Publication

The overarching aim of this paper is to examine the challenges of addressing loss and damage through national institutional arrangements that integrate disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) in Bangladesh. As DRR and CCA share many aims and methodologies, greater synthesis and coordination between these two fields will help to eliminate redundancy, increase costeffectiveness and leverage the respective advantages of each.

 

"…climate change will bring a range of impacts that affected populations will not be able to adapt to…"

 

This will be increasingly important in the years ahead, as climate change will bring a range of impacts that affected populations will not be able to adapt to. Therefore, a policy and institutional framework that takes an integrated approach to facilitating adaptation (where possible) and addressing loss and damage (where unavoidable) by combining the theory and practice of DRR and CCA will likely help reduce loss and damage and build climate resilient communities. To this end, this paper analyses DRR and CCA policies, strategies, institutions and approaches and identifies areas where greater synergy may be achieved for addressing loss and damage in the national context of Bangladesh.

 

At the global level, responsibilities on DRR and CCA have been established under the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), respectively. Developed in 2005, the HFA was the first plan that emerged at the international level, which explained, in detail, steps that needed to be taken by different actors and sectors to effectively reduce disaster-related losses (UNISDR, 2013). While the UNFCCC was originally developed in 1992 to prevent “dangerous” anthropologic interference with the climate system” (UN, 1992, Article 2), it has since expanded in scope and now includes CCA as a major area of focus. Given that the HFA and the UNFCCC have developed distinct institutions for dealing with DRR and CCA, respectively, at the global level, it will be a challenge to develop institutional arrangements at the local and national levels to address loss and damage from climate change impacts and link to these international institutions.

 

Over the years, Bangladesh has made significant progress on both DRR and CCA efforts, developing extensive experience on DRR and post-disaster response and creating national strategies and action plans to address climate change. Bangladesh has a comprehensive range of tools on DRR, both at the national and local levels. At the national level, the National Plan for Disaster Management 2010, the Standing Order on Disasters and the National Plan for Disaster Management are among current policies and plans to address disaster risk reduction. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund and the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund are the main strategies to address CCA at the national level. Progress on each front is encouraging in its own right, but with respect to facilitating greater collaboration and cooperation between these two areas – administered by the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), respectively – these legislative and bureaucratic “silos” may prove to be a hindrance. 

 

Despite clear challenges, stakeholders from both the DRR and CCA communities have emphasised the importance of linking DRR and CCA to develop a comprehensive approach to address loss and damage. As a country experiencing loss and damage from a wide range of climate impacts – from extreme events to slow onset processes – Bangladesh is beginning to grapple with the challenges of linking DRR and CCA in a new framework to address loss and damage. This paper will provide a road map for future work towards bridging this divide.

 

In order to effectively address loss and damage, this paper recommends that the following steps be undertaken:

 

1. Develop a comprehensive policy on the integration of DRR and CCA to address loss and damage from the impacts of both extreme events and slow onset processes;

 

2. Establish a policy body under the Ministry of Planning (MoP) and technical bodies at both the MoEF and the MoDMR, to serve as knowledge hubs and to provide expertise in DRR and CCA respectively to the loss and damage policy wing of the MoP;

 

3. Integrate DRR and CCA in a multi-level institutional framework to address loss and damage from both extreme events and slow onset processes under a common mechanism;

 

4. Strengthen and enhance the capacity for mainstreaming loss and damage into national planning processes and develop vertical and horizontal linkages between sectors and institutions working in areas of development to ensure climate resilient development; and

 

5. Obtain accreditation for the existing National Funding Entities to become National Implementing Entities in order to access support from the international funding mechanisms– both within and outside the UNFCCC – to address loss and damage including through adaptation, mitigation, technology and capacity building.

 

"…historical emissions have “locked in” a certain level of climate change that will bring unavoidable impacts…"

 

Implementing these steps will provide Bangladesh with a comprehensive framework under which to begin developing and implementing approaches to address loss and damage that go beyond DRR and CCA. It is now widely accepted that historical emissions have “locked in” a certain level of climate change that will bring unavoidable impacts (UNFCCC, 2012). Thus, though DRR and CCA should continue to be pursued, approaches to address unavoidable loss and damage will need to be implemented simultaneously – and those DRR and CCA approaches that already exist will need to be scaled up. There is no one size fits all approach to address loss and damage. Instead, a mix of DRR, CCA as well as risk retention and risk transfer approaches – among others – to address residual losses and damages will need to be developed and implemented in conjunction with one another.