Climate change impact: IPCC paints grim picture for Bangladesh

Bangladesh would face serious challenges due to climate change and the national economy might bear the burnt, suggested a report of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

According to the report, the continuous greenhouse emission in the country would result in the displacement of millions of people, reduced agricultural production and weather with extreme heat and humidity.

IPCC Working Group II AR6, in its recently released report, also predicted that the agricultural production would reduce between 31 and 40 percent by this century as the sea level would rise.

The country's power plants may also need to be relocated over the next decade to avoid floods caused by the rise of sea level.

Rawshan Ara Begum, one of the lead authors of the report, said the rise of sea level could eat up between 2 and 9 percent of annual GDP by the middle and end of the century.

Citing the report, she said the climate change could displace 1 to 2 million people living in the south by mid-century.

The overall impact will further worsen the country's current challenges including extreme poverty, income inequality, economic and non-economic losses and damages and low adaptive capacity.

Rawshan also said that urgent and accelerated actions are required for rapid and deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in the country to avoid increasing losses and adapt to climate change.

"As a result of climate change and increasing demand for water, about 25 percent of people in Bangladesh will live with water scarcity by 2050, compared with about 10 percent now. Both the Ganges and the Brahmaputra river basins will also see increased flooding," she said.

Climate change will hit international supply chains, markets, finance, and trade, reducing the availability of goods in Bangladesh, and increasing their price, as well as damaging markets for Bangladeshi exports, she said.

The economic shocks caused by climate change, including reduced agricultural yields, damage to critical infrastructure, and commodity price rises, could lead to financial instability in the country, she added.

This report informs scientific evidence of climate change impacts and potential risks, as well as provide a range of adaptation options for reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience.

Mohammad Arfanuzzaman, another lead author of the IPCC report, said the climate change impacts Bangladesh facing now would increase substantially in the coming years.

It is very likely that most of our existing adaptions would be ineffective under both 1.5 and 2C warming conditions, he added.

"To reduce socio-economic and environmental vulnerability and build resilience Bangladesh must focus on transformative and multi-sectoral adaptations," he said.

This report assesses a wide range of adaptation options across sectors and regions for societal choices to act and implement in the decades to come which in turn will determine future pathways to climate-resilience.