OUR RESEARCH

Climate Change

I. International Planning Workshop on:

• Conceptualizing Effective and Efficient Adaptation Policies to Climate Change in Bangladesh
  Building on current climate change research and recognizing the excellent work that has been undertaken in this regards, four research organizations [the BCAS, the BDRC, the IIED, and the Millennium Institute (MI) ] had agreed to jointly organize an International Planning Workshop to draw up a research program for conceptualizing effective and efficient adaptation policies to climate change in Bangladesh. Thanks to the generous support by the Rockefeller Foundation, this three-day workshop was held at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study and Conference Center from May 20-22, 2008.

For further details about the workshop, please see:

• Workshop Proceedings (as of June 18, 2008)   

• Workshop Summary (as of May 10, 2008)

• Workshop Details (as of May 10, 2008)

• Workshop Agenda (final)

Presentations made on Day 1:

• Climate Change in the Context of Global and Local Policies and Governance

     Shireen Kamal Sayeed, Assistant Country Director, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bangladesh
 

• Current Climate Change Adaptation Research in Bangladesh

     Mozaharul Alam, Research Fellow, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS)
 

• The Bangladesh Climate Change Literature: Lessons & Gaps

     Bernhard G. Gunter, President, Bangladesh Development Research Center (BDRC)
 

• Bangladesh, Climate Change, and T21

     John D. Shilling, Chairman, Board of Trustees, MI

II. How Vulnerable are Bangladesh’s Indigenous People to Climate Change?
 

• Abstract: This paper compares the vulnerabilities to climate change and climate variability of the indigenous people
  with the Bengali population of Bangladesh. It distinguishes between (a) individual vulnerabilities that are related to
  an individual’s capability to adapt to climate change and; (b) spatial vulnerabilities, that is, vulnerabilities that are
  related to the location of a person (like the exposure to climate change-induced disasters). While an individual’s
  capability to adapt to climate change is determined by many factors, some relatively simple approximation is to look
  at poverty, landlessness, and illiteracy. Spatial vulnerabilities are reviewed by looking at drought hazard maps, flood
  hazard maps, landslide hazard maps, and cyclone hazard maps. Hence, the paper compares levels of poverty,
  landlessness, illiteracy, and the more direct though also more subjective exposures to increased droughts, floods,
  landslides, and cyclones across the two population groups. The paper concludes with suggestions for adaptation
  strategies of indigenous people as well as suggestions for policy interventions to reduce climate change-induced
  vulnerabilities for indigenous people.
  
  Revised Paper available at:
  i)        Bangladesh Development Research Working Paper Series
  ii)       Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
  iii)      RePEc (Research Papers in Economics)    

III. The Impact of Development and Growth on CO2 Emissions:

A Case Study for Bangladesh until 2050
A new study by Bernhard G. Gunter and A. Atiq Rahman uses the example of Bangladesh to illustrate the impact of
low-income countries’ economic growth on global CO2 emissions in 2050 by using a set of alternative assumptions
for GDP growth and improvements in energy efficiency. The study was presented at the 5th bi-annual conference of
the United States Society for Ecological Economics (USSEE) in Washington, DC, on June 1, 2009.

Please click here to see the presentation (pdf).  
Please click here for the paper (pdf).

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IV. Bangladesh and the Copenhagen Accord:

How Much Carbon Dioxide Might Bangladesh Emit in 2050?
This study, published in Environmental Economics. Vol. 3, No. 1 (2012) builds on previous research by Bernhard G.
Gunter (American University and BDRC) and A. Atiq Rahman (BCAS). Using a projection period until 2050, it shows
that Bangladesh’s emission would surpass a simple equity-based per capita emission limit consistent with the
Copenhagen Accord if there are no changes in Bangladesh’s carbon intensity and no gains in its energy efficiency,
but that Bangladesh would stay below such a limit with some feasible improvements in energy efficiency.
This paper is freely available at: the website of Environmental Economics (pdf).

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 V. Climate Change and Bangladesh - Annotated Bibliography  

Last time updated on January 5, 2010.

Previous versions published on:

• May 19, 2009

• January 15, 2009

• November 27, 2008

• October 27, 2008

Jointly with Bangladesh’s Climate Change Cell, the BDRC provides a comprehensive

Climate Change and Bangladesh - Annotated Bibliography (pdf) 

which contains information on 406 publications addressing climate change in Bangladesh.

This publication also contains the names of and links to some 70 website resources, structured into four sections:  
(a) main international organizations working on climate change; (b) research centers/institutes that focus on climate
change; (c) websites of networks and/or websites with specific tools, projects, etc.; and (d) climate change related
newsletters specifically on Bangladesh. Please note that this publication is provided only electronically as: (i) it
contains more than 300 hyperlinks/website addresses which provide readers further information, (ii) the electronic
version allows readers to search the contents, and (iii) it is planned to be updated frequently.

VI. Other Information on Climate Change
 

1. Key Action-Related Documents:

• National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) (of November 2005) (pdf)

• Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2008 (of September 2008) (pdf)

• Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2009 (of September 2009) (pdf)

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2. Other climate change conference websites (in reverse chronological order):   

COP15 - United Nations Climate Change Conference
Copenhagen, Denmark (November 30 - December 11, 2009)

World Climate Conference-3
Geneva, Switzerland (August 31 - September 4, 2009)

3rd International Conference on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change (pdf)
Dhaka, Bangladesh (February 22-26, 2009)

A presentation on “The Case of the Ganges Brahmaputra Delta” was held on February 11, 2009
at the Second World Forum on Delta & Coastal Development (Aquaterra 2009) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. For
further information, please see: http://www.aquaterraforum.com/aquaterra2009/e/exp_overig152

Climate Change and Urban Poverty - Infrastructures of Development
Dhaka: BRAC Centre Auditorium (28. January 2009)

United Nations Climate Change Conference
Poznań, Poland (December 1-12, 2008)

International Symposium on Climate Change and Food Security in South Asia
Dhaka, Bangladesh (August 25-29, 2008)

OneWorld South Asia’s Seventh Annual Regional Meeting on the theme “Climate Justice
for Realisation of the MDGs: Southern Perspectives and Voices”
New Delhi, India (February 8-9, 2008)


3. Other interesting website resources:

OneWorld Climate Change in Bangladesh Briefing
This briefing paper summarizes the key issues related to effects, adaptation, finance, and electricity access.
It also includes various videos. Last updated by OneWorld in March 2011.  

Kazipur, Sirajganj, Bangladesh [by Doreen Marie Indra and Norman Buchignani; undated]
An anthropological and photographic exploration of riverbank erosion and flood in rural Bangladesh

Bangladesh—Eco Symbol? [by Sebastian Strangio; May 28, 2010]
Often derided as a basket case, Bangladesh might just have a thing or two to show the world about tackling climate
change.

Bangladesh’s Solar Powered Floating Schools [BDRC Task; June 20,  2011]
Some resources related to Bangladesh’s innovative way to adapt to climate change with solar powered floating
schools.

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