Reported on the BBC website:

The UK is giving £75m ($133m) to help Bangladesh prepare for the impacts of climate change, the government will announce on Wednesday.

The money will go on measures such as protecting houses, schools and farms against flooding, and introducing new crop strains.

…

“Other proposals in Bangladesh’s climate action plan include raising the level of polders (sea defences) in the Bay of Bengal, increasing the height of embankments that protect residential areas or lands where crops are grown, and the introduction of seeds tolerant to salt or arsenic.”

The Guardian reports that:

Bangladesh has pledged to contribute £25m a year to the new fund which, it is hoped, will attract nearly £100m within three years. Other global funds for poor countries are expected to be set up in the run-up to a new Kyoto climate change agreement at the end of 2009. The Bangladesh government has calculated that it will need £250m to adapt to climate change in the next three years.

“We are one of the most vulnerable countries in the world. We are getting much too much water in the rainy season and too little in the dry season. All this affects how much food we can grow,” said Bangladesh’s environment minister, Raja Debashish Roy.

The international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, said Britain and other rich countries had a moral duty to help Bangladesh and other poor countries to adapt their infrastructure, farming and economies to climate change. “The world now has a duty to rise to the challenge and ensure that we support the poorest people of the world - least responsible for climate change - to prevent and prepare for its cruellest consequences,” he said.

The story is also covered by the Telegraph and other media.