Each climate-affected person in Bangladesh counts an average of Tk 1,17,000 in loss and damage in two years, equivalent to about 15 months of income for an average worker, according to a report that Oxfam launched on Wednesday.
At the launch of its Loss and Damage Dashboard, an interactive digital platform designed to record community-level climate losses, Oxfam said that climate-induced disasters continue to impose devastating financial and social costs on vulnerable communities.
The report was launched at a ceremony at a hotel in the capital.
The report, titled 鈥楩rom Ground to Global: The Loss and Damage Dashboard for Climate Equity鈥�, was published by Oxfam in Bangladesh, in collaboration with Oxfam Australia and Novib, with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
The pilot, conducted across 19 districts between June 2023 and March 2024, recorded 11,579 climate change-induced loss and damage cases.
The total climate change-induced losses, incurred by the 11,579 affected persons in two years until the survey, amounted to Tk 1.35 billion, the report said.
Oxfam鈥檚 Mohammad Emran Hasan, who presented the findings, said that the countries in the Global South, despite their minimal contribution to global emissions, continued to face worsening climate disasters.
According to the World Bank, Bangladesh loses around $3 billion annually, or 1鈥�2 per cent of GDP, due to climate-related disasters. Unofficial estimates, including those from government and NGO sources, put the figure above $5 billion when factoring in slow-onset events such as salinity intrusion and sea-level rise.
Oxfam developed the Loss and Damage Dashboard to address data gap. The platform aims to empower communities and equip policymakers with evidence to quantify impacts and advocate for global climate justice.
The report highlighted gendered disparities in climate impacts鈥攎en reported higher monetary losses, but women faced disproportionate health and livelihood effects, particularly from waterborne diseases and nutritional stress.
Geospatial analysis identified Cox鈥檚 Bazar, Kurigram, Satkhira, and Sunamganj as the most affected districts.
The report warns that climate-related losses are worsening global inequality, as Least Developed Countries like Bangladesh bear the highest costs of a crisis caused by the world鈥檚 wealthiest nations. The richest ten per cent of the global population account for over half of historical emissions, yet climate finance remains deeply unequal.
Oxfam said that the Dashboard offers a pathway toward evidence-based climate justice, giving Bangladesh a stronger voice in global negotiations on loss and damage financing.
Swedish ambassador to Bangladesh Nicolas Weeks, Oxfam Bangladesh鈥檚 country director Ashish Damle, BRAC University鈥檚 Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research assistant director Roufa Khanum, and Waterkeepers Bangladesh coordinator Sharif Jamil also spoke in the launching ceremony.
