Rising temperature driven by climate change could cost Bangladesh 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050, the Parliament was told on Sunday (Mar 10).

“…if the international community fails to take effective measures to cope with climate change impacts, the country may incur a loss of its 2 percent GDP by 2050 and 9.4 percent by 2100,” Environment and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin said during the question-and-answer session.

Citing the studies by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the minister said the country lost $1.67 billion, which was equivalent to 6 to 8 percent of its GDP, in 2007 due to a devastating cyclone induced by global climate change, reports BSS.

He said a countrywide flood caused a loss to 4.8 percent of the country’s GDP in 1998.

Shahab Uddin said the government has been implementing various progarmmes across the country to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change.

In a study released in September last year, the World Bank, however, said climate change could cost Bangladesh 6.7% of GDP by 2050.

It said that climate change could depress the living standards of more than three-quarters of Bangladesh’s population by the period.

It found that in the last 60 years the region’s average temperatures have increased and will continue rising, which is affecting agriculture, health and productivity.

By 2050, Chittagong Division will be most vulnerable to changing climate, the report said.

It also highlights that seven out of the top 10 most-affected hotspot districts—where changes in average temperature and precipitation will have a negative effect on living standards—will be in the Chittagong Division.

It is expected that Bangladesh’s average annual temperatures are expected to rise by 1.0°C to 1.5°C by 2050 even if preventive measures are taken along the lines of those recommended by the Paris climate change agreement of 2015.