Bangladesh has been severely impacted by record-breaking heat waves and cyclones because of extreme weather triggered by climate change, forcing school closures, withering crops, and worsening conditions for the displaced Rohingya people.
The extreme weather events since COP28 have caused more than $41 billion in global damage. The Christian Aid published the report amid the 60th Bonn climate talks, highlighting extreme weather events scientifically linked to climate change since COP28.
The 60th Bonn Climate Conference [June 3-13] aims to operationalise the Loss and Damage Fund. As the second week of the conference begins, negotiators are working to unblock financial flows to lower-income countries hit by extreme weather, reads a press release.
Bangladesh has been hit hard by Cyclone Remal, a devastating storm that killed multiple people and destroyed or damaged over 150,000 homes. This disaster is part of an on-going series of extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change.
Nushrat Chowdhury, climate justice advisor at Christian Aid in Bangladesh, expressed her concerns saying, “This is the kind of climate chaos we’ve been experiencing this year, and I worry it will only get worse until the world begins to cut its carbon emissions.
“The people of Bangladesh are not responsible for this disaster, yet they are faced with huge losses. That is why it is so important the Loss and Damage Fund gets proper funding so that people can receive support to rebuild their lives and livelihoods after such awful cyclones.”
In April, Bangladesh experienced temperatures over 40°C for 24 days, shattering a 76-year record. The heat wave caused significant agricultural damage, with crops such as chillies, pulses, sunflowers, almonds, and rice suffering greatly.
Rohingya refugees, living in tarpaulin structures, faced temperatures of 42°C, the hottest in 35 years in the area. The heat wave has resulted in the deaths of twenty-eight people in Bangladesh.
Global scenario
According to scientific studies, this extreme heat, which has claimed numerous lives across Asia, would have been impossible without human-induced climate change.
Highlighting four events including floods in Brazil, Southwest Asia, and East Africa, and heat waves across large parts of Asia have killed over 2,500 people, and caused immense economic damage.
The UN estimates that $290-$580 billion will be needed for loss and damage annually from 2030 onwards, yet only $600 million has been delivered so far.
At the last COP held in Dubai, countries agreed to take action on the climate crisis, but implementation remains slow despite the worsening effects of climate change. The countries most vulnerable to climate change cannot afford further delays in delivering COP pledges.
Mariana Paoli, Christian Aid’s global advocacy lead, emphasised the need for immediate action.
She said, “We need rich countries that are largely responsible for causing the climate crisis to massively scale up funding for action on climate change. They need to show real creativity and political will, and tax polluters and the super-rich in order to finance real climate action.”
The $41 billion in damage is an underestimate according to the charity. The human cost of disasters is also missed in these figures, from those who lost their lives to those whose homes are destroyed, or who lose out on work or education.
Davide Faranda, a researcher at the Institute Pierre-Simon Laplace in Paris, highlighted the urgency saying, "In 2024, global warming caused by human-caused carbon emissions has reached the 1.5°C temperature threshold identified in the Paris Agreement.
“This planetary fever is causing widespread heat waves, droughts, cyclones, and floods which can be directly attributed to human greenhouse gas emissions and that are causing enormous human and economic damages.”
Fiona Nunan, professor of Environment and Development at the University of Birmingham, said, “This year we have seen communities across the world struck by cyclones, inundated with flooding, and baked by terrible heat waves.
“The economic and social harm they have caused is clearly huge. This extreme weather is to be expected unless the world takes urgent action on rising greenhouse gas emissions.”
