The program was divided in to three parts i.e. 1. Introduction and speech from chief and special guest, 2. Key note present & Question and answer session and 3. closing remarks

1. Introduction and speech from chief and special guest:

At the beginning of the seminar, Subash Ch. Saha requested to all the participants for self introduction. After self introduction. Yakub Hossain, Deputy Executive Director, VERC on the behalf of ICS Network delivered welcome speech. He firstly thanked to all the participants to participate in the seminar as well as come from different parts in Bangladesh. He mentioned that the Northern part in Bangladesh recently affected by the cyclone (SIDR) and this is one of the indicators for degrading environmental. Today globally the climates are warming and for that reason the richest countries are more responsible than the poor countries. He also mentioned that indoor air pollution is more harmful for mother and child health than the indoor air pollution. So we all should work together to combat with this problem.

Mr. Moshihur Rahman thanked to VERC for inviting him in this seminar. He said that Winrock has been working on environmental issue since a long time. Very recently Winrock with the collaboration of VERC has been implementing a project entailed “Reduction of Exposure to Indoor Air Pollution through Household Energy and Behavioral Improvement’ in the southern-northern part in Bangladesh. By implementing this project it has revealed that   Improved Cookstove reduces fuel cost and produces fewer fumes which is helpful for health and environment. Besides Winrock is also implementing bio-gas project that benefited to health and environment. To reduce indoor air pollution, we should implement this kind of project throughout the country   

DR. Hasan Rashid Khan said this is rally time bound decision to organize this kind of seminar and for that reason he is thankful to VERC.  He mentioned that soil, water and air are interlinked. Without any of this, nobody can survive in the world. He also mentioned that how theses three things are degrading day by day. People are using chemical fertilizer in the crop field to get more crops which ultimately reduce the fertility in the land. In our rural women are using traditional stove that cause of many diseases. In this regard, the rural women can solve theses problem by using improve cookstove. It is observed that during last 50 years the world temperature increased 4/5 centigrade temperature due to environmental change, hence melting the ice and the ultimate impact is flood occurs rapidly. For renewable energy, he mainly addressed three kinds of technologies such as Improved Cook stove, bio-gas and solar panel. He also mentioned that VERC with the collaboration of Winrock International and with financial support of World Bank are developing a pilot project to reduce the indoor air pollution from the rural households setting by the applying total sanitation approach. Under the future project many network partner can be involved in reducing indoor air pollution in Bangladesh.    

Mr. Eric Otto Gum said that it is my great pleasure to present in the seminar and I am also very happy to see so many organization that work to reduce the indoor air pollution. I believe that deforestation is one of the major causes for climate change. With the view to prevent deforestation we are implementing ICS project in Bangladesh. Actually we are in position to funding local organization for dissemination as well as popularizing   the ICS countrywide and we have been implementing this project since last three and half years. If any organization would like to work on this issue please feel free to contact with us. Many thanks to VERC for given me the opportunity to deliver my speech.

Shaikh A Halim welcomed as well as warm greetings to all the participants. We all more or less aware on the current scenario of climate change in Bangladesh. The first world countries are degrading the global climate whereas the third world countries are victimized due to this. Bangladesh is one of the most victimized countries in the world. It also disappointed fro us that in the recent climate change seminar held at Bali Indonesia where Bangladesh could not contribute the potential role where as small like Maldives played an important role. He also slight added with Mr. Khan speech that five basic things (soil, water, air, human and animal) are very important for the environment. The way we have popularized the sanitation approach in Bangladesh involving all sectional people and to popularize the ICS we have follow the same approach.  This is true that indoor air pollution is more harmful for health than the out door air pollution. As long we will not understand the impact on this and will not work together we will not fulfill our target or solve this problem

2. Key note presentation and Question & answer session;

After the first session Dr. Abdur Rob Mollah, Professor, The University of Dhaka presented the key note paper on ‘Climate Change and Bangladesh Scenario”. He mainly pointed out that what is Climate change? How Climate change and kitchen burning, green house affect. & carbon trading? What are the major causes for the climate change? What are projected changes in climatic factors:  Bangladesh scenario? Impacts of climate change on our environment and assets and our responses and responsibilities.

After the presentation question-answer session on the presentation organized. During the session a significant number of questions received from the participants. The presenter as well as Dr. Hasan Rashid answered all those quarries.

3. Closing Remarks:

In the closing remarks session, Mr. Yakub Hossain, Deputy Executive Director, VERC thanked to Dr. Rob for his lively presentation and also cordially thanks to all  participants for their active participation. We all should work together to keep our environment clean and environment friendly. We can anticipate that we will meet together in the next year with new hope and good news.