The New Nation - Internet Edition

Bangladesh lacks capacity to devise and enforce environmental regulations on a scale remotely commensurate with its needs. Densely populated cities experience a damaging range of health hazards while natural resources in rural regions are eroded by the demands of subsistence agriculture.

Bangladesh has one of the lowest per capita levels of energy consumption in the world yet the country has been named in reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as the most vulnerable to rising sea levels.

A one metre rise could wipe out 20% of the country's land mass, creating 30 million environmental refugees, perhaps as early as 2050.

Climate predictions also envisage shorter but more severe monsoons, longer periods of drought, and more violent tropical storms, creating lower crop yields and increasing salinisation.

Bangladesh in which 30-40 million poor people have their homes have long been prone to serious flooding and devastating cyclones.

The serious floods in 2007 closely followed by Cyclone Sidr have been described as the worst for at least a decade. If a structure of governance that is truly representative of its long-suffering people can emerge in Bangladesh, tough questions are bound to be asked about the responsibility for climate change and the potential liability of the great fossil fuel consumer countries conveniently located far from the rising seas of the Bay of Bengal.

Md. Tareq Mahmud

Santosh, Tangail.