May and June of this year have sent a clear reminder to the world why Bangladesh is ranked amongst the top seven countries most vulnerable to climate change. Between these two months, the Northeast of Bangladesh has been hammered by heavy monsoon rains and flash flooding. Monsoons are a common occurrence in Bangladesh but this has been the worst monsoon rains in 122 years leaving much of northeast Bangladesh underwater. As a result, over 7 million residents have been affected and almost 500,000 have been displaced from their homes.

 While directly attributing any natural disaster to climate change is a difficult task, meteorologists and climate scientists have indicated in years prior that the occurrence of severe monsoon flooding in Bangladesh is predicted to increase with climate change. One meteorological study from 2019 is of particular interest to the current flooding as much of these monsoon rains came in May of this year, which is earlier than the standard monsoon season of June to October, and struck in the North East of Bangladesh. They found that between 1986-2015,

“Anthropogenic climate change doubled the likelihood of extreme pre-monsoon rainfall over Northeastern Bangladesh.”

Extreme monsoon rains aren’t the only threats climate change poses to the struggling nation. Cyclones and sea-level rise are also taking their toll. The Climate Risk Index produced by Germanwatch every year found that between 2000-2019 Bangladesh suffered $3.72 billion in economic losses as a result of 185 climate-related disasters. A recent World Bank report on climate migration found that 4.1 million Bangladeshis were displaced in 2019 as a result of climate disasters and forecasts that 13.3 million could be displaced by 2050. Another study provides an even more grave outlook suggesting that the number of displaced by 2050 could go as high as 1 in 7 people, or over 23 million.

Climate scientists have identified Bangladesh as being highly vulnerable to climate change, meteorologists have affirmed this by attributing natural disasters in Bangladesh to climate change, and economists and researchers have shown the damage, displacement, and economic losses while offering grim warnings of what the future holds for Bangladesh. To make matters worse the International Institute for Environment and Development produced a report calculating the financial burden of climate change within Bangladesh and found that rural households are outspending both the national government and international organizations.

“Our calculations show that rural households in Bangladesh spend double the amount the government spends on climate and disaster management and over 12 times higher than multilateral international financing for the Bangladeshi rural population in absolute terms.” - Shaikh Eskander and Paul Steele (IIED Report) 

Not only are rural households predominately reliant on agriculture and thus highly vulnerable to climate change, but due to a lack of support financially both nationally and internationally, they are forced to spend their own limited resources on preparing and responding to climate disasters. In the face of all this, the recently concluded preparatory climate talks for COP27 in Egypt in November, saw wealthy high emitting nations side-step previous promises and obligations to address the loss and damage the climate crisis is inflicting on the Global South. Once again, promises made, but not kept, and one need only look to the present floods in Bangladesh and so many more disasters to see the inherent injustice in this.

Wealthy nations must be held accountable for their continued contributions to climate change, and this can be done through forcing them to compensate loss and damages. Bangladesh, with some of the worst flooding its seen in 122 years, has had the burden of climate financing placed on its rural poor. The risks of climate traps, increased overall vulnerability, and displacement is all but guaranteed for millions in Bangladesh if loss and damage is not prioritized and implemented at COP27.

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