Bangladesh

In the wake of last month’s Rana Plaza disaster some of the world's top clothing retailers – including PVH, Tchibo, H&M, Inditex (which owns the Zara chain), Marks & Spencer, Primark and Tesco – have signed up to a legally binding agreement to help finance fire safety and building improvements in the factories they use in Bangladesh. The official death toll from the collapse of the factory build now stands at 1,127, with 2,438 people injured – many seriously - and another 98 still listed as missing. This makes it the world's worst industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984.

India and Bangladesh signed a USD1.6 billion joint venture agreement to build a 1,320-MW coal-fired power plant which is expected to be operational within five years.

A major international study scheduled for release at the 1st GLOBE Climate Legislation Summit to be held in London over the next two days will show that 32 of 33 major economies, led by China and Mexico, have progressed or are progressing significant climate and/or energy-related legislation. The report, produced by the Global Legislators Union (GLOBE) in partnership with the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics and supported by the Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), shows that 18 countries made “significant” progress in 2012.

A new study, using a broad range of criteria and data, suggests Shanghai is the world's most vulnerable major city to flooding. In spite of gleaming skyscrapers and state-of-the-art mass transit systems, China's most flamboyant city surpasses other Asian coastal conurbations as being the most at risk from the rising sea levels driven by changing climate. The new research, A flood vulnerability index for coastal cities and its use in assessing climate change impacts, published in the journal, Natural Hazards, looks not just at cities’ physical characteristics but also at their socio-economic and institutional systems, to assess the impact of flooding.

A report this week in the Gulf Times claims that Bangladesh’s environment department as well as environmental activists are opposing the setting up of a coal-fired power plant near the Sundarbans, which they fear would adversely affect the world’s biggest mangrove forest in Bagerhat district of Khulna.