The Climate Change Cell has been established in the Department of Environment in 2004 under the Comprehensive Disaster Management Program (CDMP) of the Government. It responds to the recognition that Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and that the number and scale of climate-related disasters is likely to increase. . The Cell provides the central focus for the Government's climate change related work, operating as a unit of the Department of Environment (DoE) under the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). Its objective is to enable the management of long term climate risks and uncertainties as an integral part of national development planning. This will contribute to the primary objective of the wider Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme, which aims to strengthen the capacity of the Bangladesh disaster management system to reduce unacceptable risks and improve response and recovery activities.

Meeting these objectives will enable more effective and sustained poverty reduction through the reduction of disaster and climate risks within the overall development process.

The Climate Change Cell's work program focuses on four main areas:

Building the capacity of Government to coordinate and integrate climate change issues in mainstream development activities across government. It also acts as a secretariat to coordinate other national climate change activities such as National Communication preparation, the NAPA process, and the Clean Development Mechanism.

Strengthening existing knowledge and availability of information on impact prediction and adaptation to climate change. This includes compiling and synthesizing existing studies, and filling some of the gaps, as well as improving information exchange between science and policy-makers.

Awareness raising, advocacy and coordination with partners across government, NGOs, civil society, private sector and donor organizations. Using a variety of mechanisms and information products, the Cell is working to promote the integration of climate change adaptation and risk reduction in development activities, especially within climate sensitive sectors and the disaster risk reduction process.

Improving capacity to adapt livelihoods to climate change in the agriculture sector. Working with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), we are field-testing livelihood adaptation strategies with farmers to better respond to disasters and climate change risks. This includes translation of climate change modeling into agricultural response options and livelihood adaptation practices. The initial focus is on drought conditions, with a view to facilitating replication elsewhere.