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Jeffrey Gogo Climate Story
THE green economy concept is gaining traction worldwide, principally as a design to combat future climatic changes, but also as a sustainable model for simultaneously tackling poverty and environmental degradation.
Now, the green growth is barely an issue that has drawn serious attention from policymakers in Zimbabwe, for many reasons.
But experts who met in Harare for a green economy workshop in the last fortnight believe the country’s economic plan, Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) if fully implemented, provides a compatible platform towards transition into a green economy.
Green economy, green growth and green industry are increasingly being used interchangeably to refer to the same thing as all ultimately support strategies that minimise environmental and social damage as tools for sustainable economic development.
The UN’s Environment Programme (UNEP) describes the green economy as one that results “in improved human well-being and social equity while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities”.
While factors such as rapid urbanisation, ecological damage and climate change have made the transition into green growth necessary – for Zimbabwe – however, the key challenge is how to promote low-carbon inclusive green economies.
That means understanding of the various methods and good practices – from assessments, to stakeholder engagement, policy formulation and strategy implementation – which Zimbabwe can adopt, as part of transformative measures to an environmentally viable and socially inclusive economy.
Zim-Asset, the country’s strategy for accelerating economic growth until 2018, can be that instrument for enhancing institutional and national capacities for greening the economy.
According to Dr Constancia Musvoto of South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Zim-Asset was well-suited for the integration of green economy concepts.
The four strategic clusters of the economic plan – food security and nutrition; social services and poverty eradication; infrastructure and utilities; value addition and beneficiation – dovetail with the core principles and objectives of the green economy, she said.
In an economy that’s green, job creation and agriculture are critical. Agriculture is already one of the key anchors of Zim-Asset. The sector directly supports livelihoods for more than two thirds of Zimbabweans.
“Zimbabwe’s chosen development path is compatible with a green economy. What are needed are appropriate actions to make it happen,” Dr Musvoto told the workshop hosted by a local development agency, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
“Agriculture potentially offers solutions to the social, economic and environmental challenges.”
Zim-Asset aims to achieve sustainable development and social equity “largely propelled by the judicious exploitation of the country’s abundant human and natural resources.”
The green economy “delivers poverty reduction, well-being, livelihoods, social protection and access to essential services.
“It improves governance and the rule of law. It is inclusive; democratic; participatory, accountable, transparent and stable,” she said.
Major infrastructure deliverables under Zim-Asset in the areas of water and sanitation; energy and power; public amenities, and transport, are key to achieving resource and energy efficiency in an economy pursuing the green development pathway.
“Sustainable infrastructure meets the needs of the people it services without causing environmental damage,” Dr Musvoto explained, cautioning, however, against regarding green growth as “the silver bullet” to dealing with existing economic inequalities.
Care in planning and design must be taken. This will ensure social inclusiveness and eco-efficiency, which reduces resource consumption and environmental impacts but enhancing service value.
But Zim-Asset still faces funding nightmares. Over $20 billion is needed for its successful implementation.
Government is incapacitated to meet these funding requirements in the absence of external support.
This may frustrate the green economy transformation, should it be built on Zim-Asset.
Needed changes
The Zimbabwe Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to “an environment that is not harmful to their health and to their well-being” as well as protecting the natural environment for posterity.
To achieve this, the State is instructed to undertake “reasonable legislative and other measures” that among other things “secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting economic and social development”.
Although the Constitution guarantees these environmental rights, Government is under no obligation to fulfil them if it does not have the financial assets to do so.
This financial gap creates wider gaps in the wholesale implementation of green strategies.
The country has in place some policies which seek to spur sustainable development such as the ones on energy, water, agriculture, environment and the climate change strategy still under formulation.
But their impact in the transition into a green economy is far from being realised, said Mr Tafadzwa Mundoga, a green economy expert.
The policy formulation process was a “conveyor belt” needed for unification, Mr Mundoga said, and the science policy gap bridged while strengthening the capacity of central institutions role in co-ordination.
Public private sector partnerships are encouraged, as a means for building financial and technical capacity.
Policies go through several cumbersome stages in Zimbabwe before being implemented. Concerns may generate from communities, then amplified by think tanks, Press or NGOs before gaining ministerial attention.
After that, they proceed to Cabinet, back to the ministry again, which usually hires consultants for design and formulation before eventual review and implementation.
The National Climate Change Response Strategy is now two years since the process of making it began.
Opportunities for the green economy exists in renewable energy such as solar, hotel industry and waste management among others, said Mr Tawanda Muzamwese, a consultant with the Business Council for Sustainable Development of Zimbabwe (BCSDZ).
“Zimbabwe has potential to implement green industry and green economy initiatives if actively supported by a robust policy framework that supports sustainable innovation,” Mr Muzamwese said.
He added that the green economy should be mainstreamed into various policies including industry and trade, SME development, environment protection, taxation, standards, ICT and research.
Successes elsewhere
Green policies should integrate strategies that promote both social and environmental goals. Other countries are deploying these strategies reasonably well.
India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme guarantees poor people – particularly women and ethnic minorities – 100 days’ work per year, building community assets
In South Africa, 25 000 people gain employment each year under the country’s Working for Water Programme, clearing invasive species from waterways.
Bangladesh’s Solar Homes Programme provides electricity to two million rural homes and empowers women as technicians to install and maintain the systems.
More ambitious still are policies that tackle the drivers of poverty and inequality while also greening the economy, said the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), a UK non-governmental organisation, in a report in February.
“It would be dangerous to assume that green policies will automatically help to tackle poverty,” Kate Raworth, visiting fellow in economics at IIED and co-author of the paper.
“Indeed, without care, they could well do the opposite” said at the time.
The emergency of the green economy has been supported by global failures in achieving development that eliminates social inequalities while sustaining nature.
Over the past 20 years, over 600 million people worldwide have been lifted out of poverty due to economic development. But the world development model has not been inclusive.
Some 1,3 billion people do not have access to electricity, 2,6 billion endure poor sanitation, 900 million lack access to clean drinking water and over 800 million are going hungry.
These challenges, coupled with climate change and the financial crisis of 2008, led the UNEP to call for a Global Green New Deal in 2009.
In 2011, during the UN’s Sustainable Development Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, world leaders adopted a package of outcomes called “The Future We Want” where the green economy concept gained ground.
African environment ministers declared in a consensus statement to Rio then: “. . . we recognise that the transition to a green economy could offer new opportunities for advancing the achievement of Africa’s sustainable development objectives through economic growth, employment creation, and the reduction of poverty and inequalities.”
God is faithful.
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