Online Reporter
Takunda Gambiza and Takudzwa Mangrozah
ZIMBABWE will prioritise domestic climate action, law reform and stakeholder coordination in an effort to deliver a strong climate change mitigation commitment.
This emerged from last week’s post-COP30 national stakeholder feedback meeting in Harare, where Permanent Secretary for Environment, Climate and Wildlife Ambassador Tadeous Chifamba was the guest of honour.
The meeting highlighted how climate change was undermining Zimbabwe’s development, with Ambassador Chifamba warning that worsening droughts, floods and cyclones posed a direct threat to agricultural productivity, water security and livelihoods.
“Outcomes from COP30 in Belem, Brazil were regarded by many as lukewarm, largely because of limited mitigation pledges and the absence of the United States on the negotiating table,” he said.
“There was, however, agreement to work towards a new target to triple finance for climate adaptation, as well as the establishment of a new fund for tropical forest conservation.
“Climate finance is likely to remain suppressed, while the cost of adaptation continues to rise.”
Ambassador Chifamba encouraged stakeholders to take ownership of solutions.
“We do not take a begging-bowl approach. With the very little that we have, this is what we have been able to do, and we are looking for partnerships,” he said.
Ambassador Chifamba said the Climate Change Management Bill is at an advanced stage in Parliament.
It will greatly assist in mainstreaming climate change and enhancing the country’s carbon trading policy environment.
Nature, Climate and Energy team leader for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ms Constance Pepukai, said that the agency is proud to partner the Government at a critical moment for climate action.
“Climate finance remains the biggest enabler,” said Ms Pepukai, adding that the UNDP is supporting Zimbabwe through climate finance facilities, biodiversity finance and private sector instruments.
She emphasised that adaptation and resilience are non-negotiable and that transparency systems are essential for accessing global funding.
“The whole-of-society approach is absolutely key,” she stressed.
Providing a technical briefing on COP30 outcomes, climate scientist Mr Tirivanhu Muhwati, one of Zimbabwe’s United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiators, noted that the summit confirmed that the climate crisis is accelerating.
“We are probably not going to meet the 1,5 degrees Celsius temperature threshold,” Mr Muhwati said, noting that global temperatures are already around 1,2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“If we continue on the current trajectory, extreme events such as droughts and tropical cyclones will only get worse.”
He indicated that climate finance dominated negotiations, but remained inadequate.
“We are nowhere near the finance that is needed,” he said, adding that public funding alone would not be sufficient.
“We need to mobilise private sector finance, but without pushing developing countries deeper into debt.”
Mr Muhwati also said that COP30 reaffirmed commitments to triple adaptation finance by 2035, although concerns remain that the current baseline for adaptation funding is low.
He noted progress on adaptation indicators, loss and damage financing and carbon market mechanisms, saying Zimbabwe had submitted one of the world’s first reports under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
“We now have the plans,” he said, referring to Zimbabwe’s National Adaptation Plan.
“The key question is: Where are the resources to implement them?”
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