The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda requires US$ 6 billion approximately Shillings 22 billion for implementing her national climate change plan under the Paris Agreement, State Minister for Environment Dr. Mary Goretti Kitutu, has told parties to the agreement.
She was speaking at this year’s United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as the head of Uganda’s delegation to the Convention in Madrid, Spain on Tuesday. Kitutu said the money is required to implement the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) outlined under the Paris Agreement and the National Plan of Action (NAPA).
The Paris Agreement is a voluntary national commitment signed within the United Nation’s Framework Convention on climate change to encourage in-country contributions for limiting global green house gas emissions, mitigation and adaptation of climate change.
Under the agreement signed in 2016, countries committed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels to prevent increasing the severity of drought, soil erosion and wildfires alongside diminishing crop yields in the tropics.
The Intergovernmental Panel on climate change reports that excessive warming of the earth above two degrees (2°C) will also increase the frequency of extreme sea level events that used to occur once every hundred years to happen at least once a year in many regions around the world by 2050.
Uganda committed to limit green house gas emission from the Agriculture sector by 22 percent alongside other adaptation measures for building resilience of communities to floods, droughts and other extreme weather events. Dr. Kitutu told the Convention on Tuesday that Uganda has continuously witnessed the extreme weather events such as the landslides and floods which have claimed many lives.
“In other ecosystems, drought is escalating, leading to frequent bouts of famine. These experiences of both the extreme and the slow onset climatic impacts are increasingly eroding the natural ecosystem services that society has been endowed with from generation to generation” she stated.
She urged parties to the agreement to raise their Climate Change ambitions for limiting temperature raise to well below 2°C. The secretary General of World Meteorological Organization, Petteri taalass told the same Convention that the average global temperature has already risen 1.1 degrees and the Ocean by half of a degree above pre-industrial level.
“220 million people suffered from heatwaves last year. We have started seeing growth in hunger once again after a period of decline. Now we have more than 800 million people suffering from lack of food” he stated.
According to Taalass, the warming of the oceans have given more energy for tropical storms. He said tropical cyclone Idai hit Mozambique as the strongest cyclone hitting the southern hemisphere in 100 years.
Uganda National Meteorological Authority reported after Tropical Cyclone Idai that it derailed the onset of the first season rainfall in Uganda when moist winds from Indian Ocean and the Congo Basins were sucked towards Mozambique. It says the country is yet to see a relapse in the abnormal rainfall pattern after the Cyclone since the rains returned in April this year causing massive food losses.
It also triggered incidents of flooding and landslides that have damaged homesteads and claimed human lives in Bududa and Bundibugyo districts among others. Several rivers have burst their banks including River Nile and its tributary Kafu. According to Dr. Kitutu, access to Finance for implementing the plans remains a challenge for Uganda.
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