An Investigation into the Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Power Generation in Bangladesh

Abstract

Most scientific studies report that the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is causing global climate change. Human induced emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, as well as deforestation and land-use change are the primary causes of increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is believed to be responsible for frequent and intense natural disasters, and the rise of sea level and its salinity. People from low lying countries are being affected most. The effects of climate change are numerous. Apart from social, environmental and demographical impacts, global climate change also affects power generation capacity. The main aim of this study is to identify the impact of climate change on existing power plants, assessing how those plants might be affected depending on current geographic locations across the country. The study used Bangladesh as a case study as the country is extremely vulnerable to climate change due to much it being not much above sea level and its large population size. The study identified several parameters affected by global climate change and showed how each parameter can influence the power generation capacities of existing as well as future power plants.