When it comes to fighting the global threat that is climate change, Bangladesh’s position as one of the nations most vulnerable to its ravaging effects is incontrovertible.

The short-term consequences in terms of damage to Bangladesh from climate-related disasters are incalculable, while the worst of the long-term predictions would see our country all but wiped off the map.

Furthermore, with the weakening of Bangladesh’s naturally protective mechanisms such as the Sundarbans, clearly, as a nation, we are not in an enviable position in terms of the climate crisis.

Bangladesh has, of course, been leading the fight against climate change and ensuring that industrialized nations, which use the most resources and as such contribute the most to climate change, take responsibility for their role and aid lesser developed nations such as ours in mitigating the circumstances.

While not the biggest of gestures, a recent climate oath held in Cox’s Bazar by locals and noted activists is a good example of the kind of awareness we need to transmit throughout the world in solidifying each and everyone of our commitments to improving the state of our planet before the worst comes to pass.

One of the most important roles that developed nations can play in this regard is by assisting nations such as ours to adopt technologies that help in this regard in addition to paying climate reparations — after all, it is the effects (and indeed aftereffects) of these nations’ early and violent industrialization that ultimately paved the way to our planet’s current status quo.

Our nation is on the front-lines of the greatest battle humanity has yet to fight, a battle that the whole world needs to be fully committed to winning.