Govt to set up National Climate Change Fund

Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu , Chronicle Reporter
GOVERNMENT is working on setting up a National Climate Change Fund which will assist in financing climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.

This is in line with the National Climate Policy that came into effect in 2016. The Government is committed to fighting climate change in pursuit of sustainable development. Through the policy, Government wants to create a pathway towards a climate resilient and low carbon development economy in which people have enough adaptive capacity and continue to develop in harmony with the environment.

To achieve this, the National Climate Policy is supported by the National Climate Change Response Strategy, National Adaptation Plan, the Low Carbon Development Strategy, National Environmental Policy and Strategic Document as well as other policies aimed at achieving sustainable developmentAdequate financing, cross sectoral coordination, climate change science, research and systematic observations will form the backbone of actions towards a climate resilient Zimbabwe.

Government launched the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) which outlines policy and strategic direction beginning this year up to 2025. The NDS1 has a pillar that focuses on climatic change issues among other environmental and natural resource management issues.

In an interview, the deputy director in the climate change management department under the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Mr Kudzai Ndidzano said they were in the process of coming up with a legal framework to support the setting up of the National Climate Change Fund.

“The Ministry is working on setting up a National Climate Change Fund. This fund will help to finance climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives that we are rolling out. The National Climate Policy provides for the establishment of a National Climate Change Fund. We have just concluded the development of the architecture in terms of the sources of the funds, access modalities and management of the funds which is quite critical,” he said.

Mr Ndidzano said they were now looking at the legal provisions for establishing the fund and have since been advised that it needs to be backed by a statutory instrument or an Act of Parliament.

“We have started consultations to come up with the required legal instrument. Once we have the legal instrument in place then the management and other processes to establish the fund will fall inline,”he said.

Mr Ndidzano said Government, working with various partners has rolled out various climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies within communities such as solar powering irrigation schemes, Intwasa/Pfumvudza Programme and construction of weirs among others.

He said in the meantime, Government was pursuing other initiatives to secure funding from the multilateral climate financing institutions.

The Ministry is also running a National Adaptation Process where it seeks to integrate climate change in a number of national development polices and strategies.

Mr Ndidzano said they had capacitated Provincial Development Committees across the country to prioritise actions that will enhance adaption to climate change or reduce the source of greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

The country has embraced various policies and strategies since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 which include the National Climate Policy, Low Emission Development Strategy, NDC Two-Way Communication Strategy, National Adaptation Plan Roadmap, the 2017 System Development Plan, the Renewable Energy Policy, Biofuels Policy, Revised National Gender Policy and Implementation Plan, National Water Resources Master Plan, National Agriculture Policy Framework, Climate-Smart Agricultural Investment Plan and the National Industrial Development Policy. — @DubeMatutu