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With increasing climate risks, Bangladesh needs to continue investments to strengthen climate resilience in the coastal zones to protect the development gains, says a new World Bank report launched on Monday.
The report, “Bangladesh: Enhancing Coastal Resilience in a Changing Climate” highlights the country’s journey to reducing vulnerability to climate change and recommends further actions towards improving the resilience of its coastal region. It analyses the drivers of risks, how the government has reduced these risks, and offers new perspective and innovative solutions.
Despite vulnerability to climatic risks, Bangladesh has emerged as a global leader in climate change adaptation and is known for proactively investing in resilience. It shows how long-term investments in disaster risk reduction save lives, reduce economic losses, and protect development gains.
However, a rapidly growing population, environmental degradation, and increasing climate risks are putting pressure on the existing natural and infrastructure systems in the coastal zone which is home to about 40 million people. Bangladesh needs to take further immediate actions to improve resilience.
“Coastal resilience is not a static goal to be met, but rather a continuous process of adapting to changing conditions and finding synergies between development objectives,” said World Bank Acting Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan Dandan Chen.
“For the last fifty years, the World Bank has supported Bangladesh to build climate resilience and improve disaster risk management. Today, the country shares valuable experience in improving disaster preparedness and climate resilience and is an inspiration for other climate-vulnerable nations,” he added.
The report finds that further investments in coastal resilience would produce an array of economic, social, and environmental benefits for Bangladesh. It lays out seven key recommendations to strengthen the resilience of the coastal region, including strengthening operation and maintenance of infrastructure; recognising local knowledge; and utilising state-of-art modelling tools.
“Given the significant investment need, we can learn from past interventions and find innovative solutions. This report provides a first-of-its-kind analysis of all large investment projects since the 1960s”, World Bank Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist and co-author of the report Swarna Kazi said.
“A key lesson learned is that there is huge potential in Bangladesh for nature-based solutions or hybrid solutions with a mix of green-grey infrastructure,” World Bank Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist and co-author of the report Ignacio Urrutia added.
This report complements the forthcoming Bangladesh Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR), the World Bank Group’s new diagnostic report that integrates climate change and development considerations.
