ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — The Third Annual Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-III) kicked off here, against a background of growing sense of urgency to respond to the impact of climate change.
WISDOM MDZUNGAIRI
There is also concern about the slow progress by the historic emitters in fulfilling commitments to benefit Africa to tackle the challenge of global warming.
The conference is designed to provoke debate among experts and stakeholders in development policy and practice on how opportunities in climate change can enhance Africa’s transformative economic growth and development agenda.
Environment, Water and Climate minister Saviour Kasukuwere, who said warming across Africa was occuring at an alarming rate, gave thumbs up to the multi-million dollar Chisumbanje ethanol project in Manicaland province, adding that it had helped Zimbabwe to leap-frog other countries towards creating a green economy as well as creating thousands of jobs.
“We have just licensed a company (Green Fuel) to produce ethanol in Chisumbanje, one way of growing green economy,” Kasukuwere said in an interview. “But we are now moving beyond ethanol as we are looking at other areas where we believe our efforts are needed to give impetus to the green economy. It has also helped us create thousands of jobs in the country.”
Kasukuwere said Zimbabwe had endorsed the United Nations Economic for Africa six-point plan to follow a green and clean energy pathway, saying the continent was well-positioned to absorb, adapt and build on the vast quantities of scientific and technical knowledge already available.
He also spoke at a High Level Dialogue under the theme: Can the Opportunities from Climate Change Spring the Continent to Transformative Development, together with ex-Botswana President Festus Mogae, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, Gambia’s Fisheries and Water Resources minister Mass Axi Gai and other leaders across the world.
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Kasukuwere, who is also chair of the African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET), added that Africa was becoming familiar with some of the effects of climate variability across the continent.
The ethanol project was licensed in August this year, 18 months behind schedule due to political indifferences and clashes with the local community.
UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) executive secretary and UN under-secretary general Carlos Lopes said: “We need to persuade the skeptics of climate change in Africa on just how vulnerable we are to it. We should do this by navigating scientific findings and hard facts that make its impacts unequivocal.”
