Bonn climate talks hear crowded Dhaka's plea on human cost of climate change

UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Cop28 Razan Al Mubarak says financial support is tool for building resilience

Rickshaw riders in a rainy Dhaka. Low-lying Bangladesh is considered one of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries. EPA

A mayor from Bangladesh's capital Dhaka called for support to help migrants forced by climate change to leave rural areas and move to already overcrowded cities, at a UN conference in Bonn on Friday.

Atiqul Islam, who oversees the north of Dhaka, told the Bonn Climate Change Conference in western Germany that cities urgently need money to confront the “human cost” of climate change.

Negotiators at the Bonn gathering are preparing the ground for Cop28 in the UAE at the end of the year.

Mr Islam said rising temperatures could compound Dhaka's problems, as flooding endangers public health, while metal roofs of slum dwellings conduct heat – leading to sweltering conditions inside.

He told diplomats it was urgent for money to start flowing from a global “loss and damage” fund – money for climate-related impacts that are already happening or are inevitable.

This point on climate change funding for vulnerable cities was reflected in comments by UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Cop28 Razan Al Mubarak.

Ms Al Mubarak, managing director of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, said the resources should not be seen “simply as a humanitarian effort, [but] really as a tool to build the local economy and local resilience”.

As funds are allocated, there should be an emphasis on building the local capacity to respond to reconstruction needs, she said.

“When you think about the roofs over their heads, the roofs need to be manufactured by the local community and by the local economy,” said Ms Al Mubarak.

The fund was agreed in principle at the Cop27 summit in Egypt last year, in what Mahmoud Mohieldin – who is also a UN climate change high-level champion for Cop28 – called a “political success and diplomatic victory”.

But the fund “has to be there with us soon”, Mr Mohieldin said in Bonn.

Mr Islam was applauded by delegates after describing how 2,000 people a day were arriving in Dhaka as they lose their farmland due to salinity and erosion.

While the city “cannot say ‘no, you can’t come in’”, it is experiencing the “human cost” of poor health, cramped living conditions and vulnerability to climate risks, he said.

Mr Islam described how Dhaka plans to limit the risks by planting trees over homes with metal roofs in slum areas to provide shade and has already held a first-of-its-kind fire drill for impoverished areas.

Another measure is a financial incentive for people who make a rooftop garden. The city also faces the risk that waste enters canals and rivers during flooding, causing “climate-induced costs to health”, Mr Islam said.

“Cities in the global south are unequivocally at the front line of climate-induced loss and damage,” he said.

“We need finance, finance and finance … not tomorrow, it has to be there today.”

The World Bank has estimated that low-lying Bangladesh could see more than 13 million climate migrants uprooted by flooding, drought or loss of farmland in the next 30 years.

Also facing the threat of tropical cyclones, it is regarded as one of the world’s most vulnerable countries as the window narrows to limit the worst effects of climate change by capping global warming at 1.5°C.

Rich countries have repeatedly been warned that their unauthorised migration problems could easily multiply, due to climate change making parts of the world uninhabitable.

To address this, Ms Al Mubarak said the aim was to highlight solutions that people affected by climate change are turning to.

She said this would allow for a “matchmaking exercise” between those affected and the public sector, private investors and philanthropic donors who want to support them in tackling climate change.

Working out details of the loss and damage pot, such as funding arrangements and a host city for officials, is expected to be a major theme of this year’s climate negotiations.

The initial agreement at Cop27 in Egypt was regarded as a significant breakthrough after rich countries had previously suggested existing funds were sufficient or baulked at admitting liability for climate change.

Loss and damage is one of three main strands of UN-backed climate action, along with mitigation – which means reducing emissions to slow global warming, and adaptation, which means adjusting to life in a warmer climate.

The Cop28 summit begins in Expo City Dubai on November 30.