Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) Patrick Verkooijen has said investing in climate adaptation is not just the right thing to do; it is also the economically smart thing to do.
“Every dollar invested in climate adaptation brings a much higher return on investment,” he said in an interview with UNB noting that Bangladesh is on the frontline of their climate emergency.
Patrick said addressing climate change is a national priority for the country, and Bangladesh is recognised internationally for its cutting-edge achievements in addressing climate change.
The activities of the Global Hub on Locally Led Adaptation (LLA) were launched on December 11 in Dhaka by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in an event reinforcing the government of Bangladesh’s global leadership on LLA.
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A right approach for climate adaptation will save lives, reduce inequality, and create opportunities.
GCA’s research has shown that a dollar invested in weather and climate information services gives between 4 and 25 dollars in benefits.
One dollar invested in resilient water and sanitation not only saves lives; it creates between 2 and 12 dollars in economic benefits.
Patrick said, “We are here to learn. When it comes to adaptation, our best teachers are often those who are on the frontlines of climate change. And few countries have more to teach us than Bangladesh,” he said, adding that there is a lot other countries can learn from Bangladesh’s approach.
He said Bangladesh is a “striking example” of how poor communities can be the most innovative in adapting to climate change. “We hope the valuable lessons it has learnt will help the rest of the world adapt to our new climate reality.”
“But while Bangladesh has much to teach, we know Bangladesh is keen to learn from the experience of other countries facing similar challenges,” Patrick said, adding that they are grateful to the United Kingdom whose support has made the Global Hub a reality.
He said rising seas, floods, and intensifying cyclones are just a few of the impacts that make Bangladesh one of the most climate change-vulnerable countries in the world.
Average tropical cyclones cost Bangladesh about $1 billion annually. From 2000 to 2019, Bangladesh suffered economic losses worth $3.72 billion and witnessed 185 extreme weather events due to climate change.
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By 2050, Dr Patrik said, a third of agricultural GDP could be lost and 13 million people could become internal climate migrants. In case of a severe flooding, like we have just seen in Pakistan, GDP could fall by as much as 9 percent.
Asked why locally led adaptation is so important, Patrick said, “The reason LLA is so important is that you can’t make top-down national plans without investing in enabling bottom-up inputs from the vulnerable communities so that the plans are implemented without failure.”
Bangladesh already has a long history of planning for adaptation to climate change and incorporating those plans into national development programmes such as the Bangladesh National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan (MCPP), both of which emphasise investment in Locally Led Adaptation (LLA) as a way to achieve transformational adaptation over the next decade.
“So, there needs to be a paradigm shift: instead of looking at the vulnerable communities as mere targets or beneficiaries of support from the top, we need to take them as the agents of change themselves who know best what needs to be done, and those who wish to support them must listen to them first,” he said.
Asked why Bangladesh is chosen to establish the global hub on locally led adaptation,Patrick said two years ago at the launch of the GCA South Asia office, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked for local knowledge and innovations from Bangladesh, and from other countries in the region, to be shared with the rest of the world.
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“There was no question in my mind that the Global Hub had to be in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has long been a global leader in Locally Led Adaptation. Rather than accept its destiny – geographical or otherwise, Bangladesh has been at the forefront of preparing for the onslaughts that global warming would surely bring,” he said.
Bangladesh was also one of the first countries in the world to set up a national fund – the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) – resourced from national budgetary sources to fund activities on the ground.
The Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan now includes a further commitment to invest in LLA through an LLA funding window in the BCCTF, with preferential access for women, youth, disabled persons, and displaced people.
“It also includes a commitment to create national Mujib LLA Hubs as a repository of information on communities, and a forum for discussion and consultation. Both these commitments will contribute to building a locally-grounded foundation for the GCA Global Hub,” Dr Patrik said.
Patrick mentioned that with the combined expertise and financial resources of the Global Hub, they can urgently and cost-effectively find ways to help and support those local communities most disrupted by climate change. “We can help them adapt, survive and thrive.”
About the long-term plans for this Global Hub on LLA, Patrick said the GCA Global Hub on LLA will have a deliberate focus on the local level, targeting the adaptation-related knowledge and information needs of local communities, governments, practitioners, and other grassroots organisations and champions.
It will then expand outwards to encompass the LLA-specific needs of other actors that play a critical role in enabling and empowering LLA, he said.
In the first phase of its activities between 2022-2025, Patrick said, the Global Hub on Locally Led Adaptation will focus its work on accelerating locally led adaptation across Africa and Asia.