The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on Thursday, November 28, 2019 called on African countries to foster more effective policy and harmonisation in managing climate change.
Richard Munang, Africa regional climate change coordinator at UNEP, said that African countries require unity that allows all ministries and other stakeholders to work together to meet climate action commitments.
“Implementing climate action enterprises cannot be done through one sector alone without input from all the leading productive line ministries and sectors.’’
He said that the ministry of environment should oversee leading the progress since the governments have policies in place.
The UNEP official noted that climate action must become an added tool in our countries’ economic development plans since prioritising climate action is an investment for direct and indirect realisation of socially and economically inclusive development.
Munang urged African governments to find the alternative financing model since it has already been agreed upon through high-level policy provisions instead of relying on traditional public assistance alone.
“We must desist from reliance on international public finance alone and embrace more innovative approaches that balance public and private, domestic and international sources.’’
He noted that even though climate change is global, the poor are disproportionately vulnerable to its effects because they lack the resources to quickly recover from its effects.
Munang said that efforts to combat climate change must align with accelerating socio-economic growth to build resilient populations in the continent. “The work of every government and every sector of the economy is to build the resilience of citizens to enable them to put food on their table, money in their pockets, a job for every youth and a globally competitive economy.’’
