Bangladesh cannot afford to ignore the magnitude of the threat posed by climate change.
The worst case scenarios of climate change catastrophe predicted by the IPCC show polar icecaps melting and the resultant rise in sea and river levels permanently inundating entire districts of Bangladesh.
There is no way we can hope to adapt to such a scale of climate change. Millions of refugees would be created and the country would face perpetual famine as millions of farmers become landless.
We urgently need the world to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The best way to do this is through taxing fossil fuels to reduce emissions and create funds for investment in renewable alternatives.
Unfortunately, the UN Climate Summit in New York this week did not provide any meaningful progress on the taxation of fossil fuels.
While the worldwide People’s Climate March demonstrated widespread support and the summit made some positive declarations, it did not deliver on taxing fossil fuels. Nor did it bring forth anything like the scale of financial commitments required by the Green Climate Fund established at the 2009 Copenhagen Summit.
Without a worldwide approach to taxing carbon, large emitting companies and countries will not have any incentive to make the investments and changes needed.
The prime minister was right to ask rich countries to reduce carbon emissions, and to support Bangladesh in adapting to climate change.
But unless large and rich industrialised nations are incentivised to reduce their emissions, policy changes in Bangladesh will not be enough to avert catastrophe. We must call on the world to get its act together.