The Sunday Mail
Phillipa Mukome-Chinhoi
Climate change is everyone’s responsibility as it cuts across all socio-economic spheres, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Air Marshal (Retired) Perence Shiri has said.
All ministries should therefore integrate climate change into their policy, planning and budgeting frameworks.
Minister Shiri was speaking during an inter-Ministerial Climate Change Dialogue.
He revealed that the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has called for a climate summit that will be held on 23 September in New York alongside the United Nations General Assembly.
The summit will proffer solutions for Zimbabwe in light of climate change that has seen the country reeling under the effects on El-Nino induced droughts over the last couple of years.
Global climate is being triggered by global warming, variation in ocean currents, volcanic eruptions, vehicle gas emissions, burning of fossil fuels to heat homes and deforestation, among other issues.
To arrest this trend, manufacturers, the energy sector, farmers, transport operators and individuals, etcetera, need to play their part. For a more effective response, all the stakeholders need to be well informed on the orientation of the climate change discourse.
Due to a poor resource base and low institutional capacities, developing countries are more likely to suffer from the adverse impact of climate change.
Climate change effects are also more widespread in developing countries due to their over reliance on climate dependent and sensitive sectors such as agriculture and forestry.
In the future, extreme weather events are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude.
But by the year 2030, Zimbabwe’s energy sector is expected to reduce her emissions by 33 percent per capita.
The country’s Low Emission Development Strategy document is nearing completion and will be presented to the United Nations Framework Climate Change Secretariat by 2020.
The strategy looks at sustainable methods in the agricultural, industrial processing, forestry, energy and transport sectors.
Climate finance is being made available through multi-lateral institutions such as the Green Climate Fund.
