How can we meet the energy challenges of small and remote coastal communities affected by changing climate in Bangladesh and globally?
Adam Moolna, Samiya Selim, Sharon George, Shantanu Kumar Saha, Carolyn Roberts, Joy Bhowmik, Ashley Hulme, Simon George, Sayeda Karim, Zoe Robinson.
In Bangladesh, energy poverty in small and remote coastal communities inhibits development and exacerbates livelihood and migration pressures, social changes, and gender disparities. Climate change threatens low lying coastal areas, bringing sea level rise and increasing salinity. Cyclones and flash floods are having increasing impacts on coastal terrains, habitats, and associated livelihoods. Such challenges are faced by similar communities globally and represent significant barriers to addressing multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - in particular across Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
Small-scale renewables potentially offer clean and secure energy solutions, not dependent on fossil fuels, that also address the broader climate change mitigation. Yet existing efforts to address energy challenges with small-scale renewables typically perform poorly. We argue that solutions need to be tailored to specific socioeconomic contexts and use durable established technologies in economically and socially viable local business models. Long term and catastrophe-resilient renewables solutions to energy challenges will help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change. Work towards such solutions and helping address the UN SDGs is being carried forward - and approaches here are translatable to contexts, especially SIDS, globally.
Vision for next steps based on this discussion paper
- Invite discussions from partners and outside on the context and future working options presented
- Act as a basis for ongoing collaboration and pipeline of projects researching and delivering solutions
Contact for further discussions
Dr Adam Moolna | +44 (0) 1782 7 34115 | a.moolna@keele.ac.uk | Keele University, William Smith Building, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, United Kingdom
Recommended citation: Moolna et al. (2019) How can we meet the energy challenges of small and remote coastal communities affected by changing climate in Bangladesh and globally? Keele University Institute for Sustainable Futures discussion paper 2.
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