Climate-development integrated approach in coastal management of Bangladesh: legal and policy responses

Climate change and development are two cross-cutting issues that demand legal and policy responses from both international and national authorities. Bangladesh is predicted to be among the countries that will be the most substantially affected by climate change.The coastal zone of the country is particularly vulnerable.Almost all aspects of coastal development in Bangladesh could be affected by climate change. This thesis argues that Bangladesh can enhance its coastal management by strategically integrating climate change and development into its legislation and policies. For the purpose of this thesis, this integration is conceptualised as a climate development integrated approach‘. This thesis investigates the extent to which this integrated approach has been incorporated into Bangladesh‘s coastal laws and policies by reviewing 39 existing statutes and 21 policy documents using a law and policy analysis‘methodology. The finding of this thesis is that most of the sectoral laws and policies in Bangladesh do not address the issue of climate change. This suggests that the integrated approach in coastal management can help Bangladesh to promote coastal development through low-carbon growth, the mitigation of carbon emissions (eg, through participation in a global REDD+ scheme) and adaptation to climate-related hazards in the coastal region.Lastly, this thesis contributes not only to the laws and policies for sustainable coastal management in Bangladesh, but also to the laws and policies in other developing countries.