What the declaration made in Dhaka, following a six-day long 'International Symposium on Climate Change and Food Security' jointly sponsored by several national and international agencies, has helped to highlight is the fact that it is not only an environmental issue but also one that affect our very existence. And one couldn't agree more with the comments of the visiting Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson that climate change has the potential to be the most significant challenge to human security in the near future.
At a time when the international community is seized with problem of global poverty, it stands to be further aggravated by climate change which, according to experts, has arrived sooner than expected. Therefore, the organisers must also be complimented for emphasizing on the fact that the thrust of any future action ought to be on the most vulnerable sector that climate change will affect food and agriculture.
The most painful reality of climate change is that it is the poorer countries that stand to suffer most, while it is the rich countries, whose life style is motivated by unabashed consumerist behaviour, that are responsible for the high carbon emission. And it is the poorest in the poor countries that have the least capacity to withstand the effects of climate change.
We are happy to note the many practical recommendations made at the symposium including regional networking and shifting to non-fossil and renewable sources of energy. Perhaps the most significant of those is the one that relates to stimulating research activities that would allow formulation of tangible mitigation measures. We have spent quite a bit of our energy and time over the last few years highlighting the different facets of our lives that climate change is likely to effect. While there may be difference of opinion regarding the intensity of the phenomenon among different experts, there are no two opinions regarding the need for countries likely to be most affected to get down to evolving substantive action plans that would help them tackle the phenomenon effectively.
Here we reiterate the sentiments of the chief advisor that the richer countries must play their due role in ameliorating a condition that they are primarily responsible for. In this regard the more affluent ones must not only reduce their carbon emission, they should at the same time help the developing countries with technology that would allow their pace of economic growth without impacting global climate adversely. For the poorer countries it is the question of adaptation the great part of which can be successful only by determining how to adapt and getting the required funds to implement those measures.
The recommendations are very good but concrete action is needed to follow those up.