By eastafrican gazette
With climate change’s multiple ramifications for the country, experts in the subject have urged for practical approaches to building more resilient communities.
At the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), which convened in Dubai from November 30 to December 12, 2023, the parties decided to create a Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) and operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund.
With all the elements that were negotiated included in the Gobal Stocktake (GST), which nations can now use to create more robust climate action plans by 2025, it is regarded as the primary outcome of COP28.
The new National Determined Contributions (NDCs) and their associated objectives are governed by the GST.
In order to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the parties demanded a fair and just “transition away” from fossil fuels and a tripling of renewable energy capacity by 2030.
During the first day of the summit, the parties also agreed to to compensate countries for the effects of climate change with a commitment of $792 million to the Loss and Damage Fund.
However, the fund is hosted by the World Bank, and comes with strict conditions that many African countries have claimed may be difficult to meet.
During an evaluation meeting of COP28 outcomes at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kitante, the Ugandan Capital Kampala, various stakeholders within the climate change space, called for sustainable responsive strategies for climate action.
The meeting organized by ActionAid International Uganda (AAIU), attracted officials from Ministries of Finance, and Water and Environment, academia, negotiators, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) like the Participatory ecological land use management (PELUM- Uganda), Mentoring and Empowerment Programme for Young Women-MEMPROW and Climate Action Network Uganda (CAN-U) among others.
The event which is part of the Climate Justice Week Action (CJW) was aimed at tracking government’s commitments on the Climate Change.
Mercy Grace Munduru, the Head of Programs and Fundraising at AAIU, stated that the meeting is a suitable venue since at the COP28, everyone was scattered and there was no possibility for Uganda’s representatives to sit together to discuss the outcome plans and strategies.
She emphasized that occasions such as the COP28 meetings are significant for communities, highlighting the necessity of skillfully incorporating international discourse into local frameworks.
According, to Munduru many people used to say that these were issues for the Global North and did not apply ‘to us’, but the recent floods and other consequences have awakened people up and prompted them to start having serious conversations.
She noted the CJWA also provides a chance to further condense data into information packs that local residents can understand in order to aid in climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
“This meeting also helps us to know areas of collaboration. This will help us have concrete actions that we track ahead of COP29. Climate justice has a face, it has a name, it has statistics. We are seeing an actual crisis unfolding before our eyes. We must reflect on what we need for better actions,” she added.
She stressed that events like COP28 meetings hold significance for communities, underscoring the need to integrate global discussions into local frameworks effectively.
She commended Uganda’s negotiators for working closely with partners and sharing their knowledge, as well as accepting some of their comments and contributions.
Mackay Okure, who was among the climate change negotiators at COP28, stated that the parties agreed to meet two sets of targets by 2030 including: sectoral targets, which focuses on seven sectors, as well as the dimension targets.
He emphasized that sectors under consideration included water, food and agriculture, health, ecosystem biodiversity, infrastructure and human settlement, poverty and livelihood, and culture and livelihood.
Winfred Matsiko, a former African Negotiator on Climate and Gender, emphasized the necessity of responsive strategies for effective implementation and robust monitoring for climate action.
She said there is need for a comprehensive reporting to track progress on the various interventions.
“There are so many players in climate change; the CSOs, academia, in government. One of the prominent activity we have done, is we have carried out a gender and climate change vulnerability hotspot mapping. It is a digital approach,” she noted. progress
Calling for fairness
Several participants called for fairness and justice, especially in accessing climate change financing.
Anthony Wolimbwa, the CAN-U National Coordinator, noted that one of the primary conditions for accessing the loss and damage fund is that a country must provide evidence that its consequences are the result of climate change.
He stated that the condition is extremely troublesome, and that many countries may be unable to access it.
He stressed that, due to the condition, countries must first develop the capacity to collect the essential data and information to provide evidence that the damage was caused by climate change.
“For an example you see a flood, or a landslide, you must have information that it is as a result of climate change for them to assess and give you money. Now that is a problem,” Wolimbwa added.
“First of all our research budget is too low, so it is going to be very problematic. That is why we have been advocating for more direct access. The attribution to climate change is the main issue because it requires a lot of information, data research, you must convince beyond reasonable doubt,” he noted.
He made it clear that they want all conditions lifted.
Wolimbwa emphasized that countries such as Uganda, Kenya, and the bulk of African countries do not yet have the capacity to convincingly demonstrate that this or that is due to climate change.
“But we know from the projections these things are happening but our friends in the Global North, because they don’t want to pay that debt, are not tying us down to providing such evidence which is very problematic,” he added.
He emphasized that they are now advocating the use of thresholds.
“If we have floods of a certain scale, then that money should come and respond. If you have a famine like in Karamojong because of disruption in weather, let’s have the money respond just like the government has done with what they call the contingency fund,” he added.
“There should not be this issue of first proving, how can you prove when people are dying? The science there says that climate change is happening and it is going to hit more of the countries along the tropical areas and the equator,” he added.
He emphasized that all developed countries should contribute to the fund because they are accountable for global emissions that caused global warming and later climate disruption.
Uganda needs $28.1bn to respond to climate change
Wolimbwa noted that Uganda needs to about $28.1bn to fully respond to the climate change between now (2024) and 20230.
This means on average the country needs between $3bn-$4bn annually.
But the available information from the Ministry of Finance, shows that last year (2023) Uganda only accessed only $400m from climate financing.
“That is about just 10% of what we require annually. So there is a huge gap. That is now constraining the government’s budgetary resources,” he noted.
He emphasized that this implies that the Ugandan government must now hunt for money in its own budget to finance climate change.
“This means at least $2.5bn should come from external sources and the government of Uganda provides $1bn but that is not happening. Actually the government is even paying more to address climate change,” Wolimbwa added.
He stressed that the country’s budget figures show that the government is even doing more than what the international community.
“On that note, I want to congratulate the government of Uganda for that but we should not sleep. We must push for this money from these guys who pollute. Climate change money is debt from the Global North because they need to pay us for the damage they have caused to us who have not contributed anything significant,” he noted.
“Whenever you see climate change money, it is a debt from those who developed by using fossil fuels or those who depleted our carbon budget,” he noted.
The National Determinant Contribution for Uganda requires $28.1bn to fully respond to climate change between now and 2030.
Making progress
Patricia Roy Akullo, the Social Safeguards and Gender Expert in the Climate Unit at the Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development, stated that the government has already established a team to mobilize resources, monitor the use, and ensure institutional coordination for green investments.
She underlined that they are making progress in seven areas to finance the country’s climate change goals and ambitions.
Apart from working on the creation of the Country’s Climate Development Report, the government is also set to meet with the World Bank to discuss on getting financing from the Resilience and Sustainability Fund (RSF).
Uganda is also participating in various spring meetings with the World Bank to examine some of the mechanisms and conditions that would ensure transparency in the access to the loss and damage fund.
Bob Natifu, Assistant Commissioner, Climate Change, Ministry of Water and Environment, noted that there have been numerous worldwide meetings, resolutions, and policies addressing climate change that must now be implemented into action.
He noted that the necessary response should is that of the average person who is impacted by famine, extreme heat, weather shifts, and so on.
Climate finance
At the conference the Green Climate Fund (GCF) received a boost from six other countries, bringing the total pledges to $2.8 billion from 31 countries.
At COP28, eight donor states announced fresh commitments to the Least Developed Countries Fund and Special Climate Change Fund totaling more than $174 million, while the Adaptation Fund received new pledges totaling over $188 million.
UN Climate Change is creating transparency reporting and review mechanisms for use by Parties, which were demonstrated and tested at COP28. Final versions of the reporting tools should be available to Parties by June 2024.
Parties also agreed that Azerbaijan will host COP29 from November 11-22
, 2024, while Brazil will host COP30 from November 10-21, 2025.
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