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Editorial

Key climate change indicators break records

Extend necessary support to vulnerable countries


Bangladeshpost
Published : 20 May 2022 08:16 PM

Four key climate change indicators – greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification – set new records in 2021. This is yet another clear sign that human activities are causing planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean, and in the atmosphere, with harmful and long-lasting ramifications for sustainable development and ecosystems, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

It is startling to note that global climate change may displace an estimated 20 million people of Bangladesh as 17 percent of coastal areas of the country may be submerged due to a gradual rise in seawater.

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change in the world. Human settlements have been affected in Bangladesh due to extreme climate events over past years. One of the most adverse and prolonged impact of climate change in Bangladesh has been observed in the form of climate migration. Hence, we should realise the need for formulating coherent and research-backed policy, legal and institutional framework to address climate migration. We need to devise immediate measurers to protect people from environmental risks and stop unwanted migration due to climate change. We need to devise immediate measurers to protect people from environmental risks and stop unwanted migration due to climate change.  

The world must act to prevent ever 

worsening climate impacts and to keep 

temperature increase to below 1.5°C above 

pre-industrial levels

Extreme weather – the day-to-day “face” of climate change – led to hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses and wreaked a heavy toll on human lives and well-being and triggered shocks for food and water security and displacement that have accentuated in 2022. The past seven years have been the warmest seven years on record. The world must act to prevent ever worsening climate impacts and to keep temperature increase to below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The world is now going through a situation where the most vulnerable countries, which deserve the highest level of priority, are failing to access support that is being realised. Major emitters show extreme reluctance on mitigation, which may wreck the international climate regime and put the climate vulnerable countries like Bangladesh at peril.

As developed countries are accountable for the severe consequences of climate change, they must provide with necessary financial, technological and intellectual support to the developing countries following the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change. Moreover, developing countries like Bangladesh need a global commitment to face climate challenges.