Climate change in South Asia

GOOD news there is none. The bad news is that in the times ahead South Asia will be up against severe risks to its environment. That obviously raises the very crucial question of how Bangladesh will fare. The answer is simple: not well at all, if the projections being made today about the environmental dangers to it are to be taken seriously. And, of course, taken seriously they must be owing to the overall nature of the risks posed to global ecology. Which brings up the matter of the on-going SAARC experts level meeting in Dhaka, to be followed by a conference of SAARC environment ministers beginning tomorrow.
The deliberations in Dhaka, against a backdrop of the slide that has been going on in the environment on a global scale, assume a particular dimension precisely because of the vulnerabilities to which Bangladesh and the rest of South Asia are exposed. In other words, if ever there was a time for concrete and collective action to protect the region from common dangers, it is now. And here are the reasons: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that the severity of the risks to the environment will be powerful enough to force as many as 35 million people to move out of Bangladesh's flooded delta by the year 2050. It is a terrible scenario that is before us, for there is the apprehension that the landmass of the country will stand reduced drastically. And much a similar condition threatens to apply to the other nations in the region, with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India facing various degrees of danger. The Maldives, it is being said with eerie finality, will be no more.
Which is why the urgency of action is there. For these meetings in Dhaka, devising a common plan of action is now an imperative. The suggestions that have been made, notably the formation of a climate group geared to adaptation and funding adaptive technology, must be given the attention they call for. The generation of resources from within the region as also garnering every form of cooperation from international organisations will be a necessity if the future of the 1.5 billion people of South Asia is to be saved.
We expect the experts' conference as well as the ministerial meeting to come up with concrete plans to meet the challenge. The apocalyptic may not be here yet, but it looms over the immediate future.