The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser for Environment and Forest Raja Devasish Roy on Monday said, they are thinking to set up a separate secretariat to deal the climate change issue in a more coordinated way under the currently being formulated long-term national strategy and action plan.

"We have a small climate change cell which is basically research driven. Now we need to set up a separate secretariat for increasing as well as improving our initiatives to face the adverse effects of the climate change effectively," he said.

Raja Devasish was speaking as the chief guest at a meeting on 'Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan', organized by the Ministry of Environment and Forest with the support of UK's Department For International Development (DFID) at Spectra convention centre here.

Environment and Forest secretary AHM Rezaul Kabir presided over the meeting while Research Director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies Dr M Asaduzzaman gave a presentation on Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan.

UNDP acting Country Director Lary Maramis, Senior Programme officer of DFID Jum McAlpine, and representatives from the embassies of Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, FAO, UNFPA, The World Bank, USAID, ADB, SIDA, CIDA and JBIC also spoke.

The meeting discussed on the draft of ten-year Climate Change Action Plan, which has recently been designed under the initiative of Ministry of Environment and Forest in consultation with all relevant ministries and divisions and agencies to build the capacity of the country to meet the challenges of climate change over the next 20-25 years under a strategy.

Terming the draft as a 'living document', Raja Devasish said, they tried to make the draft as participatory and consultative as possible by taking inputs from all stake holders. To make it more effective, they are still taking inputs from different organizations including civil society members, non-government organization, development partners and research organizations.

He said, the country needs additional funding on grant basis, beyond the flow of normal ODI, through international negotiation for facing the climate change.

Mentioning, the upcoming London meeting on climate change, to be organized jointly by the Bangladesh and the UK governments on September 10, the special assistant said, "We are expecting fund as grant from the gathering."

He said, the government has already created a climate change fund worth US$45 million from its own budget to articulate its firm commitment and concern to face climate change.

Kabir said, security of food, water, energy and livelihood must be inviolate for any climate change strategy and action.

The Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan has six pillars and mainly focus on the matter to adapt to climate change and safeguard the vulnerable population of the country through an integrated planning, Dr M Asaduzzaman said.

"Adaptation and mitigation will both require resources beyond Bangladesh's own capacity at present," he said, adding "While Bangladesh is trying what it can from own effort, but, strong political commitment of development partners will be most welcome."

The six pillars of the climate action plan are; Food security, poverty and health; Comprehensive disaster management;

Infrastructure; Research and knowledge management; Mitigation and low carbon development; and Capacity building.

The climate action plan focused on increasing the resilience of vulnerable groups, including women, through development of community level adaptation, livelihood diversification, and better access to basis services and social safety net programmes.