Abstract

The term Climate change is ubiquitous these days. The effects of climate changes too are ubiquitous. Nations worldwide feels the effect of climate changes – some more than others. Especially poor developing countries face large challenges caused by change climate. Climate changes pose a serious challenge for the developing countries to reach UNs Millennium Development Goals and climate changes are therefore a subject often analyzed within development research. In short can it be said, that climate changes might affect the fight against disease, hunger, poverty and environmental degradation. Action must therefore be taken now to diminish the negative consequences of climate change. One initiative taken all over the world is to develop governmental strategies and action plans to cope with climate change. This thesis will therefore focus on a climate change strategy conducted on a governmental level.
The term climate change vulnerability is used in several different ways by various scholarly communities. Climate change vulnerability as a term is more and more in focus in development research concurrently with that the consequences of climate changes are felt. One way of using climate change vulnerability is to apply it in a development context with focus on social sciences, which is the case for the present thesis.
The purpose of this thesis is to create a critical analysis of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan as a strategy to decrease climate change vulnerability in Bangladesh.
This will be done by conducting a document analysis in two steps where Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan will serve as objects for the analyses. First step is to conduct a vulnerability analysis of the poor in Bangladesh to outline the characteristics of the climate change vulnerable in Bangladesh. The second step is to analyze the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan in relation to the findings in the vulnerability analysis. This will provide an option to outline whether the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan is a useable strategy to decrease climate change vulnerability in Bangladesh. The case study is based on several documents of various character; personal second hand observations, statistics, analyses from different NGOs, and governmental papers.
The thesis will be structured by a theoretical framework consisting of the concepts vulnerability, livelihood and access. These are combined in a theoretical framework and are all seen as much intertwined. The notion of livelihood consisting of capitals will be structuring throughout the thesis.
The thesis provides an analysis of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan as a strategy to decrease climate change vulnerability. The results of this are to be seen as material to a further discussion and debate on climate change strategies and action plans.