LONDON (Alertnet)--Reaching an effective climate deal at Copenhagen may require world leaders showing up not just in Denmark in December but at Barcelona negotiations in November, says Quamrul Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi climate negotiator who characterized progress at the Bangkok climate talks this week "very slow but moving."

If leaders like U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown aren't around to provide a needed political push, "the technical people can't deliver," he warned. Lower-ranking negotiators "can't take strong political decisions," particularly in terms of creating or strengthening new financial instruments to fund climate change adaptation.

Adaptation funding is of critical interest to Bangladesh, where up to 8 million people may need to be resettled by 2050 if sea level continues to rise.

BANGLADESH ACTION PLAN

The national cabinet last month approved a long-term climate change action plan that includes cuts over the next 10 years in the country's already tiny level of greenhouse gas emissions and creation of a national climate change trust fund, which has so far attracted more than $100 million in funding.

But to adequately address growing climate-related problems, Bangladesh officials estimate they may need $5 billion over five years to fund storm shelters and disaster early warning systems, to build flood barriers and to develop flood-tolerant and salt-resistant crops.

"If we can do this, our (developed world) partners should do more," Chowdhury said. "They should give us leadership, something we still don't have."

Inadequate funding now for adaptation efforts means higher costs down the road, he warned.

"The cost of inaction is monumental," he said. "If we don't invest and pump enough resources to developing countries now to help with adaptation and emission reduction, billions of people who are not the cause of this problem are going to suffer."

He said negotiators are asking developing countries to commit to spending 1.5 percent of GDP to support developing country adaptation and mitigation. So far, the countries "are talking about some resources but not at the scale economists say we need," he said.

If developed countries can afford trillion-dollar economic stimulus programs to pull the world out of economic crisis, they should be able to find resources for a climate bailout as well and the political willpower to ensure stimulus dollars are spent on climate-friendly programs, Chowdhury said.

"We require revolutionary thinking," he said. "With green development we can create a boom out of this depression and grow in a sustainable way. We can create jobs. The political rhetoric for that is there but it has yet to be translated into action."

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