Bangladesh Confronts Climate Change

Manoj Roy, David Hulme, Joseph Hanlon

Description

Bangladesh shows how to adapt, innovate and live in a world affected by climate change.

Living in a low-lying and densely populated country on the front line of climate change, Bangladeshis are taking a lead in adapting to rising temperatures and campaigning to limit climate change. Global warming will worsen this country's existing environmental problems – causing a rise in sea level, more flooding and stronger, more damaging cyclones.

Bangladeshis know what is coming, and how to respond, because they are already effectively combating environmental and social challenges. Cyclone shelters and warning systems have cut the fatality rate dramatically; new varieties of rice have raised nutrition levels; women's education has slowed population growth; land is being raised to respond to sea level rise. Bangladeshis will keep their heads above water, but at huge costs. Will the industrialised countries curb their greenhouse gas emissions and pay for the damage they have already done?

1. Actors, not victims; 2. How will climate change hit Bangladesh; 3. Taking the lead in negotiations – and moving forward; 4. Sea level rise and the vulnerable coast, where farmers know more than engineers; 5. Saving lives with cyclone shelters; 6. Living with floods; 7. Agronomists keeping ahead of climate change; 8. No climate change migrants – yet; 9. How can the privatised megacity cope with climate change?; 10. Is climate change only a problem for the urban poor?; 11. Power – political, financial and electrical; 12. The front line of climate change; Index.

Sujets

• Climate change
• Social sciences
• Science

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 21 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783086351
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Bangladesh Confronts Climate Change
ANTHEM CLIMATE CHANGE AND POLICY SERIES
The Anthem Climate Change and Policy Series aims to compile the best integrative thinking on the nature of and relationships among the processes underlying climate and other closely related forms of global change. It also seeks to identify how science can inform the development of adaptation and mitigation strategies, and what policies might be developed to most effectively implement those strategies. Climate change, with its links to agriculture, water resources, human health, ecosystems and global security, is introducing challenges that are stretching humanity’s capacity for adaptation and effective mitigative action. Physical changes induced by climate warming and directly affecting human needs include polar ice loss, with its associated alteration of weather patterns including the jet stream; mountain glacier losses with implications for freshwater supplies and sea level rise; changing meteorological patterns with implications for global food supplies; land and ocean ecosystems change including the alteration of ocean acidity, a reduction in biodiversity and the loss of coral reefs and important food species. Climate warming–induced change is further complicated by direct human activities, such as major land surface transformation; the over-harvesting of global fisheries; and the industrial pollution of air, land and water. Merely defining the links between the climate warming–induced drivers of change and their many potential impacts is often a daunting problem. This series is geared towards bringing the best scholarship to bear in serving the practical environmental policy and management community.
Series Editor
Brooke L. Hemming – United States Environmental Protection Agency, USA
Bangladesh Confronts Climate Change
Keeping Our Heads above Water
Manoj Roy, Joseph Hanlon and David Hulme
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2016
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

© Manoj Roy, Joseph Hanlon and David Hulme 2016

The authors assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested.

ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-632-0 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-632-7 (Hbk)

ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-633-7 (Pbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-633-5 (Pbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations, Acronyms and Bangladeshi Terms
Acknowledgements
About the Authors Chapter One Actors, Not Victims Chapter Two How Will Climate Change Hit Bangladesh? Chapter Three Taking the Lead in Negotiations – and Moving Forward Chapter Four Sea Level Rise and the Vulnerable Coast – Where Farmers Know More than Engineers Chapter Five Saving Lives with Cyclone Shelters Chapter Six Living with Floods Chapter Seven Agronomists Keeping Ahead of Climate Change Chapter Eight No Climate Change Migrants – Yet Chapter Nine How Can the Privatized Megacity Cope with Climate Change? Chapter Ten Is Climate Change Only a Problem for the Urban Poor? Chapter Eleven Power – Political, Financial and Electrical Chapter Twelve Bangladesh on the Front Line of Climate Change
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
1.1 Maximum percentage of Bangladesh flooded each year
7.1 Per capita rice production and yield
7.2 Rice production by season
7.3 Birth rate and maternal mortality
7.4 Child malnutrition
9.1 Bangladesh rural and urban population
Tables
1.1 Human development details for Bangladesh and its neighbours
2.1 Bangladesh weather and agricultural seasons
2.2 IPCC projections of global increases in surface air temperature, compared to pre-industrial levels, and sea level compared to 1986–2005
5.1 Cyclone definitions and cyclones that made landfall in Bangladesh, 1998–2015
5.2 Cyclone warning signals
9.1 Bangladesh cities – basic data
10.1 Slum populations of the four largest cities, 2005
10.2 Percentage of each type of household to have access to services
11.1 Bangladesh’s projected emissions reductions in power, transport and industry by 2030
11.2 Estimated costs of key adaptation measures
11.3 Estimated costs of key mitigation measures
Boxes
3.1 What the jargon means
4.1 Ancient kilns show land can match sea level rise
4.2 Sediment is ‘the silver lining’
5.1 Local radio saves lives
6.1 Chalan Beel: A century of problems
7.1 Fewer but healthier children change the food balance
8.1 Dhaka slum arrivals
9.1 Is Rana Plaza the true symbol of Dhaka?
9.2 Rivers around Dhaka in death throes
10.1 Services in Kallyanpur
10.2 Less dangerous than a Chittagong bus
Maps
1.1 Bangladesh, showing main cities and rivers, and its position in South Asia
1.2 The three main rivers flowing into Bangladesh rise in China and India
4.1 Beels west of Khulna, where Tidal River Management is now being introduced
ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONYMS AND BANGLADESHI TERMS $ United States dollar £ UK pound ADB Asian Development Bank AL Awami League Aman flooded rice crop, B Aman is broadcast or directly seeded and T Aman is transplanted APA National Action Plan on Adaptation, MEF 2005, superseded by BCCSAP Aus rain-fed rice AWD alternate wetting and drying irrigation system Bangla, Bengali language of Bangladesh BARC Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council barsha floods normal beneficial floods which renew the land basti, bosti, bustee slum BAU business as usual BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics BCAS Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Dhaka BCCRF Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund, a World Bank– managed fund BCCSAP Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, MEF 2008 BCCTF Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund, a government-managed fund BDRCS Bangladesh Red Crescent Society beel natural shallow lake which fills with water during monsoon BGMEA Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association BIDS Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Dhaka BIWTA Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority BMD Bangladesh Meteorological Department BNP Bangladesh Nationalist Party bonna floods less frequent but more destructive floods Boro irrigated, transplanted rice Borsakal Bengali rainy season Bosontokal Bengali spring BRAC originally Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee and now Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, a very large NGO and social business BRRI Bangladesh Rice Research Institute BUET Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology BWDB Bangladesh Water Development Board CBO community-based organization CEGIS Centre for Environmental and Geographical Information Services, Dhaka CH 4 methane char new island created from sediment ClimUrb Poverty and Climate Change in Urban Bangladesh Research Project, Manchester CNG three-wheel taxis using compressed natural gas as fuel CO 2 carbon dioxide – important greenhouse gas COP annual Conferences of the Parties which are signatories of the UNFCCC CPP Cyclone Preparedness Programme CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia DAE Bangladesh Department of Agricultural Extension DCC Dhaka City Corporation DDM Department of Disaster Management DESCO Dhaka Electricity Supply Company DFID, DfID UK Department for International Development district second-tier administration unit (there are 64) division largest government administration unit (there are 8) DSK Dushtha Shasthya Kendra, a Dhaka NGO ESCAP United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ESRC UK Economic and Social Research Council EU European Union FAO UN Food and Agriculture Organization FAP Flood Action Plan FFWC Flood Forecasting and Warning Center, Bangladesh Water Development Board G7 Group of seven large industrialized countries G77 loose coalition of developing nations, originally with 77 members GCF Green Climate Fund, donor fund within the UNFCCC mechanism GDP Gross Domestic Product, the value produced within a country’s borders GNI Gross National Income (previously called GNP, Gross National Product), the value produced by all citizens, including remittances Grissokal Bengali summer ha hectare (100 m × 100 m) HBRI Bangladesh House Building Research Institute HDI UNDP Human Development Index Hemontokal Bengali late autumn HFCs hydrofluorocarbons hilsa a kind of fish, important in the Bangladeshi cuisine ICAI UK Independent Commission for Aid Impact ICCCAD International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Dhaka IEG World Bank Independent Evaluation Group IIED International Institute for Environment and Development, London IMF International Monetary Fund INGO international non-government organization IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IRRI International Rice Research Institute I