Past

As the UK economy transitions away from manufacturing, the nation’s urban infrastructure is becoming ever more prone to carbon embodied in the global materials trade. This is exemplified by growing brick imports to the UK. Having exceeded its capacity to produce bricks domestically, the UK’s response to its looming ‘housing crisis’ has left domestic brick production insufficient to meet demand, leaving the UK facing a ‘brick deficit’ of more than half a billion bricks per year. The result has been a rise in brick imports to more than 400 million per year, mainly from the European Union but increasingly from outside Europe. The UK now imports 16% of its total brick stock, the highest proportion in the world. In terms of the emissions embodied in UK construction, this is cause for significant concern. In particular, the transportation costs associated with importing heavy, high-volume materials such as bricks, ensures that they are associated with a considerably higher volume of CO2 emission than those produced domestically.

In addition, the wider environmental and social footprint of these imported bricks, recognised as a source of key humanitarian and socioeconomic issues, including modern slavery, has similarly been ignored in UK policy. With a 59% year on year growth in non-EU bricks, current trends evident in HMRC data suggest that non-EU bricks will surpass EU produced bricks in under 5 years – a trend that Brexit is expected to exacerbate. The far greater distances involved in transporting bricks from major non-EU exporting countries means that the carbon emissions embodied in brick imports from these non-EU sources are several times higher than those produced domestically. Whilst brick importation from the global South in this way is a relatively new phenomenon, it is one that is growing rapidly. In 2015, the proportion of imported bricks arriving to the UK from outside the EU amounted to just 1.1%, but within five years this had increased to 8.8%. From a carbon accounting perspective, the scale of the increase is starker still. The exceptionally high transportation emissions associated with brick imports from the global South mean that they carry an outsize influence, accounting for 25.5% of all emissions from brick imports in 2019. In addition, brick production in the South Asian brick belt has a profound effect on the local environment. Brick production linked to UK imports results in heightened vulnerability to climate change, increasing the frequency and intensity of droughts, floods and crop failures in the surrounding area. Brick kilns in South Asia are notorious spaces of labour exploitation with low, mostly piece-rate, wages for long hours of work. Wage arrangements often involve debt bondage to keep workers attached to the kiln for months or years on end. Consequently, the labouring population working in brick kilns consists of some of the poorest and marginalized sections of the informal workforce. Child labour is widely prevalent, workplace hazards are common and living conditions are generally poor. Nevertheless, bricks produced in conditions like these are now increasingly commonly used in the UK.

Disaster and climate change-induced displacement has been identified as one of the most pressing issues facing the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. According to a report by the World Bank in 2018, by 2050, 140 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America may be displaced, with 13 million from Bangladesh alone. However, the World Bank report also shed light on the potential of reducing displacement through Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change adaptation measures. The Cancun Adaptation Framework and The UN Sendai Framework both emphasize the necessity of mitigating and responding to the impacts of climate change and disasters on displacement. Furthermore, the Co-Chairs’ summary of the 2019 UN Global Platform on DRR highlights the need for the international community to take action in order to reduce disaster-induced displacement.

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to the effects of global climate change, with the 6th highest displacement rate in 2017 among 135 countries. Floods, tropical cyclones, storm surges, droughts, river banks and coastal erosion are some of the main causes of displacement. It is estimated that by 2050, 1 in every 7 people in the country will be displaced. The government of Bangladesh acknowledges the grave implications that displacement has for individuals and communities and is committed to shifting its approach from relief-oriented to proactive and comprehensive displacement management. To this end, the government has adopted The National Strategy on Internal Displacement Management 2021 (NSIDM), to provide a rights-based strategy for the issue. An action plan is needed to effectively implement the strategy and must draw from multiple disciplines to be successful.

The Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR) mandated RMMRU to draft a National Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy encompassing knowledge of prevention measures, Standing Orders on Disasters (SOD), and actions for durable solutions in the post-displacement phase. This National Action Plan is designed to be globally appropriate, locally applicable, and explicitly rights-based, taking into account national and international standards and protocols. The National Action Plan 2022-2042, includes 27 ministries and its departments, NGOs/CSOs, and development partners to implement it. As part of this plan, NGOs and CSOs have been designated to support the implementation of the specified activities. To develop the document a systematic fieldwork was conducted in six disaster-prone areas in Bangladesh to gather the voices of communities at risk of displacement and those that have already been displaced.

Disaster and climate change-induced displacement is a major risk to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. According to the World Bank (2018), it is estimated that a total of 143 million people from Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America may be displaced by 2050, with 13 million of them from Bangladesh. Of this, half of the internal migration in Bangladesh is estimated to be caused solely by climate change. However, the Cancun Adaptation Framework and UN Sendai Framework emphasise the need to reduce and address the impacts of climate change and disasters on displacement. The 2019 UN Global Platform on DRR Co-Chairs’ Summary further calls on the international community to make more efforts in reducing disaster-induced displacement.

The Government of Bangladesh has recognised the severe implications of displacement for the rights and entitlements of individuals and communities and has thus shifted its approach from relief-oriented to more proactive and comprehensive displacement management. To this end, the National Strategy on Internal Displacement Management 2021 (NSIDM) was adopted, and the Government mandated RMMRU to develop an action plan for its implementation. To ensure participation from the displaced population in action plan preparation process, RMMRU designed a research methodology called photo-voice that utilises an innovative qualitative approach to incorporate the voices of the displaced into policy process. Through this, the RMMRU team were able to uncover the varying impacts of displacement, such as those based on age, sex, ethnicity, geographical location, economic status, and disability, as well as the vulnerabilities of men and women, underlying causes, and strategies for disaster preparedness. The findings collected through the photo-voice method at field sites were used to compile evidence, actions and recommendations into the National Action Plan for managing displacement caused by disasters and climate change.

This project is a collaboration between the University of Exeter, in the UK, and the Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit, in Bangladesh. The project is for 18 months.

The project aims to create new insights building on existing and emerging knowledge on human security, migration and environmental interactions on (1) the drivers of migration to cities; (2) circumstances of immobility, and (3) issues of place, identity, and networks in migrant populations. The research addresses key challenges in the Sustainable Development Goals on human settlements, sustainable cities and infrastructure, and on poverty, wellbeing and human security by examining questions of economic integration and wellbeing in migration destination areas. According to the United Nations, there is insufficient urban data available on indicators associated with SDG 11 on Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable Settlements, in many cities, especially in Africa and Asia where 90 percent of urban growth is expected to occur by 2050.For example, in many cities absence of data on access to safe, accessible and sustainable public transport, or the proportion of cities with civil society able to participate in urban planning and management, mean that many processes and dynamics are missing from official censuses and household surveys compiled by national statistics offices. Key indicators relating to urban sustainable development goals are lacking in particular that can help inform policy-makers about access to services and resources that improve living conditions for new migrant populations in expanding urban environments. Therefore, the specific objectives of the project are:

• To examine the challenges of rapid migration to urban settlements in terms of the sustainability, security, integration, and wellbeing of new populations.

• To use this new knowledge to generate insights on how new migrant populations can be empowered into urban planning processes in Chittagong.

• To examine the implications of project findings for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 11 on Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable Settlements, SDG 8 on Inclusive Growth, and SDG 3 on Healthy Lives and Wellbeing.

DEltas, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA) is new 5-year long research project launched on 2014. The DECCMA project will analyse the impacts of climate change and other environmental drivers across contrasting deltas in Africa and Asia. Specifically, the DECCMA project will analyse the sustainability of migration as an adaptation option to climate change and associated vulnerabilities across three deltas: Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM), the Mahanadi delta and the Volta delta.

Progress on WP 3:

The main objective of WP3 is to assess the role of migration as an adaptation in deltaic environments with a changing climate. RMMRUcarriedout following activities since the beginning oftheDECCMAProject.

• Produced a working paper on Migration in the GBM Deltabased on literature review
• A developed theoretical framework of migrationfortheDECCMAproject
• Prepared the first draft of sampling strategy for the social survey at household level (also applicable for WP6)
• Formulated questions and checklist for initial pilot fieldwork (FGD)
• Conducted and consolidated key informant interviews with stakeholders
• Participated at GBM delta first District Level Stakeholder Workshop at Khulna(also applicable for WP6)

Progress on WP 6:

The major aim of this work package is to identify, scope, types, and sustainability of adaptation options (including migration) occurring in deltas, with a focus on adaptation at the household and national level. RMMRU carried out the following activities since the beginning of the DECCMA Project.
• Developed inventory protocol to synthesize adaptation practices
• Identified feasible and realistic planned adaptations from the available adaptation literature
• Drafted a paper on gender in climate change policies in Bangladesh
• Submitted abstract on ‘Adaptation for future’ (Gender aspects of adaptation) held in the Netherlands, 10-13 May 2016.