It is incredibly unfair that, due to the aggressive and unchecked early industrialization of a handful of nations, relatively younger countries such as Bangladesh have to bear the costs through their vulnerability to the climate crisis.
Just to get the severity of the current situation across, the richest 1% of the planet’s population produced as much carbon pollution in the year 2019 than the five billion who constituted the poorest two-thirds of the population, at least according to a new report by Oxfam.
The report further elucidates that the richest 1% were responsible for 16% of global consumption emissions in 2019 while the richest 10% accounted for half of all emissions and that it would take about a millennium and a half for someone in the bottom 99% to produce as much carbon as the richest billionaires do in a year.
These are staggering findings and show just how much the idea of climate justice needs to be put into effect.
Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and while we have our own battles to win in terms of becoming more sustainable as a nation, for much of our progress to be utterly undone by the greed and callousness of highly industrialized nations flies in the face of what is considered right.
There is only one solution to this: Developed countries such as the UK, the US, and China to name a few -- whose rapid industrialization in the last few decades have done more to harm the environment than that of more nascent countries such as our own -- need to do more both in terms of action and funding.
Climate change is no longer a matter of debate as there is now global awareness of the dangers it poses to our very existence, which is why it is so disappointing and infuriating to see so many in the developed world continue to bury their heads in the sand.
The war against climate change is one that must be fought in unison, but nothing can be achieved to that end until and unless developed nations start cutting down on their emissions and help vulnerable countries such as Bangladesh join the fray.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
