Hosia Mviringi
President Mnangagwa yesterday rallied the world to collectively commit to reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere as a way of mitigating climate change.
Addressing the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, President Mnangagwa said the effects of climate change are disproportionately felt by developing countries which remain net carbon sinks due to low emissions.
“It is most unfortunate that the impact of climate change is disproportionately borne by vulnerable communities which have contributed the least to the current stock of atmospheric carbon.
Vulnerable countries most therefore, be capacitated to mitigate, adapt and build resilience to climate change,” said President Mnangagwa.
President Mnangagwa said the world expects that major emitters of carbon, which are predominantly the large industrialised economies, most of which are members of the Group of Seven (G7) most industrialised economies, scale up mitigation and show greater interest in adaptation measures.
To that end, President Mnangagwa said that it was imperative that those industrialised nations should use this year’s COP26 global convention to make meaningful commitment towards financing and capacitating vulnerable countries’ gradual and sustainable migration from fossil fuel to renewable energy.
“It is further imperative that the said emission reduction targets are anchored on supporting, financing and equipping countries to gradually and sustainably migrate from fossil to renewable energy,” said President Mnangagwa.
Despite Zimbabwe being a net sink for carbon, meaning that the country produces much less carbon than it is absorbing, President Mnangagwa further highlighted country’s commitment to reach a determined target for greenhouse gas emission reduction by 40 percent per capita.
Zimbabwe has adopted comprehensive strategies to encourage mainstreaming of climate change adaptation and resilience across all sectors of the economy.
The world is experiencing gradual rise in atmospheric temperatures that has caused numerous natural disasters such as cyclones, tsunamis and shifting weather patterns that threaten humanity.
The United Nations Conference of Parties 26th meeting was scheduled to be held in Glasgow in November 2020, but was delayed by a year due to the travel restrictions imposed following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Conference is attended by more than 200 countries which are signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1994.
Writer’s note
COP26 Climate Forum convenes this year nearly half a year after the global industrial giants in the G7 met in Cornwall, England on June 15, 2021, while the UK was still President of the grouping.
Among its far reaching resolutions was a joint pledge to cease all financing to new fossil burning power generation plants in developing countries in favor of renewable energy.
Noble as it may sound, the decision was mired in hypocrisy as these countries in reality have continued to rollout such projects in their backyard.
These countries know that they impoverished Africa through resource exploitation, making the continent poorer and unable to respond to these challenges at the prescribed pace.
These rich nations continue to make pledges which they never seem committed to honour.
In 2009 the G7 Summit pledged to “jointly mobilise $100 billion from private and public sources per year, through to 2025” to help poor countries cope with the impact of climate change and help them adapt and build resilience.
Even though climate advocacy groups then said the money was inadequate, not a cent of the pledged amount has been realised or released to poor vulnerable countries.
This puts the sincerity of these nations in doubt.
The G7’s resolution to switch off funding from fossil fuel power generators is a deliberate move to further impoverish Africa whose access to electricity by citizens is still very low at less than 60 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa.
What this ban means is that without the capacity to quickly and sustainably switch to renewable energy, more Africans will soon be plunged into darkness.
This will be a negation to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 7 (SDG7) which is Universal Access to electricity.
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