The Daily Star, Bangladesh
Bangladesh is among the countries to be worst-affected by climate
change that may cause a large-scale reversal in human development, says
the latest UN Human Development Report (HDR) released yesterday.
The
report fears climate change will hit the poorest countries the most by
breaking down agricultural systems, worsening water scarcity,
increasing risks of diseases and triggering mass displacement due to
recurring floods, and storms like the recent Cyclone Sidr.
Describing
the effects of climate change on the poorest as apocalyptic, the HDR
states, "Those who have largely caused the problem--the rich
countries--are not going to be those who suffer the most in the short
term. It is the poorest who did not and still are not contributing
significantly to green house gas emissions that are the most
vulnerable."
"The near-term vulnerabilities are not concentrated
in lower Manhattan and London, but in flood-prone areas of Bangladesh
and drought-prone parts of sub-Saharan Africa," said Kevin Watkins, the
lead author of the report titled Fighting Climate Change.
This year's human development index ranked Bangladesh at 140 among 177 nations, the same spot as last year's.
The
HDR report cautioned that temperature scenarios do not capture the
potential impact of climate change on human development.
"Business-as-usual scenarios will trigger large scale reversals in
human development, undermining livelihoods and causing mass
displacement."
UNDP administrator Kemal Dervis in his
introduction to the report said, "It is the poor, a constituency with
no responsibility for the ecological debt we are running up, who face
the most immediate and severe human costs."
With only 15
percent of world population, rich countries account for nearly half of
global carbon dioxide emissions, with the United States leaving a
carbon footprint that is nearly 70 times higher than in Bangladesh.
The
HDR strongly urged the developed nations to show leadership by cutting
emissions by at least 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, and put
climate change adaptation at the centre of international poverty
reduction programmes.
According to the report, human development
faces a 'massive threat' with up to 300 million people living in
coastal regions being displaced by increased frequency of floods and
storms like Sidr.
Climate change is also likely to cause
breakdown of agricultural systems that would significantly affect
Bangladesh, leaving large sections of people facing malnutrition.
The
global figure of the population at risk cited by the report is 600
million. Forty-seven percent of children in Bangladesh are already
malnourished.
The report states that an additional 1.8 billion
people are at risk of water scarcity by 2080, with hundreds of millions
at increased risk of contracting diseases like Malaria.
The UNDP
report called upon nations to adopt a 'twin-track' approach with
measures to mitigate future warming while helping at-risk nations to
adapt to human-induced climate change.
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