Climate change is already a reality for Bangladesh, but the initiatives taken by the World Bank and other development partners to tackle its impacts are inade-quate, said State Minister for Environment and Forest Dr Hasan Mahmud yesterday.

Hasan Mahmud was the chief guest at the consultation meeting of the World Bank environment strategy held at a city hotel.

The World Bank organised the consultation meeting as part of the process of updating its global environment strategy for its client countries.

The environment strategy aims to identify the best approaches to address its client country’s environmental priorities for sustainable development.

The World Bank produced its first environment strategy in 2001 and a

revised strategy will be published in December 2010.

"The World Bank is updating its global environmental strategy to better reflect today's worldwide concerns, and it is particularly important that our global consultations include voices from countries such as Bangladesh, which are most affected by climate change," said World Bank country director Ellen Goldstein, who chaired the meeting.

The state minister praised the coastal people of Bangladesh for having adapted to a changing environment and said they are an example to the global community of how to overcome the difficulties caused by flooding.

Coastal people have developed several techniques, such as raising the plinths of their homes and developing floating gardens to cultivate vegetables, as a result of flooding in previous years.

Following the inauguration ses-

sion, two technical sessions were attended by government officials, development partners, members of civil societies, research institutions and the media.

The discussions focused on the role of the World Bank Group in helping Bangladesh to achieve environmental sustainability as well as brainstorming a possible strategy for the World Bank to pursue.

The final objectives of the environment strategy will be incorporated into a combination of the results that emerged from these global consultations and the findings of analytical research.

The World Bank's Lead Environment Specialist Ernesto Sanchez-Triana presented the keynote paper and Director General of Department of Environment Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan was a special guest at the programme.