Climate Change in Bangladesh

Mitigation strategies need to be developed to reduce the impact of climate change through new policies, in- novative technologies and a new life style. Introduction and use of renewable energy for industry and household use should be considered. Solar energy is a viable option for Bangladesh as the country is blessed with plenty of sunlight. Conservation of water sources and rainwater harvesting will benefit many sectors. River-encroachment and river-grabbing should be stopped by enforcing strict policies. Urban zoning laws can help reduce over- crowded pockets in larger cities, especially in Dhaka. Building and developing better facilities in rural areas will help prevent human migration to cities. Community-based solutions should be developed and implemented to make sure that people have a say in decisions affecting their well-being. Such approaches should also include various stakeholders and development partners from different sectors such as health, agriculture, environment, water resources and urban planning. It should also encourage public-private partnerships to monitor change, as- sess impact, facilitate adaptation and develop programs in order to face the challenge of climate change and de- velop holistic solutions. Climate change is not only an economic issue but also essentially a health issue. It has profound implications for public health. Health must be at the centre-stage of any climate change related adapta- tion plans. Moreover extensive and vigorous research is needed to better understand the link between climate change and health. Unless steps are taken and put in place immediately to mitigate and adapt to climate change, Bangladesh will have to pay a heavy toll in terms of productivity and human lives.

Some diseases are emerging in the affected community like dengue fever due to climate change in Bangladesh. Similar situation happened post cyclone Nargis period in Myanmar where the dengue incidence slightly raised (Myint et al., 2011). The socio-economic situation of the affected population was in poor state after the cyclone hit the area and due to lack of employment opportunities and infrastructural support these people had to face long term health consequences due to climate change. Waiyaki et al. (2012) found that the residents of Faza Island of Kenya has been struggling with their social and economic lives due to climate change which is effecting their local environment (both land and sea) and as a result they are finding it hard to meet their subsistence needs. Things are improving now as various local government and non-government organizations are working there and people are getting back to their normal life. A majority of the health professionals, service providers and local community of the coastal areas of Bangladesh are aware of the health impacts of climate change but their knowledge regarding health protection measures is limited. Government and other non-government organizations can take measure to control health related problems in the affected area. Coping with climate change related health problems at the rural is important for every individual so actions should be taken on building resilience and strengthening the health systems at all rural level. Various training programme can help the communicate people to get to know more about the climate change and its impact on human health. This research shows that it would be useful to investigate in greater detail with a large sample or from more diverse group about the other factors of climate change that have an impact on health. In addition, climate change is a complex phenomena and its impact on human health is obvious but to explore the relationship require further investigation.

Climate change is one of the greatest threats our world has ever faced. The atmospheric balance that sustains our lives is becoming incredibly fragile, and the damage people are doing to various ecosystems, will have drastic consequences. These consequences will cross geographic, ethnic, religious, and political boundaries. The world and its people will experience more poverty, hunger, disease, drought, flooding and so on. No nation will be spared. The only question is the degree by which we will have to adapt. Solutions and responses to this crisis vary from the simple to complex. Climate change crisis is now a reality for Bangladesh as well for the world (CCDE, 2010). This paper focuses on “financing” to combat the climate change impacts from the perspectives of both adaptation and mitigation, as finance apparatus is crucial for both to face and react the climate change challenges. Here, we need to be grounded by the fact that we must prepare our communities right now for the harmful impacts that we know are coming. To proceed further, we need to focus on the background and context of climate change and sustainable development scenario of the country. We also need to know the available policy and finance responses regarding the adaptation and mitigation issues of climate change in Bangladesh.

responsibilities” (Cutter et al., 2003, p.246).The gender division of labor and so called gender roles reinforced the additional work load for women during disaster time and sometimes intensified the negative impacts of climate change on women. In addition, women‟s less access to resources, money and information for disaster preparation and less priority in decision making regarding rehabilitation in Bangladesh increases the risk of women during the disaster than others in the family. In the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh 90 per cent of the victims were female (Ikeda, 1995). During disaster women often encounter domestic and sexual violence (Nasreen, 2008) and also after the floods, droughts, and storms, they are deprived of essential services such as service for pregnant women.In rural areas, a significant number of women are involved in agricultural and other economic activities, the negative impacts of climate change are not only limited to affect the economy, agriculture, water resources and the livelihoods of poor rural women but also directly responsible for increasing the vulnerability of women in Bangladesh. It is very common that girls will drop out of school to save on school fees or to spend more time fetching water after disaster. In recent years, two major disasters-Sidr (2007) and Aila (2009) have affected 887,377 women, a large number of them became homeless or some migrated to another area to live or for work (Islam, 2011). In the context of the above, this study intends to see the extent of linkage between climate change, gender roles and women in Bangladesh. More specifically the study aims to ascertain-

Climate change has emerged as one of the greatest environmental challenges facing the world today (IPCC, 2007; Anik and Khan, 2012). Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. The main reasons for its vulnerability include its tropical climate; the predominance of floodplains for the majority of the land area; the low level of elevation and proximity to sea level; the high population density; and limited technological capacities to offset climate change effects (MOEF, 2005; DOE, 2007; Shahid and Behrawan, 2008; Pouliotte et al., 2009). Climate change impacts are already occurring, as measured by increasing temperatures, variable rainfall and an increase in climate-related extreme events such as floods, droughts, cyclone, sea level rise, salinity and soil erosion (Yu et al., 2010). These extreme climate events occur in Bangladesh almost every year, and sometimes more than once a year, affecting the crop agriculture sector adversely, particularly rice production (MOEF, 2005; Yamin et al., 2005).

Bangladesh has an overwhelmingly agricultural economy. Agriculture accounts for 32% of its gross domestic product (GDP), and absorbs 63% of the country’s labor force (BBS, 2014). On the other hand the agricultural sector of Bangladesh is highly susceptible to the effect of climate change (Huq et al., 2015). Traditionally the agriculture of Bangladesh is dominated by the production of rice to ensure better food security. However, recently the government of Bangladesh has called for a departure from “rice-led” growth to a more diversified production base that includes several non-rice crops (Hoque, 2000). The climate of Bangladesh is unique for vegetable production. Vegetable that is any herbaceous plant whose fruits, seeds, roots, tubers, bulbs, leaves etc is

Considering this changing trend, the government of Bangladesh needs to take measures to determine the climate sensitive crops. It will help the farmers to choose the crop variety more confidently and to generate more revenue from crop production. The crop production policy in the existing National Agricultural Policy (NAP) emphasized crop diversification in favour of cash crops and crops suitable in the coastal and hilly areas. Among the different aspects, NAP has also addressed the issues of environmental protection in agriculture, emphasizing a crop rotation and salt tolerant seed varieties. This research intends to focus, and along with environmental protection, NAP should address climate change adaptation issues in agriculture. Adaptation strategies taken by the households cannot be effective without policy measures. For instance, supply of climate resilient seed variety needs policy intervention from the government that can be highlighted in the NAP along with other policy measures on climate resilient agricultural inputs. Therefore, NAP should be developed from this point of view, so that farmers can be fewer victims of aberrant behaviour of climate change events in the future. Finally, this paper reveals a shortcoming of the single cohort of cross-sectional data in simulating crop choices and diversity in response to the climate change scenarios. This indicates that repeated cross-section data have an advantage over single cross- section data in terms of estimating the regression parameters and simulating for the future. Household specific climate variables might improve the paper in terms of accurate climate parameters.

Climate change is a scientific fact and the changes in temperature, rainfall, wind speed, etc will be very much common (IPCC, 2007 and 2013). Extreme temperature events are likely to be more intense, more frequent and longer duration than recent years (Meehl et al., 2007). Floods, salinity and droughts are very common in Bangladesh (Bala and Hossain 2010) and these hazards are likely to aggravate in future (IPCC 2013; Vidal 2013). Inter- and intra seasonal climatic variability is large in this region. There is a need to evaluate growth and yield response of crops/cropping systems with the extent of inter- and intra climatic variability. Probabilities of occurrence of extreme and/or episodic events have increased in recent couple of decades and we need to evaluate options for agri-sustenance. There are variable reports on rainfall amounts and distribution (Ahmed et al., 1992; Rahman et al., 1997). Ahmad et al. (1996) reported 0.5°C in temperature over Bangladesh during past 100 years. Mondal and Wasimi (2004) reported an increasing trend of 0.5°C and 1.1°C per century in day-time maximum and night-time minimum temperatures, respectively. There existed an increasing trend of mean maximum and minimum temperatures in some seasons and decreasing trend in some others during 1961-1990 (SMRC, 2003; Rahman and Alam, 2003). However, Islam and Neelim (2010) reported increasing trends in both summer and winter temperatures indicating a negative impact on crop production.

Bangladesh is frequently cited as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, despite the country’s insignificant contribution to climate change. Crop production, especially rice, the main food staple, is the most susceptible to climate change and variability. Any changes in climate will, thus, increase uncertainty regarding rice production as climate is major cause of year-to-year variability in rice productivity. This thesis is motivated partly by the susceptibility of rice farming to climate change and partly by the limited studies of Bangladesh on this topic. The overall aim of this thesis is, thus, to analyse the impact of climate change on rice production at three levels (aggregate-national, disaggregated-climate zone and micro-farm level), and to evaluate the adaptation strategies practised by farmers in a severely drought-prone area.

Bangladesh is one of the countries with the most severe sea level rise caused by climate change(Ali, 1999). Bangladesh is also a riverine country. In monsoon season the half of the area southern part of Bangladesh is covered with water. As a result, it is impossible for the people of those who are to grow the crop. One of these types of area is Nazirpur upazilla of Pirojpur. However, people of this area are practising a method to produce vegetable known as ‘DHAP” or floating garden. This floating agriculture becomes an important invention to fight against climate change(Pavel, Chowdhury, & Mamun, 2014). The floating garden made with the help of a raft. The raft is covered with the soil and cow dung where the farmers grow vegetable instead of the land. Each year, a new raft needs to be built, but in the dry season, the old raft can be used as fertilizer. The raft is known as “Dhap”. Under the model, residents have brought the unused water bodies under cultivation “Dhap” submerged in about eight months of this year on those water bodies. Water hyacinth and other organic materials like cow dung are usually piled up to create a “Dhap” which takes shape over a few days, floating on the water like a boat. The raft can be around 180-foot-long with around a 2-foot thickness and a 4-foot width. Farmers grow vegetables like beans, tomatoes, okra, eggplants, pumpkins, and peppers. Local farmer earning money by selling these vegetables and on the other hand the owner of the marshland is making money by giving the lease to seasonal farmers. Even the cost of implementing floating garden is meagre(Centre, 2011).

Abstract: The impact of climate change and global warming are worldwide and global concern. Bangladesh is unfortunately home to many infectious diseases. Climate change related events like temperature, rainfall, humidity etc. have direct and indirect adverse impacts on the outbreak of infectious disease among children. A number of water, air and vector borne infectious diseases including diarrhoea, measles, rubella, kala-azar, malaria and dengue etc. are common in Bangladesh. A cross sectional study was carried out to observe the impact of climate factors on the incidence of air borne infectious disease among children in Bangladesh. The methodology of the study includes analysis of both secondary and primary data. Results showed the long-term changes of annual mean, maximum and minimum temperature of study area over the study period (1964-2011) found to have in general increasing trends in annual mean and annual mean minimum temperature but the mean maximum temperature slightly rising in recent past decades. Seasonal mean temperatures are also found to have increased trend. The long-term changes in annual rainfall that showed declining trend. Seasonal rainfalls also showed markedly reduced in winter and post autumn season. The primary data reveals that temperature is the main and rainfalls comes next as influencing factor for air borne measles like disease and their outbreak among children. The incidence of measles like disease was found positive correlation with maximum temperature and negatively correlated with average minimum temperature and total annual rainfalls. However, the current understanding of the impact of climate change on the outbreak of air borne infectious disease is not sufficient. To address the existing and future impact of climate change on the outbreak of infectious diseases among children, climate sensitive infectious disease surveillance and continuous monitoring to be considered and further studies are needed.

The main drivers threatening Bangladesh’s protected forest areas are high population and poverty which results in lack of access to land or employment opportunities as well as lack of access to affordable building materials and cooking fuels. Lack of government financial and human resources to adequately manage the current and expanding protected area system are the additional drivers. Government budgets are limited, often prioritizing more immediate challenges in disaster relief or health service delivery. Poorly resources staffing is inadequate to effectively manage large, often remote protected areas. Increasingly, global climate change is a main driver Bangladesh’s protected forest areas. Sea level rise and increased salinity is likely changing the habitat structure of the Sundarbans mangrove forest, drawing more salt-tolerant tree species deeper inland. Increased incidence of cyclones and other natural disasters is leading to more significant tree loss and subsequent vegetative change. Change in temperature and rainfall seasonality is likely impacting forest and wetland flora and fauna resources, exacerbating the negative impact of ongoing protected area encroachment and weakening the forest ecosystems to adapt and bounce back. There are a number of secondary drivers associated with the primary drivers threatening protected forest area system which includes lack of awareness, lack of clear tenure for forest dependent communities and various limitations of government to effectively manage a sprawling and often isolated protected forest area system. Management strategies yet addressing secondary drivers without addressing the

In terms of our study area (Satkhira District), it‟s located in south-west coastal region Bangladesh has been experienced extensive river flooding as a result of high coastal sea levels, which has similarly led to a rise in local salinization (BIISS, 2009). As a result, agricultural food production has been reducing at high rate. So, the unemployment rate in want of livelihood options increased. The freshwater as well as the potable water is getting unavailable to mass people. The study area is particularly prone to numerous anthropogenic as well as climate change induced abnormalities: water-logging, rapid sedimentation, river flooding, river bank erosion, salinity ingress, cyclone attack, reduced freshwater flow and so on. The flood protection embankments are subject to occasional „tidal overtopping‟, leading to saline water-logging within embanked areas (CEGIS, 2006). Decreased dry season freshwater flow is leading to increased water shortages resulting increased salinization in the areas (Huq et al., 1996; Ahmed, 2005; CEGIS, 2006). Also such reduced freshwater flow might aggravate the draw-down of shallow aquifer systems, reducing its potential for drinking and irrigation water (Halcrow et al., 2001). In a longer term consequence the above-mentioned impacts of climate change particularly at the Bangladesh‟s south-west coastal zone, the community is already facing socio- economic disasters; the evidence of such impacts is already in field including loss of lives and livelihoods and hardship for the poor, in particular women and children; devastation of human settlements and national infrastructure; and bottlenecks for national development due to frequent diversion of development budget to facilitate post-disaster rehabilitations (CCC, 2009). Ultimately such devastating impacts collapse the economy by imposing risks to both livelihoods and national food security (World Bank, 2000; Asaduzzaman et al., 2005).

Bangladesh is a developing country and its economy depends largely on agriculture but the economic sector is most vulnerable to climate change and variability. This survey study was intended to know the nature of hazards, identify and analyze the adaptation options to climate change in Shyamnagar Upazila in the Satkhira district. Data were collected from the farmers of five selected villages namely Ramjannagar, Padmapukur, Munshiganj, Kashimari, and Koikhali from Shyamnagar Upazila in the Satkhira district during the period of August, 2016 to December, 2016 using open questionnaire process. The sample size was 100 farmers drawn from a population of 650 inhabitans using random sampling technique. Data were processed and analyzed using Excel- 2007 and SPSS-16. The study found that the intensity of salinity has increased and most of the respondents observed that some crops were more damaged than they were in the past and some other hazards (flood, cyclone, rainfall) were posing new threat by changing their nature. About 86%

Belal et al. (2010) studied on developing country i.e. Bangladesh. They found that the level of environmental and climate change disclosures in annual report and website is very low in Bangladesh. Only few companies made disclosures in the specific areas of climate change but interestingly they popularly disclose adaptation measures. The nature of disclosures is mostly positive and descriptive. Luo, Tang & Lan (2013) studied on both developed and developing countries in order to make a comparison between their carbon disclosure patterns. Most of the researchers on the climate change issues, especially on carbon accounting, are based on developed countries (Stechemesser & Guenther, 2012). Developing or less developed countries, as well as the Asian countries got less importance from the researchers (Ahmad & Hossain, 2015). Therefore, Ahmad & Hossain (2015) studied on developing country, i.e. Malaysia. They found that in spite of being voluntary of disclosing climate change and global warming issues in Malaysia, some companies are disclosing some issues related to climate change and global warming and it is still at its introductory stage. The nature and extent of the language of disclosure were mostly ignored in the previous studies. Notably, Belal et al. (2010) selected top 100 companies listed in DSE on the basis of their market capitalization. But in this research, 88 companies listed in DSE of Bangladesh were selected using systematic random sampling. This sample is more representable as companies from all industries have been selected in the sample.

Copyright © 2016 Russell Kabir et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Bangladesh is considered one of the countries most at risk to the effects of climate change and its coastal area is most vulnerable. This study tries to explore the experiences of cyclones Sidr and Aila affected people living in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. This study was conducted in the cyclone Sidr affected Amtali Upazila of Barguna District and in the cyclone Aila affected Koyra Upazila of Khulna District. Primary data collection was done using Focus Group Interview and then a thematic analysis approach was used for analysis. Three core themes emerged from the analysis and they are, firstly, impacts of climate change on the socioeconomic condition of the people, secondly, the impact on the health status of the population, and finally the impact on vulnerable people. Findings show that the effects of climate change have serious consequences on the livelihood patterns of the affected population and on their overall health status. As a result, the unfavorable health condition of these affected people makes them more vulnerable to various emerging diseases.

receive about 71% of its total monsoon rainfall throughout (2001-2004) over Bangladesh [26]. By using TRMM data, the minimum rainfall area was Rajshahi particularly close to Ishurdi per monsoon over South Asia [27]. The reduction of cold days is related to the rise of temperature and it’s conjointly among a reduc- tion of the areas of utmost cool temperatures and increase of the areas of utmost warmth [28]. Detection of trends in long time series of hydrological data is of paramount scientific and practical significance [29]. Climate analysis results are also dependent on the quality of the datasets, above all on its homogeneity [30]. Projected changes are massive that merely counting on ancient ways of extremes estimation would not seem to be prudent. Indeed, the climate change signal is already clearly distinguishable in several variables [31]. Climate models are one amongst the foremost wide used tools for developing projections of climate change within the future [32]. The new sets of climate model output become available for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) which are also known as the CMIP5 (5th Phase Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project) multi-model dataset [33]. Global Climate Models (GCMs) in CMIP5 are better in the sense that they represent more of the relevant climate processes in more detail than CMIP3 models. Moreover, they have a wider range of projections which will be very useful to capture a wide range of model uncertainties as mentioned [34]. The Earth’s surface is divided up into a grid of cells and the fluid equations are discretized for each cell. Other processes are parameterized and included, such as convective motion [35]. This paper will go for the North-Western part of Bangladesh to investigate climate characteristics and comparison between Bang- ladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) data and 5th Phase Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP5) model data for maximum temperature and rainfall during the period 1981 to 2008 and also the detection of trend of future mean temperature during the period 2040 to 2100 by using MPI-ESM-LR (CMIP5) model data. The remaining part of this paper is structured as the fol- lowing: Section 2 gives data and methodology, Section 3 presents the results and discussion, while Section 4 gives the conclusion of the study.

In recent decades, community based adaptation to climate change has gained enormous attention from scientists, policy makers and development professionals. This paper presents community based risk assessment for identification of risk and local adaptation practices as a response to climate change. The south-western coastal region of Bangladesh was selected as the study area and historical change-chronology study was conducted using statistical analyses and studying community perception. The community’s experience suggests risks are shifting both in magnitude and direction with the increasing frequencies of hydro-meteorological events and their irregularities are threatening adaptation capacities as they are affecting the sensitivity and production of the ecosystem of the region. Communities are increasingly depending on non-agricultural activities while the required time to be spent earning livelihoods is increasing. People are migrating from their traditional occupations towards non-agricultural occupations. In such cases, local adaptation practices are almost absent in the region except for the application of more incentives to compensate production losses. Concerned authorities need to understand the nature of community adaptation and perceptions of climate change in coastal Bangladesh if the country wants to stride forward to negotiate climate change. Keywords: Community, Adaptation, Risk, Livelihood

Due to climate change, temperature of the north-central Bangladesh would increase progressively from the baseline (observed mean of the climatic data of 1984 to 2014) to the year 2100 for the IPCC climate change scenarios A2 and B2. The predicted highest increase in temperature is 3.62ºC in B2 and 5.32ºC in A2 scenario in 2100. Precipitation would also increase, except in the months of April to June; the increase would be higher during October to February than in the other months. The predicted climate change would exert enormous effects on crop production in the region. The 5.32ºC increase in temperature would cause yield reduction of wheat, rice and potato by 47.6%, 67.8% and 38.6%, respectively. The increased temperature would reduce LGS of the crops by accelerating their physiological maturity, especially for rice and wheat, with a consequent reduction in seasonal ET of the crops. But, because of dominant yield reduction over the ET reduction, WUE would decrease for both the grain/tuber and biomass yields for wheat and potato, but only for grain yield for rice. The predicted crop yield reduction exposes a potential risk for food security in Bangladesh in the verge of increasing population and diminishing crop lands. Therefore, the results of this study, as well as of similar others, need to be considered as guidelines for a better planning, such as changing the current cropping practices or developing new varieties, to adopt climate change coping mechanisms to safeguard future food security of the country.

Bangladesh is prone to a multitude of natural hazards and vulnerable to the adverse impacts of future change in climatic conditions. One of the most vul- nerable aspects in climate change is the fragile coastal ecosystem in Bangla- desh. Here, different ecosystems are highly exposed to cyclone, sea level rise, coastal flooding, flash flood, intense riverine floods, droughts and other cli- matic extremes. Traditionally, in Bangladesh, climatic variations have pro- vided opportunities (resources) and imposed costs (hazards), depending on how society adapted to the environment. In the drive for modernization, evolving technologies and economic and social structures alter existing sys- tems and make many sectors and groups in the ecosystems (especially Coastal Areas) more vulnerable to significant variations in climate and sea level. In this regard, indigenous knowledge and local coping capacities have become a key to survival of the people of the coastal areas (like Sundarbans Area) of Ban- gladesh. But in recent years, climate change has had a serious impact on the livelihood enterprises and coping capacities. The present paper has been pre- pared based on secondary sources to examine the often intriguing coping strategies of the coastal areas due to the adverse impacts of climate change. This paper hopes to contribute to our broader understanding of the chal- lenges of the local coping strategies that communities have developed in their quest to stabilize increasingly fragile livelihood systems.