesh at the community level to take action on resetting their relationship with nature to achieve the UN goals as #GenerationRestoration.
Noting that the Bangladesh government is doing its best to tackle the climate challenges, the foreign minister said the national parliament declared it a "Planetary Emergency".
"I strongly believe that participation from the youth and civil society, in collaboration with the government, can bring the best result for Bangladesh to achieve sustainable solutions," Momen said.
Bangladesh is the victim of the effects of global pollution without being a polluter, Momen said, adding that every year Bangladesh is spending about 5 billion dollars, an average 2.5 percent of its GDP, on climate adaptation and resilience-building.
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