“When the roads are flooded or blocked, these shelters are close to where people live, so they don’t have to risk traveling miles with elderly relatives, young children, or livestock,” said Muhammad Liakath Ali, the Director of Climate Change with BRAC.
“For Bangladesh and many other developing countries, climate change is not some future threat – it is here, now,” she says. “The world needs to massively step up how it’s adapting to this challenge if we’re going to protect decades of hard-won development gains.”
According to UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report 2024, the developing world only has access to a fraction of the funding it needs to adapt to climate change, which has been linked to everything from heatwaves, to rising seas to more frequent and more intense storms. At the recently concluded UN Climate Change Summit in Azerbaijan, countries agreed to channel up US$300 billion a year to developing nations to help them adapt with climate change.
“Sometimes the arguments about climate finance can seem quite abstract,” Atallah says. “But what that finance means is more of these climate-resilient houses can be built, protecting locals and building their resilience.”
Nearly 190 people live currently in the storm-resistant houses. The buildings, which are spread across six districts, housed 1,000 people during Cyclone Remal, which unleashed torrential rains on large parts of Bangladesh in 2024.
Mridha and several neighbours took refuge in her home during the storm, which pounded Joykha. “The havoc I witnessed was nothing like before,” she said.
But the building, which also served as a haven for Mridha’s cows and chickens, and her neighbours’ livestock, held firm.
“The best part is being able to shelter my neighbours,” she said. “I’m safe now with this house.”
The Sectoral Solution to the climate crisis
UNEP is at the forefront of supporting the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperature rise well below 2°C, and aiming for 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. To do this, UNEP has developed the Sectoral Solution, a roadmap to reducing emissions across sectors in line with the Paris Agreement commitments and in pursuit of climate stability. The six sectors identified are: energy; industry; agriculture and food; forests and land use; transport; and buildings and cities.