Ever needed to evacuate your home 25 times?...
4 December 2008
...Some people in Bangladesh have.
Now imagine you live in Bangladesh. Floods have always been a normal part of your life, but recently, things have started become much worse.
You are already facing increasingly severe climate change impacts. More floods, harsher storms, more erratic rainfalls and - in part because of rising sea levels - more salt water in the fresh water you're drinking and cooking with.
You are infected by skin diseases and because you lost your job, you can't afford to send your children to school. At the same time, food prices are rising.
Because your wife or your husband died, you may have received some help from the government, but it has now finished.
Of course, you might have heard about potential solutions that could reduce your vulnerability. For instance, better meteorological systems and early warning systems could help your community to anticipate floods and get prepared when they happen. Homes and schools built on raised foundations could prevent you from having to build and rebuild them again and again. More efficient irrigation systems or drought resistant crop varieties could mean that your hard work is not wasted. And there are many other examples.
But all these solutions come with a heavy price tag.
You are doing your best to adapt to this situation. Your government is already spending money to assist you and your community, but as a developing country, it can't support all these expenses alone. It should be supported by countries that benefited most from a century of industrialization. That's the reason they are richer than yours.
As 10,700 delegates from 187 nations gather in Poznan to hammer out a new climate change treaty, Oxfam has launched Turning Carbon into Gold - a report explaining how the international community can provide cash to poor countries to help them adapt to climate change, without breaking the bank.
Despite the current global financial storm, rich countries - who are responsible for the bulk of historical emissions - should and can provide most of the resources to implement solutions.
Time has come for them to pay. If they don't, they may well be responsible for your 26th move.
This blog was adapted from a post written by Thomas Noirfalisse for Oxfam International. Thomas is blogging from the United Nations climate changes talks in Poznan, Poland. You can read the original post here.

