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Leonard Ncube-Victoria Falls Reporter
FOLLOWING the operationalisation of the loss and damage fund at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP28) last year, Zimbabwe has started crafting a framework that will help the country access global funding for climate change activities.
A fund was established to assist developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change and damage associated with the impact of global warming and also to help finance the switch to low carbon energy, industrial and agricultural systems.
In an interview, the director for climate change management in the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, Dr Washington Zhakata, said the country is also working on crafting a Climate Change Bill.
Already the principles of the Bill have been approved by the Cabinet and are now in the consultation phase.
“For us to enforce climate change fully, we need to have a Climate Change Act. We have trained experts to track the speed at which companies are implementing mitigation aspects of reporting on activities they are doing to transform into the most sustainable forms of energy,” he said.
Dr Zhakata said the ministry conducted an energy and water use efficiency initially on 10 selected companies and further expanded it to the hotel and hospitality sector.
“We are now expanding to cover the wider spectrum of stakeholders in collaboration with Comesa to ensure that once we have robust and water use efficiency, we will come up with an improvement plan to contribute to reductions and nationally determined contributions which are our obligations as a country to the Paris Agreement,” he said.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter