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Africa Moyo in SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt
It was a busy day at the ongoing United Nations climate change conference here yesterday for Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Deputy Minister Barbara Rwodzi, who participated in five side events, in which she pleaded for financial support to enable Zimbabwe to adapt and mitigate the impact of climate change.
At the first side event, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Mr John Kerry, was the guest speaker.
Mr Kerry said he would come up with a strategy to ensure there were hundreds of billions of dollars by April next year to support vulnerable countries in the fight against climate change.
He said together with Germany, they would find a way to mobilise climate funds.
“There’s no reason why not. We’re the largest shareholders, we need to call the meetings (World Bank Group), put out the policy and make it happen,” he said.
But Mr Kerry said the US was equally facing challenges such as flooding and may not be in a position to assist every country in need, and therefore, called on other wealthy countries to assist.
In her address, Deputy Minister Rwodzi said Zimbabwe revised upwards its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) commitment to 40 percent by 2030.
The target covers all economic sectors as classified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) namely energy, waste, industrial processes and product use (IPPU) and agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU).
Zimbabwe’s revised NDC commitments are fully conditional on the means of implementation namely finance, technology development and transfer and training.
An estimated US$5 billion is required for implementation while adaptation will require an almost similar amount, said Deputy Minister Rwodzi.
“A national climate change fund is being established to mobilise domestic and international climate finance for implementing NDCs.
“Treasury has fully mainstreamed climate change in budgeting processes with explicit calls for all ministries, departments, (and) agencies to mainstream climate change in their budgets,” she said.
Financing, said Deputy Minister Rwodzi, remains a critical element to assist translate the climate change commitments into concrete transformative actions by 2030, by which year Zimbabwe aims to have achieved an upper middle income society.
The second side event focused on the inclusion of gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights (GSRHR).
Deputy Minister Rwodzi said the discussion on sexual reproductive health came at an opportune time as the impacts of climate change were mounting, especially in developing countries.
“In developing countries such as Zimbabwe where I come from, the impact of climate change on gender may not be overemphasised,” she said.
“In fact, climate change impacts are not gender neutral, with women and girls bearing the brunt more than their male counterparts.
“Women and girls face particular vulnerabilities resulting from cultural norms and lower socio-economic status in society. Women and girls are vulnerable in this way because of cultural practices and gender stereotypes that keep them in unequal power relationships with men within their families and communities.”
She added that their domestic roles often make them disproportionate users of natural resources such as water, firewood and forest products.
This is not withstanding the vagaries associated with weather extremes such as droughts, tropical cyclones and flooding which damage infrastructure, hospitals and roads thereby reducing mobility and curtail the access of basic human rights and services.
Deputy Minister Rwodzi said in Zimbabwe, women constitute over 70 percent of small-holder farmers relying on dryland agriculture for survival.
She later participated in a youth forum and another on climate and clean air, which ended last night.
Online Reporter