In Bangladesh, “workers are not responsible for climate change but we are the ones losing everything because of it”

By Akram Hosen

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Every year, millions of Bangladeshis are adversely affected by unusually frequent extreme weather events like storm surges, intensified cyclones, flash floods, and droughts. Like Hossain, tens of thousands of people find their homes, livelihoods and lives washed away in the floods that submerge large swathes of Bangladesh, or when the riverbanks and coastlines erode. Some move to neighbouring India or to the Gulf countries in search of work, but most become internal migrants, mainly moving to Bangladesh’s congested cities to eke out a living.

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The people of Bangladesh are amongst the least responsible for the emission of earth-warming gases into the atmosphere. “Bangladesh creates less than 1 percent, 0.3 percent to be exact, of CO2 emissions,” says Ainun Nishat, professor emeritus at the Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research at Dhaka’s BRAC University.

Even if Bangladesh reduces its emissions to net zero, the difference will be minuscule in the global context, he says. “What Bangladesh should focus on is saving its people from the adverse impacts of climate change because they will be one of the worst, if not the worst, sufferers.”

For that reason, Chowdhury says that industrialised countries have an obligation to assist Bangladesh with climate mitigation and adaptation measures. “We need funds for research into new technologies. We must employ the displaced people in safe and environment-friendly occupations.”

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