Bangladesh's economy could achieve 10-per cent GDP growth if it has not been impacted by climate change, foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said on Monday.
Bangladesh suffers a loss of 2.0 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) every year due to this adverse impact of the changing climate, he adds.
"In addition, we spent nearly 5.0-billion extra dollars each year on fighting the challenges of climate change," Dr Momen says while addressing a dialogue on 'Human mobility in the context of climate change'.
Foreign ministry and the International Organi-sation of Migration (IOM) co-hosted the event.
Despite being one of the world's lowest carbon emitters, Bangladesh becomes one of the most sufferers, he says, urging the international community to take immediate measures to address the problems.
Currently, nearly 650,000 people of Bangladesh are uprooted from their homes each year due to river erosion, cyclone, flood, drought and salinity.
Listing repercussions of climate impacts, Dr Momen says climate-induced forced migration will create global security problem and spending billions of dollars on defence be useless in the near future.
Such migration can pose a serious security challenge with spillover effects beyond borders, he adds.
The minister urges the world community to spend 10 per cent of the $2300-billion global defence expenditure to combat the adverse impacts of climate change.
He says Bangladesh will continue to play a pioneering role in sensitising people to climate impacts and help the world understand the scope, human mobility and adaptive mechanism in the face of climate change.
"We shall continue to remain active within different models for disaster displacement, the dynamics of cross-border displacement due to climate change," he adds.
"Bangladesh believes that the plight of millions of climate induced must be placed at the centre of both migration and climate change discourses, including in a gender responsive and child sensitive manner."
Lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury says, "Bangladesh parliament has adopted a resolution on a planetary emergency where we have defined climate change as an existential threat."
IOM deputy director general Ugochi Daniels says it is unsurprising to learn that the populations in some parts of the coastal bounds of Bangladesh are declining due to climate-related migration. Rapid urbanisation, fuelled by social mobility patterns, is creating additional pressures on urban infrastructure and service delivery.
In the coming years, Ms Daniels observes, climate change may disrupt many things, landscapes, weather-dependent livelihoods, disease prevalence and epidemic, urbanisation and also regular practice of mobility.
She stresses the need for ensuring that migrants' access to basic services and dignified living conditions are armed with skills that allow them to be engaged in productive opportunities.
"Climate-related mobility is everybody's business and climate-related displacement and migration have been referenced extensively throughout the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework in Bangladesh…," Ms Daniels says.
The adverse effects of climate and environmental degradation are increasingly driving migration and displacement, particularly in countries with high vulnerability and exposure, and low adaptive capacity.
"In this context, climate change will hit harder and hit those already in a dire situation. This will have a devastating and proportionate toll on women and girls who have less access to sustainable income and may find themselves at higher risk of exploitation as a result."
Foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen and UN resident coordinator Gwyn Lewis also spoke.
