The global increase in greenhouse gases including methane is rapidly escalating global warming and exacerbating the impacts of climate change for Bangladesh. Climate change is increasingly impacting Bangladesh’s agricultural sector, which is critical to the country’s economy and food security. In 2022, extreme rainfall led to widespread flooding, with a third of the country being submerged, highlighting the critical need for climate resilience.

To address these growing challenges, there is a need to quantify and reduce the levels of methane emissions, which are currently affecting Bangladesh’s food security and exacerbating the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and human populations. The impacts of climate change on agricultural productivity, including reduced soil fertility, changed rainfall patterns, and increased pest infestations are all closely linked to levels of greenhouse gases including methane.

Methane has to come into the focus of the policymakers now more than ever, for the gas is not only highly potent causing rapid global warming but also impacts in a negative way the building back better in the wake of environmental disasters. By embedding methane reduction into their national policies and programmes, the country can be steered off disastrous trajectory. Contrary to other long lived greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, carbon tetradefluro- octane and trifluoroprene etc which remain in the atmosphere for decades to come, methane has a much shorter atmospheric lifespan.

Most importantly available cost effective solutions are already there for reduction and capture of methane emissions from all relevant sources like livestock and waste management through anaerobic digestion, agricultural sources like paddy fields and several other potential sources with appropriate handling.