Climate fund should not be used only in campaign, research

Food Minister Abdur Razzaque yesterday said the climate change fund should not be used only in carrying out campaign, awareness building and research.
Some of the fund should be used to eradicate poverty as 40 percent people of Bangladesh are living below poverty line, he added.
Millions of poor people are directly or indirectly affected by climate change here, he said, adding that if they can upgrade their lives, it will be easier for them to fight the climate change impacts.
The minister said this as a chief guest at the concluding session of a policy dialogue on 'Climate change science' organised by Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Study (BCAS).
“Farmers yielded Aman rice less than usual this year also what ultimately affected the rice market in the country.”
Dr A Atiq Rahman, executive director of BCAS, highlighted the summary of the dialogue.
Stressing the need for taking policy on science-based researches, he said good policy cannot be taken based on bad science.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) authors Prof Braja Gopal of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, Prof Manirul Kadir Mirza of Toronto University and Manmahan Kapshe of School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India, also spoke.
Dr Gopal said Bangladesh is facing the dire consequences of climate change from two sides -- from the coastal area as the sea level is rising and from the Himalayas as glaciers are melting.