Op-Ed: Why We Must Talk About Loss and Damage, Not Just Adaptation

This op-ed by Dr. Ayesha Rahman was originally published in The Daily Star on May 12.

Bangladesh's climate policy conversation has, for good reason, been dominated by adaptation. We are geographically, demographically, and economically among the most exposed nations on Earth. Learning to live with the crisis — through embankments, drought-resistant seeds, cyclone shelters, and early warning systems — is not optional.

But adaptation is not enough, and the space it takes up in our discourse is starting to crowd out an equally important conversation: loss and damage.

Every year, families in Barguna lose homes they cannot rebuild. Elders lose the seasonal calendar their grandparents taught them, because the seasons no longer follow the calendar. Communities lose burial grounds, mosques, and school buildings to advancing rivers and rising tides. These losses cannot be adapted to. They can only be mourned — and, where responsibility can be assigned, compensated.

[Read the full op-ed at The Daily Star]