Bangladesh will have to spend $4.35 million to keep its impoverished millions from suffering the effects of climate change, despite being the world’s lowest carbon dioxide emitter. The need for the fund was announced by the country’s environment minister Mustafizur Rahman, as reported by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) last Monday (July 27). Scientists have also reportedly noted the increase of floods, droughts, and cyclones – and the country is expected to increasingly experience the said climate change effects.

At least 20 million people will be homeless as rising sea levels will devour 17% of the country’s total land mass by 2050, according to the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was cited by the AFP.

Projects such as the building and raising of embankments and roads, the construction of thousands of shelters, the dredging of major rivers, tree-planting on coastal belts, and the reclamation of land from the sea are some of the efforts planned by the government, Rahman told AFP.

Bangladesh will reportedly approach the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and rich nations to fund its projects. Bangladesh will also make its case in the UN climate summit to be held in Copenhagen in December, Rahman added.


- Jen Balboa