"A little increase in temperature, a little climate change, has a magnified impact here," said A. Atiq Rahman, the director of the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies -- the country's leading environmental research group -- based in Dhaka, the capital. "That's what makes the population here so vulnerable."

"Tomorrow's poverty will be far worse than today's," Rahman said.

"Part of it is sheer reality hitting you on the head -- there's stronger floods, more frequent floods," Rahman said. "Now the game is much clearer. The connection ... has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt."