Indigenous women farmers in the Barind region have demanded grant-based climate financing instead of loans, while coastal communities in Khulna have called for compensation from countries responsible for global warming, highlighting Bangladesh's growing demand for climate justice at the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference, COP31, in Antalya, Türkiye.
The demands were raised at separate programmes in Rajshahi and Khulna on Sunday, calling for stronger international commitments to protect vulnerable communities from the impacts of climate change.
In Rajshahi, Indigenous women farmers from the Barind region urged developed countries to provide grants rather than loans to help vulnerable nations tackle climate-related losses.
They said climate adaptation financing for least developed countries (LDCs) must be entirely grant-based to prevent further debt burdens. They also demanded recognition and protection of the rights of women farmers, sharecroppers, agricultural workers, fishers and Indigenous communities.
The demands were raised at a gathering in Nabai Bottola village of Godagari upazila, organised under a nationwide campaign titled “From Field to Antalya: Farmers' Rights for a Just Transition”.
Around 30 civil society organisations are participating in the campaign to push for the protection of Bangladesh's agriculture sector and farmers' rights in COP31's final decisions.
Speakers, including Indigenous women leaders Kostanti Na Hansda and Sabitri Hembram, expressed disappointment over progress during the first week of the summit.
Citing a Carbon Brief analysis, they said new public climate finance commitments from developed countries had fallen by 71%, from around $40 billion annually to $11.7 billion. They also noted that a proposal to triple adaptation finance had not been included in the agenda.
According to the organisers, only 1.7% of global climate finance reaches smallholder farmers in developing countries. They said the $30 million in grants announced for Bangladesh at COP31 represented just 0.2% of the country's estimated annual climate-related losses of $15.2 billion.
The gathering urged COP31 leaders to adopt a permanent five-year programme on food and agriculture with dedicated funding and ensure farmers' and fishers' organisations have a formal role in climate negotiations.
Other demands included increasing renewable energy's share of electricity generation to at least 75%, releasing pledged climate compensation without delay, providing direct assistance to climate-affected farmers and cancelling unjust foreign debts. They also called for recognising agroecology as a solution to the climate crisis rather than relying on carbon markets.
The organisers urged the government to disclose details of the $30 million grant, ensure fair access to fertiliser and bring sharecroppers, women farmers, landless agricultural workers and fishers under farmer cards, crop insurance and social protection programmes.
Meanwhile, in Khulna, a symbolic boat-based human chain featuring empty earthen pitchers was held at Jailkhana Ghat, at the confluence of the Bhairab and Rupsha rivers, demanding climate justice, adequate financing for loss and damage, adaptation support and protection of coastal communities' rights.
The Climate Action Forum Khulna district committee organised the protest with support from the Local Environment Development and Agricultural Research Society (LEADERS), in connection with COP31.
Speakers said global warming and continued carbon emissions were driving sea-level rise, increasing salinity, river erosion, declining navigability, cyclones and tidal surges, threatening the lives and livelihoods of coastal communities.
They said people in Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat were facing growing shortages of safe drinking water, soil salinity, uncertain livelihoods and environmental degradation.
The speakers stressed that Bangladesh bears little responsibility for climate change but continues to suffer its devastating consequences. They demanded that countries responsible pay compensation to vulnerable nations, arguing that such payments should be treated as rightful claims rather than charity, loans or aid.
More than 50 people from different professions attended the Khulna programme. Empty pitchers, banners and placards displayed on the boats highlighted the drinking water crisis, salinity, river erosion and declining navigability affecting coastal communities.
