1700 on 7 December. Free, no need to book.

The Global Development Lecture Series brings together scholars involved in cutting edge research on international development. It aims to facilitate dialogue and discussion, providing a space for leading development thinkers to share their latest research ideas.

This lecture will be delivered by:

• Dr Manoj Roy, Lancaster University

• Professor David Hulme, The University of Manchester

• Dr Joseph Hanlon, Open University

The lecture will be followed by a Q&A

Everyone knows that Bangladesh will be flooded as climate change causes sea levels to rise. But as Roy, Hanlon and Hulme argue in their new book Bangladesh Confronts Climate Change, that does not have to happen. With one billion tonnes of silt deposited in the country from the Himalayas every year, Bangladesh’s engineers are seeing whether the land could rise faster than the sea – if the science of regulating flood waters can create innovative water management practices based on indigenous knowledge. The new book challenges the assumption that the solutions to problems of climate change will come from the rich and advanced nations. Poor people and poor countries are “doing it for themselves”. While rich nations and emerging powers debate climate change mitigation and ‘who’ should pay for the costs of adaptation, the Least developed countries, and especially Bangladesh, are taking action. They have been coping with an exceptionally difficult environment for millennia and are already using their knowledge. They are not ‘waiting’ for donors and foreign aid.