By: Dr Nurun Nahar
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bangladesh

Bangladesh has been cited as one of the countries most exposed to climate change, a delta nation where rising seas, erratic monsoons, and intensifying cyclones threaten livelihoods built over generations. But this framing tells only half of the story. The other half is one of resilience, adaptation, innovation, risk reduction, and institutional learning, which together have positioned Bangladesh as a country that other nations now look to for practical, field-tested climate solutions.

Bangladesh’s approach has never been to treat adaptation and development as separate tracks. The National Adaptation Plan (NAP) 2023-2050, developed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), reflects this integration, setting out a long-term roadmap that directly links climate resilience to national development priorities such as agriculture, water resources, urban infrastructure, and public health. This sits alongside broader national frameworks, which reframe climate action not merely as risk management but as an economic opportunity, channeling investment towards renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, the energy-water-food nexus, and green industrialisation. 

At the same time, our priorities centre on scaling up grid-connected renewable energy, improving energy efficiency in industry and buildings, and beginning the harder work of decarbonising transport, an area where financing and technology gaps still constrain the pace of transition.

Some of our most effective interventions have come from institutions built specifically to bridge policy and implementation. The Climate Change Trust Fund, financed through domestic resources, has supported thousands of community-level adaptation projects, from cyclone shelters and embankments to salinity-tolerant crop varieties for our coastal farmers. This domestic financing model matters; it demonstrates that climate action need not wait entirely for international support, even as we continue to advocate for the climate finance commitments owed to vulnerable countries like ours. Our Cyclone Preparedness Programme, built over decades in partnership with community volunteers, has dramatically reduced storm-related fatalities compared with earlier decades. It is a model increasingly studied by other coastal and delta nations facing similar exposure.

Looking ahead, our priorities for the implementation of our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) focus on three areas. First, deepening sector-specific mitigation efforts, particularly in energy and transport, while remaining realistic about the financing and technology gaps that constrain faster transitions. Second, mainstreaming adaptation into local government planning. Our city corporations and other local government bodies need stronger technical and financial capacity to lead this work. Third, strengthening the evidence base through better climate vulnerability data, so that resource allocation is better aligned with actual risks.

If there is one lesson from Bangladesh's experience that may be useful to others in the Asia-Pacific region, it is this: resilience is built locally. Top-down frameworks matter, but they succeed only when paired with genuine investment in local institutions, knowledge, and ownership. Our most durable adaptation successes, from floating agriculture in the haor basins (Bangladesh’s seasonally flooded wetlands) to community-based disaster risk reduction, have come from listening to communities that have been adapting to environmental stress for generations and then scaling up what already works.

We also strongly believe in regional and South-South cooperation. Many of the climate challenges Bangladesh faces, such as saline intrusion, riverine flooding, urban heat stress, and climate-induced migration, are shared, to varying degrees, across South and Southeast Asia. Platforms like the Asia LEDS Partnership are valuable precisely because they allow practitioners, not just policymakers, to exchange what is working and what isn't, without the formality that sometimes slows down bilateral or multilateral engagement.

To the ALP community, my message is simple: climate vulnerability should not be mistaken for climate passivity. Bangladesh's experience shows that even countries with limited fiscal space can build credible, locally rooted climate institutions, provided there is sustained political commitment and a willingness to learn from implementation failures as much as from successes. We do not have all the answers, and we continue to face significant gaps regarding technology transfer and capacity at the subnational level. But we are committed to sharing what we have learned honestly, including what has not worked.

As Bangladesh moves forward with NDC implementation and long-term resilience planning, we remain open to deeper collaboration with ALP member countries.