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Bangladesh has been proactive and skilled in climate change adaptation, protection and improvement in environment and biodiversity. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, ranking 7th on the 2021 World Climate Risk Index, but contributing a small share of global emissions. Climate-induced natural disasters infect Bangladesh due to its geographic location, flat, low-lying topography. Disasters like cyclones, storm surges, floods, droughts, cloud-lightning, heat-waves, sea-level rise, salinity intrusion, etc. are being hampered the country’s development activities, blocking progress and human well-being, with missing of human lives and properties almost every year. Over the last decades, Bangladesh has advanced in building adaptive capacity and resilience through formulation and implementation of policies, regulatory frameworks for enabling climate resilient sustainable development.
Bangladesh has also proved its climate success in various fields: (i) Disaster preparedness through Cyclone Preparedness Program with world’s largest gender-balanced volunteers of 76,000 group; (ii) Cyclone and flood shelters, raised high-lands (1950 numbers) can reduce the disasters’ death tolls and damages; (iii) Ashrayan-shelter, the biggest housing project for climate refugees to rehabilitate the vulnerable landless and homeless families; (iv) Advances in agricultural research and innovation in fisheries, aquaculture, and livestock, development of tolerant crop varieties, effective irrigation, resilient food production round-the-year to ensure food security; (v) Integrated water management with early warning system, irrigation, flood and erosion protection schemes, enabled climate resilience environment; (vi) Coastal afforestation programs have been undertaken to stabilize the coastline green-belt to protect cyclones and storm-surges; (vii) The BCCTF has been undertaken sector-wise projects focusing on effective climate adaptation and mitigation; and (viii) Bangladesh government presently spends approximately 7% of its annual budget to enhance climate resilience.
The number of domestic climate migrants may reach 20 million by 2050, comprising half of the total South Asian region. The current rate of annual loss to GDP is 1.3% due to climate-induced disasters, and may rise to 2% by 2050 and over 9% by 2100 under extreme scenarios. In 2010, the COP16-UNFCCC emphasized enhanced actions through the Cancun Framework to reinforce adaptation. The Paris Agreement in 2015, COP21, reinforces adaptation planning as integral to the global response to climate change, and calls for climate actions. The NAP includes all planning sectors (SDGs, Vision) with cross-cutting national issues, as part of national aspirations.
Adaptation Scope
The National Adaptation Plan (NAP) will bring necessary capacity-building initiatives, socially inclusive and responsive to gender dimensions, and persons with disabilities. The process will adopt a monitoring and evaluation framework based on a combination of simple and monitoring approaches to assess outcomes. Remarkable advances have been possible through the proper management of climate impacts, subsequent losses and damages under the strong legacy of adaptation.
An appraisal of the cost of the NAP interventions, including high and moderate-priority, defined a total investment of BDT 20,037 billion (US$ 230 billion) for the next 27 years (2023-50), an implementation period that runs until the 13th Five Year Planning Cycle. The NAP proposes to mobilize 72.5% investment cost by 2040. Developing climate resilience will require 7 times the current spending to transform adaptation at a rate of USD 8.5 billion per year, with US$ 6.0 billion per year from external sources-development partners. Private sector investment potential is estimated to be 5.1% of the total investment at an annual rate of US$ 0.42 billion.
Bangladesh suffered US$ 11.3 billion losses in 2021 due to natural disasters which is roughly 2.47% of total GDP (FY2021-22). Despite the efforts to climate adaptation, it is projected to be more extreme and uncertain, even with the combined effects of climate change loss from 1.1% of GDP per year in a moderate climate to 2% per year in extreme climates. The current drive towards planning and implementation is more focused on medium and long-term adaptation strategies for governance and financing. This would ensure efforts to reduce climate risks and vulnerabilities, increase resilience and minimize uncertain-risks, and would reduce losses and damages.
Achievements in Climate Resilience
As a global pioneer in climate adaptation, Bangladesh has advanced substantially in building adaptive-capacity and resilience, coping with various climate impacts across the sectors-levels. Over the last-seven years, the climate-relevant budgetary allocation has doubled, increasing from USD 1.44 billion (2015-2016) to USD 2.96 billion, which is 0.73% of GDP (2021-2022).
Landmark Initiatives and Success Stories
(i) Policy Response at National Level: Bangladesh has made commendable efforts in creating required policies and regulatory frameworks for enabling climate resilient sustainable development, covering the way for effective adaptation and to boost Bangladesh as a model in the global climate arena. Landmark achievements with various policies, plans, and programs, e.g. National Adaptation Program of Action-2005 (updated-2009); Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan-2009; Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Act-2010; Bangladesh Climate Change Gender Action Plan-2013; National Environment Policy-2018; Climate Framework-2014 (updated-2020); National Adaptation Plan-2015 (updated-2021); Bangladesh Delta Plan-2100 (2021); Standing Order on Disasters-2019; National Disaster Management Plan (2021-2025); Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan-2030 (2021).
(ii) Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan-2030: Mobilizing financing, implementing renewable energy, climate resilience initiatives, contributing to adaptation and mitigation.
(iii) Bangladesh Delta Plan-2100: Gradual, sustainable development through adaptive management approach, identifies climate change as a future challenge, reduces GHG emissions, adaptation initiatives for the following decades, and enhances climate-resilience in the deltaic region.
(iv) Food Security: Maintain food system climate-resilient, ensuring food and nutrition security, identifies: saline-tolerant, submergence tolerant, less water intensive, cold-tolerant, heat-tolerant high yielding varieties, multiple crops, year-round farming, instead single season, floating cultivation, adapting water saving technologies in drought-prone areas, harvesting rainwater in canals/reservoirs for irrigation, improve waterlogging, increase fisheries-livestock production.
(v) Integrated Water Resources Management: Conduct integrated water resources management with regulatory-planning tools, building 5,816 km coastal embankment, 139 polders, 2,728 km submersible embankment in haors, 7,984 km flood-protection embankment, helped the country’s ecosystem-biodiversity, protect from erosion, increase navigation, land-reclamation.
(vi) Disaster Risk Reduction: Bangladesh has made the model-success in disaster preparedness and climate resilience, with strong ICT-based warning system, having CPP volunteers (76,020, 50% women), 46,000 urban volunteers, 4,530 cyclone shelters with 340 flood shelters, 550 high raised-land (Mujib Killas) provide shelters vulnerable people-livestock in coastal regions. Also 18 community radio (FM) works for awareness building to coastal people-fishermen, planted 5.4 million Palm trees to reduce death risk from lightning, emergency evacuation, dedicated to disaster risk reduction, reduced mortality rate compared to 1970, 1991 disasters.
(vii) Ashrayan-Climate Resilient Shelter: Designed houses for vulnerable displaced people, to rehabilitate climate refugees (538,140 families rehabilitated). Additional focus on tree plantation, rain water harvesting, solar-power.
(viii) Climate Resilient Infrastructures, Public Health and Urban Cities: Constructed 4,407 km urban drainage, 48 slum development, 378 km water supply pipeline, 719 water resources, 6569 km length tree plantation, 16,845 km bridges/culverts, research for climate resilient, improve public health and cities.
(ix) Afforestation-Greenbelt Development: Developed capacity of forestry sector, adaptation and mitigation co-benefits, strategy for reducing emissions, tree coverage increased 22% from 7%, 25% by 2030 restore degraded forest, bring accreted coastal lands, stabilize coastline and create green-belt, provides ecological and biodiversity balance, protects inland habitats, acts disasters barrier, alleviates environmental degradation, breeding for wildlife and fisheries.
(x) National Climate Finance Mechanism‐BCCTF: Bangladesh established BCCTF with its own resources, undertaken about 800 projects, invested around US$ 480 million to implement strategic actions focusing on adaptation, mitigation and climate change, conducts research, construction of embankments, excavation of canals, water-rainwater reservoirs, schools-cum-cyclone shelters, water supply systems, ponds, climate-resilient houses, floating-vegetables bed, tree plantation-afforestation, solar-plants, solar-irrigation, biogas-plants, distribution of tolerant-seeds, contributing to both mitigation and adaptation.
(xi) Regional Adaptation Center: Global Commission on Adaptation established a Regional Center for South Asia in Bangladesh at Department of Environment on 8 September 2020, to exchange knowledge, experience, and best-adaptive practices among South Asian countries to accelerate climate adaptation.
NAP Foundation
COP16 (2010) enhanced action on adaptation, establishing the National Adaptation Plan, and Green Climate Fund. In 2015, Bangladesh published a roadmap for developing NAP, respond-to global climate change. NAP accelerates the adaptation-steps, supports for implementing medium and long-term adaptation plans with financial resources, to tackle uncertain future. Bangladesh follows COP26’s (2021) 'Adaptation Communication' to monitor and evaluate progress towards set adaptation goals.
NAP Vision
Building a climate‐resilient nation through effective adaptation strategies to foster a robust society and ecosystems and stimulate sustainable economic-growth, underlying aims to reduce risk and vulnerability due to the adverse impacts of climate change, to help fulfil Bangladesh’s aspiration to become a climate-resilient nation, to promote sustainable nature-based solutions that balance economic-growth and environmental sustainability, a means of ecosystem-based adaptation.
The NAP sets 6 goals to achieve its vision:
Goal-1 - Ensure Protection against Climate Change Variability and Induced Natural Disasters:
NAP aims at enhancing overall climate resilience through effective adaptation measures that minimize losses and damages from natural disasters (e.g. temperature rise, rainfall variability, sea- level rise, frequent cyclones, river floods, flash floods, urban floods, heat stress, cold snaps, lightning, droughts, storm surges and salinity intrusions, etc.) and support natural resources management, strong economic-growth, resilient ecosystems and sustainable livelihoods.
Goal-2 - Develop Climate‐Resilient Agriculture for Food, Nutrition and Livelihood Security:
The goal aims to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities in agriculture by incorporating climate-resilient and smart efficient agriculture in efforts to protect food, nutrition and livelihood security, achieved through a sustainable value chain for agro-inputs.
Goal-3 - Develop Climate‐Smart Cities for Improved Urban Environment and Well‐Being:
The goal aims to develop climate-smart cities reinforced with robust drainage networks, water management infrastructure; expand green infrastructure, effective solid waste and renewable energy mechanisms; improve human-health and WASH (water-sanitation and hygiene health), while conserving the urban environment, managing climate-induced disasters (urban waterlogging, tidal-inundation, storm-surge impacts, etc.).
Goal-4 - Promote Nature‐Based Solutions for Conservation of Forestry, Biodiversity, and Well‐Being of Communities:
The goal aims to apply nature-based solutions, ecosystems-based adaptation to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural ecosystems, address climate challenges effectively, provide human well-being and biodiversity benefits, reduce the vulnerabilities, develop climate-resilient forestry, wetland and biodiversity and capacity development at community level.
Goal-5 - Impart Good Governance Through Adaptation-Integration in the Planning Process:
The goal aims to integrate inclusive climate adaptation planning through appropriate institutional arrangements, to robust governance, enabling environment for implementing adaptation actions, good governance, and institutional capacity of government machineries, private sectors, NGOs, to use climate finance with greater accountability, responsiveness, transparency, safeguarding vulnerable communities, ecosystems, to overcome the challenges and conflicts.
Goal-6 - Ensure Transformative Capacity‐Building and Innovation for Climate Adaptation:
The goal aims to instigate transformative capacity development at individual, institutional, system levels with better abilities, skills, understanding a holistic, inclusive, feasible and sustainable way, to include awareness-raising, training, individual skill-development, research, knowledge management and communication adaptation, focusing capacity-gaps and applying innovation.
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NAP Implementation Strategies: The Actions and Outcomes: |
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Goal |
Actions |
Outcomes |
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G-1 |
1. Combat cyclone, surges, sea-level rise, and salinity intrusion.
2. Manage floods, erosion, and drought.
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1. Increased adaptive capacity, reduce risks-vulnerabilities, protect disasters in coastal, floodplain, and drought areas.
2. Protect life, livelihoods, and ecosystems.
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G-2 |
1. Promote climate-smart agriculture.
2. Develop climate-resilient fisheries, aquaculture, and livestock.
3. Manage sustainable agro-inputs, transform value chains.
4. Strengthen services for agriculture, fisheries, and livestock. |
1. Increased agriculture productivity, resilience, reduced emissions.
2. Enhanced resilience in aquaculture, fisheries, and livestock.
3. Quality inputs for agriculture, fisheries and livestock, and transform value-chains.
4. Improve services to agriculture, fisheries, and livestock.
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G-3 |
1. Promote green, blue infrastructure for urban environment, conservation.
2. Develop climate-smart cities, increase urban resilience.
3. Develop climate-resilient health care, WASH-facilities, improve human well-being.
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1. Improve-resilient urban environment, infrastructure.
2. Enhanced urban resilience, improve living standard.
3. Improve human-health, livability, and well-being.
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G-4 |
1. Scale-up ecosystem adaptation, wetlands conservation.
2. Restore, conserve habitat, ecosystems, biodiversity.
3. Expand community afforestation.
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1. Increase use of nature-based solutions, conserve of biodiversity.
2. Practice of ecosystem-based adaptation, reducing climate-risks.
3. Forest coverage, mangroves and biodiversity
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G-5 |
1. Reform policies, mainstreaming adaptation.
2. Framework for adaptation, monitoring, evaluation, learning.
3. Engage private sector.
4. Empower local government, gender focus, with disabilities, climate financing.
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1. New-updated policies, plans, regulations, institutions develop, or reform.
2. Effective and robust M&E, reporting system.
3. Private sector-led adaptation.
4. Decentralized management.
5. Increase gender, disability, inclusive adaptation. |
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G-6 |
1. Develop transformative capacities, knowledge management.
2. Introduce innovation in reducing disaster risks, losses-damages.
3. Research, innovation for agriculture, fisheries, livestock, ecosystem-based adaptation.
4. climate-resilient infrastructure, improve WASH technologies.
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1. A paradigm-shift in capacity development, behavioral change.
2. Sustainable adaptation knowledge management.
3. Capacity development at individual, institutional, process levels, innovative technologies, planning, loss-damage mitigation.
4. Development of tools and methodologies, improve research, services to agriculture, fisheries, livestock, knowledge generate, guidelines for climate-resilient, adaptive rural-urban WASH infrastructure.
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BD NAP-2022 (modified by Monowar-2023) |
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NAP Working Sectors
The initial NAP concept was on: emphasizing water resources; agriculture, food and livelihood security; coastal and drought zones; and urban areas as the priority-sectors for adaptation, focusing with other critical cross-cutting issues, e.g. women and gender equality, youth, persons with disabilities, the private sector, infrastructure, WASH and health, to identify appropriate strategies, alignment with national aspirations.
These sectors and subsectors have been further streamlined, cross-matched and blended to arrive at eight (8) distinct sectors and thematic issues. These 8 sectors are: (1) Water resources; (2) Disaster, social safety and security; (3) Agriculture; (4) Fisheries, aquaculture and livestock; (5) Urban areas; (6) Ecosystems, wetlands and biodiversity; (7) Policies and institutions; and (8) Capacity development, research and innovation.
Conclusions
The changing climate phenomena are hindering Bangladesh's economy and its sustainable development initiatives. The future will be more uncertain and extreme. Tackling such uncertain effects would bring hardship for the country, and threats to its development goals. The coordinated initiatives can be ensured through effective climate adaptation practices, backed by enhanced climate finance from promised donor’s support.
With an underlying objective of reducing risks and vulnerabilities to climate change impacts, the NAP follows the NAPA and the BCCSAP, aiming to streamline further adaptation efforts, foresees building a climate-resilient nation through effective adaptation strategies that foster a robust society and ecosystems to stimulate sustainable economic-growth. The NAP will develop climate-resilient agriculture, infrastructure and other socio-economic sectors through implementing inclusive and ecosystem-based adaptation, improved governance, enhanced climate-finance, transformative capacity-building and innovation.
The NAP will be considered a living document with a planning-horizon until 2050, with at least a five-year revision cycle aligned with Bangladesh’s five-year development planning process. Prioritization of finance to facilitate extensive research, capacity development, adapting advanced technologies and innovation is recommended. Successful implementation of the NAP will complement achieving the SDGs by 2030, and the national development vision, becoming a high-income country by 2041.
(Sources: Bangladesh NAP-2022, Bangladesh NDC-2021, Climate Adaptation Gap-UNEP-2022)
AKM Monowar Hossain Akhand, Former Additional Secretary, BERC, & Ministry of Public Administration.
