Call to establish research fund on climate change

Climate change experts and researchers yesterday called on the government to establish a fund for research with a portion of the Climate Change Trust Fund.
They also made an appeal to the development partners to fund a research platform in the country to encourage and support the involvement of Bangladeshi scientists in research programme and use the opportunity Bangladesh provides to build knowledge on climate change adaptation.
The recommendations came from the concluding session of an international conference in the city. The Bangladesh Centre for Advance Studies (BCAS) organised the conference on 'Building Collaborative Research Platform to support the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan'.
Speaking as the chief guest in the concluding session, State Minister for Environment and Forest Hasan Mahmud said the government has already allocated 15 percent of its own climate fund for research recently.
"Climate change is a knowledge-based issue. Generating proper knowledge and implementation those is very important to deal with the issue," he said.
Bangladesh wants to play a leading role while battling the global challenge, as the country is at the forefront of the climate change impacts, he added.
British High Commissioner Stephen Evans delivered the welcome address in the morning session while Dr Saleemul Haq, director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), described the objectives of the conference.
The climate change experts also recommended taking up demand-driven agenda for research what the affected communities need to do to face the problems.
They also called on the development partners to scale up national research funding.
The conference was held as a follow-up of a pilot project funded by the British government.
Dr Mizan R Khan and Deputy Secretary of the ministry of environment and forest Monzurul Hannan Khan also spoke in the morning session chaired by Dr Atiq Rahman, executive director of BCAS.