Two facts related to climate-relevant funding in Bangladesh fascinate me. First, between 2015-16 and 2022-23 fiscal years, Bangladesh allocated 7.26-8.1 percent of its annual national budget as climate budget, which is 0.7-0.8 percent of the national GDP. Second, 18 years ago, the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) estimated to invest $73.5 million in climate change adaptation over the following few years. But such strategic planning magnified manyfold in October 2022, when the government approved the National Adaptation Plan, 2023-2050 (NAP2050), targeting to spend $230 billion over the next three decades.

Since the government is now preparing its annual national budget for FY2023-24, what changes can we expect to see in the climate-relevant allocations, post-NAP2050?

I think we can expect three specific achievable changes in the forthcoming climate budget. First, in the current fiscal year, with a total climate budget of Tk 30,500 crore, the three ministries or divisions (out of 25) with the highest climate allocations are Ministry of Agriculture (Tk 8,667 crore), Local Government Division (Tk 3,768 crore), and Ministry of Water Resources (Tk 3,484 crore). In addition, the climate budget also shows allocations against six thematic areas of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, 2009. Here, the highest allocation is made to food security, social protection, and health (41.87 percent), followed by infrastructure (27.78 percent), mitigation and low-carbon development (13.36 percent), comprehensive disaster management (7.21 percent), capacity-building and institutional strengthening (6.71 percent), and research and knowledge management (3.07 percent). These thematic allocations broadly match the ministerial allocations.

In the FY2023-24 budget, we also need to see the geographical distribution of the climate allocations. The NAP2050 contains the latest climate vulnerability maps of Bangladesh considering a wide range of shocks (e.g. cyclones and floods) and stresses (e.g. rise of sea level and salinity intrusion), prepared by the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS). The CEGIS can help the Finance Division to prepare maps combining climate fund allocations against the degree of climate vulnerability. These maps should carry information down to the upazila level, if union-level information is not available for now. We indeed need to know how much money is going to Dhaka and how much to Dacope (Khulna), Derai (Sunamganj) or Dimla (Nilphamari).

Second, in the forthcoming climate budget, a separate section should be added on investments to be made in nature-based solutions (NbS) to tackle climate change. Here, NbS means to protect, restore, create, and manage aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems to adapt to climate change impacts as well as reduce carbon dioxide in the air, while increasing the local biodiversity. Focusing on NbS has two specific rationales. First, the NAP2050 has already included NbS as one of its six main goals. Second, unlike climate finance, our conservation finance is poorly defined and is essentially made of project-based, short-term investments.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and its concerned departments are showing low interest in sustainable conservation financing. Therefore, we are not going to see much progress in establishing new funds as outlined in the Ecologically Critical Area Management Rules, 2016, the Protected Area Management Rules, 2017, and the Bangladesh Biodiversity Act, 2017 any time soon. But the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed upon by 188 countries in December 2022 in a global biodiversity meeting in Montreal, Canada, emphasises conservation finance to minimise the current annual gap of $700 billion.

By incorporating NbS allocations into Bangladesh’s climate budget, we can essentially bring together financing of two biggest crises of our times: climate emergency and biodiversity loss. The environment ministry should work with the finance authorities to develop a tool to collate investments in NbS by different government agencies every year. Our experience of preparing climate budgets should be useful here.

Over the last two years, Bangladesh has developed two climate-related investment plans: the draft Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan 2030 (MCPP2030) and the NAP2050. The climate budget for FY24 should track how many of these financial targets have been achieved or have received commitments from donors and development partners. If we look into the NAP2050, about 72.5 percent of the $230 billion fund has to be invested by 2040. This means the country needs to triple its current yearly investment, which now stands just above $3 billion.

In 2016, with FAO and USAID, the environment ministry prepared the Bangladesh Country Investment Plan for Environment, Forestry and Climate Change (EFCC-CIP). This CIP was supposed to be accompanied by a monitoring mechanism to track investments in these sectors until 2021, but it didn’t work out. Based on past experience, the ministry and FAO can work with the finance authorities to develop a monitoring and reporting tool to track investments to implement the NAP2050.

The NAP2050 is an ambitious plan with 113 priority actions in crucial sectors ranging from water, disaster management, agriculture, nature conservation and urban, to policy, institution, capacity-building and research. If the NAP2050 can’t make us rethink the way we prepare our climate budget, that will be a missed opportunity.

Dr Haseeb Md Irfanullah is an independent consultant working on environment, climate change, and research systems.

Report also suggests migration could help ensure UK has necessary skills to meet government’s 2050 net zero target

New climate visas should be created to allow victims of natural disasters to come to the UK, and to bring in skilled workers needed for the transition to net zero, a Conservative thinktank has argued.

Onward, whose co-founder Will Tanner recently became Rishi Sunak’s deputy chief of staff, is urging the government to prepare for the likely increase in global migration as a result of the climate crisis.

The authors of the report call for the government to prioritise financial support for climate adaptation in developing countries, but also to open up new legal migration routes.

“We cannot allow climate-related migration to become the defining crisis of the 21st century. The government needs to act now to build climate resilience in the most vulnerable regions on the planet and open up safe and legal visa routes for those fleeing environmental disasters,” said the report’s co-author, Ted Christie-Miller.

Despite the hardline rhetoric on the illegal immigration bill by the home secretary, Suella Braverman, the authors suggest that welcoming a limited number of climate refugees would be consistent with the government’s approach.

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The United Nations high commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reported that an average of 21.5 million people were forcibly displaced each year by sudden onset extreme weather events between 2008 and 2016.

Citing the UK’s recent acceptance of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and Hongkongers through bespoke visa routes, the report calls for the introduction of a natural disaster visa scheme.

With major floods and droughts already becoming more prevalent as a result of global heating, the authors suggest such a route could allow for a limited number of people displaced by climate events to flee to the UK.

These refugees could be permitted to stay temporarily in the UK to earn money to rebuild their lives – or potentially to remain permanently. The report does not specify how many such visas could feasibly be issued.

Polling carried out for the thinktank suggests such a measure might find only limited support among the public, however: 29% of people agreed the UK has a moral obligation to host people displaced by the climate crisis, against 41% who did not. Among 2019 Conservative voters, support was just 21%, with 55% against.

Separately, Onward suggests migration could form part of the answer to ensuring the UK has the skills necessary to meet the government’s target of hitting net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The report recommends a new environmental resilience visa scheme, which would involve the UK establishing partnerships with climate-vulnerable countries.

The authors suggest that under such a scheme, the UK would help to fund training in skills including “clean energy, construction, and disaster preparedness”, and could then allow some of those trained under the scheme to come and work temporarily in the UK.

Alex Chapman, senior researcher at the New Economics Foundation (Nef), agreed that the UK has a “profound moral responsibility” to support climate refugees whose predicament was ultimately set in train by emissions from developed countries over decades.

But he said bringing in workers from developing countries was not the right solution to plugging green skills gaps.

“A better approach would involve a wholesale rethink and expansion of the UK’s own upskilling system, which has been left broken and neglected. Over the course of the 20th century the UK established one of the strongest upskilling systems in the world, but successive reforms and funding cuts have seen the rate of adult participation in education crash, and our national productivity stall.”

A NEF report suggested that something between 4.5m and 8.5m cumulative years of full-time training were needed to bring the UK’s workforce up to the level needed to shift the economy to net zero.

But Chapman suggested that could be achievable by 2030, if adult participation in training returned to levels last seen in 2001, before funding cuts.

CCDB hosted a session named on Adaptation technologies for building resilience to climate change: Bridging the global and local on Gobeshona Global Conference 3.

We introduced the adaptation technologies practised worldwide and the opportunities of the CCDB Climate Centre to the participants. It will grow interest in visiting the centre to understand climate impacts and their adaptive solutions from five different ecological perspectives. Stakeholders was informed about how to become part of this innovative capacity-building initiative with the perfect settings to host and participate in an ever-successful climate research, training and conference. Participants observed the effectiveness of agricultural adaptation strategies in Bangladesh’s coastal villages.

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The pregnancy rate among women in Koyra in Khulna and Shyamnagar in Satkhira is much lower, while the Southern coastal region of the country has been witnessing negative population growth due to the adverse impact of climate change, said Professor Ainun Nishat, water resource and climate change specialist.

“Salinity is increasing in coastal areas while hypertension is on the rise among both males and females. Climate change is successively building at the adverse impacts. Female reproductive rate is under threat,” he said at a discussion on “Integrated Community Development for Better Health Outcomes: Perspectives from Bangladesh” organized by URC, an international organization based in the US at the Sheraton Dhaka Banani on Tuesday.

He said that in Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat and Barguna,  specially the southern thana’s population growth is negative, people are migrating. Bangladesh has suffered serious drought for the last two or three years, and crops are not harvesting in time.

“In Bangladesh, on the curative side, we have improved. We have lots of hospitals, lots of clinics, and some good doctors there. We need to pay attention to the curative side and public health activities as well,” said Ainun Nishat, also professor emeritus of Brac University.

The event highlighted promising interventions and good practices in health service delivery at the community level. Bangladesh has been a leader in public health research and implementation on a large scale for low-cost technologies provided at the community level

Conference moderator, Maureen Shauket, URC Chief Operating Officer, said: “New thinking and learning from the experiences of others is key to improving the quality of care and health outcomes in the communities where we work.”

CCDB Climate Centre hosted its 1^st batch of Hands-on Training on Climate Adaptation Technology from 13^th to 14^th December 2022. The training introduced the participants to an overview of climate science and facilitated learning intensively 04 coastal-based climate adaptation technologies i.e. Vermicompost production, sapling production using coco-dust, vertical 3D garden, hanging garden and sack garden, followed by a guided tour to CCDB Climate Centre. The training applied the participatory learning-by-doing method to ensure the learning outcomes are entirely applicable in the field.

Mousumi Halder (Sr. Capacity Building Officer), Md. Kamal Hossain (Manager-Adaptation Technology) and Abul Kalam Azad (Upazila Coordinator-Bagerhat) facilitated this two days training.

We already have the tools and know-how required to limit warming and halve emissions by 2030, finds new IPCC report.

GENEVA, Apr 4 – In 2010–2019 average annual global greenhouse gas emissions were at their
highest levels in human history, but the rate of growth has slowed. Without immediate and deep
emissions reductions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5°C is beyond reach. However,
there is increasing evidence of climate action, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) report released today.

Since 2010, there have been sustained decreases of up to 85% in the costs of solar and wind
energy, and batteries. An increasing range of policies and laws have enhanced energy efficiency,
reduced rates of deforestation and accelerated the deployment of renewable energy.

“We are at a crossroads. The decisions we make now can secure a liveable future. We have the
tools and know–how required to limit warming,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. “I am encouraged by
climate action being taken in many countries. There are policies, regulations and market
instruments that are proving effective. If these are scaled up and applied more widely and
equitably, they can support deep emissions reductions and stimulate innovation.”

The Summary for Policymakers of the IPCC Working Group III report, Climate Change 2022:
Mitigation of climate change was approved on April 4, 2022, by 195 member governments of the
IPCC, through a virtual approval session that started on March 21. It is the third installment of the
IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which will be completed this year.

We have options in all sectors to at least halve emissions by 2030 Limiting global warming will require major transitions in the energy sector. This will involve a substantial reduction in fossil fuel use, widespread electrification, improved energy efficiency, and the use of alternative fuels (such as hydrogen).

“Having the right policies, infrastructure, and technology in place to enable changes to our lifestyles
and behavior can result in a 40–70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This offers
significant untapped potential,” said IPCC Working Group III Co–Chair Priyadarshi Shukla. “The
evidence also shows that these lifestyle changes can improve our health and wellbeing.”
Cities and other urban areas also offer significant opportunities for emissions reductions. These can
be achieved through lower energy consumption (such as by creating compact, walkable cities),
electrification of transport in combination with low–emission energy sources, and enhanced carbon
uptake and storage using nature. There are options for established, rapidly growing, and new cities.
“We see examples of zero energy or zero–carbon buildings in almost all climates,” said IPCC
Working Group III Co–Chair Jim Skea. “Action in this decade is critical to capture the mitigation
potential of buildings.

Reducing emissions in the industry will involve using materials more efficiently, reusing and recycling
products, and minimizing waste. For basic materials, including steel, building materials, and
chemicals, low– to zero–greenhouse gas production processes are at their pilot to near–commercial
stage.

This sector accounts for about a quarter of global emissions. Achieving net-zero will be challenging
and will require new production processes, low and zero-emissions electricity, hydrogen, and, where
necessary, carbon capture and storage.

Agriculture, forestry, and other land use can provide large–scale emissions reductions and also
remove and store carbon dioxide at scale. However, land cannot compensate for delayed emissions
reductions in other sectors. Response options can benefit biodiversity, help us adapt to climate
change, and secure livelihoods, food and water, and wood supplies.

The next few years are critical

In the scenarios we assessed, limiting warming to around 1.5°C (2.7°F) requires global greenhouse
gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43% by 2030; at the same time,
methane would also need to be reduced by about a third. Even if we do this, it is almost inevitable
that we will temporarily exceed this temperature threshold but could return to below it by the end of
the century.

“It’s now or never if we want to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F),” said Skea. “Without
immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.”
The global temperature will stabilize when carbon dioxide emissions reach net zero. For 1.5°C
(2.7°F), this means achieving net-zero carbon dioxide emissions globally in the early 2050s; for 2°C
(3.6°F), it is in the early 2070s.

This assessment shows that limiting warming to around 2°C (3.6°F) still requires global greenhouse
gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by a quarter by 2030.

Closing investment gaps

The report looks beyond technologies and demonstrates that while financial flows are a factor of
three to six times lower than levels needed by 2030 to limit warming to below 2°C (3.6°F), there is
sufficient global capital and liquidity to close investment gaps. However, it relies on clear signalling
from governments and the international community, including a stronger alignment of public sector
finance and policy.

“Without taking into account the economic benefits of reduced adaptation costs or avoided climate
impacts, global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would be just a few percentage points lower in 2050
if we take the actions necessary to limit warming to 2°C (3.6°F) or below, compared to maintaining
current policies” said Shukla.

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Accelerated and equitable climate action in mitigating and adapting to climate change impacts is
critical to sustainable development. Some response options can absorb and store carbon and, at
the same time, help communities limit the impacts associated with climate change. For example, in
cities, networks of parks and open spaces, wetlands, and urban agriculture can reduce flood risk and
reduce heat–island effects.

Mitigation in the industry can reduce environmental impacts and increase employment and business
opportunities. Electrification with renewables and shifts in public transport can enhance health,
employment, and equity

“Climate change is the result of more than a century of unsustainable energy and land use, lifestyles
, and patterns of consumption and production,” said Skea. “This report shows how taking action now
can move us towards a fairer, more sustainable world.”

For more information, please contact:
IPCC Press Office, Email: ipcc–media@wmo.int
IPCC Working Group III:
Sigourney Luz: s.luz@ipcc–wg3.ac.uk