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Jeffrey Gogo Climate Change
Civil society groups working on climate change have urged the Zimbabwe Government to prioritise adaptation, gender equality and climate finance when countries meet for the annual UN climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany next month. The Climate Change Working Group (CCWG), representing over 50 non-governmental organisations, said it was crucial also for Government authorities to focus on elements that support technology transfer, build institutional capacity to respond to climate change, and raise ambition for cutting carbon emissions.

Thousands of delegates from nearly 200 countries are expected to meet in Bonn between November 6-17 to develop guidelines — the touted “rulebook”—on implementing the Paris Agreement on climate change of 2015, among other issues. To this end, Zimbabwe is preparing a report outlining its expectations for that conference.

These will then be consolidated into the wider position of the African Group, a coalition of 54 African countries that speak as one in global climate talks. Input from civil society makes for important contribution in the process . The CCWG strongly supports the Paris Agreement’s key goal of curbing global temperature rise at two degrees Celsius in this century, but wants to see more action that protects women and communities against the dangerous impacts of climate change.

“The narrative of climate change . . . should dwell more on women and youth empowerment and responsive action as opposed to victim portrayal,” said Shepherd Zvigadza, who chairs the civil society climate working group.

Drawing upon a roadmap on gender agreed in Peru three years ago, Zvigadza said that plan “should continuously feature in discussions given its focus on promoting gender balance, equality and women empowerment.”

Women in Africa, where agriculture is the economic mainstay supporting over 600 million people, are often seen as the face of climate change. Because women anchor families, providing food and care, they are more often than not in the frontlines when climate impacts strike, which also means they are the first line of defence to similar impacts, say experts.

Rapid measures

Zvigadza spoke in the wake of a civil society meeting held in Harare on September 26, to discuss expectations for the impending annual UN climate negotiations. The meeting, which produced a “position paper” that enshrines six key points for attention, was attended by over 65 organisations, including ordinary people, civil society, religious groups, media and business representatives, organisers said.

In May, world climate diplomats met in Bonn for the usual annual mid-term talks, a primer for the year-end conference that also includes heads of state and government, but made little progress developing the Paris Agreement rulebook. This is will now be thrashed out at the 23rd meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP23), convening under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the multi-lateral platform that has steered climate talks since 1992.

The rulebook is expected to provide guidelines on how to keep global temperatures “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times and “endeavour to limit” them even more, to 1,5 degrees Celsius.

It will also include issues on transparency, accountability and finance as agreed in the Paris treaty, as well guidelines on how to review each country’s contribution to cutting emissions beginning in 2018, and every five years thereafter, with the aim of taking stronger action. The idea is to come up with a book of rules that effectively limits carbon emissions from human activity, to the extent that can be tolerated by trees, oceans and soil, the natural sinks of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, and to be transparent about it.

Already, scientific consensus point towards the inadequacy of current pledges, as indicated in the individual country climate plans called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Scientists say at current level of ambition, the world will warm by upto 3 degrees Celsius in this century, with devastating impacts on agriculture, water, disease and food security.

To avoid this catastrophe, and more, African countries have demanded financial and technological help from wealthy nations, blamed for flaring the current climatic chaos. A promise of $100 billion per year beyond 2020 has been made for this purpose, but many aren’t pleased. They want more, tangibly more.

No to debt

Zvigadza, the Climate Change Working Group chairman, says the upcoming climate summit should put such sticky issues to rest.

“Access to adequate, predictable, timely and unconditional climate finances form the basis upon which climate action can be undertaken. The definition of climate finance should exclude loans that are extended to developing countries as they promote perpetual debts for future generations but rather should be limited to grants,” said Zvigadza, in a statement.

Zimbabwe needs upto $90 billion to fully implement its climate plan under the Paris Agreement, where it has committed to cut emissions by 33 percent person over the next 13 years. Much of the money is to be invested in cleaner energy projects like solar power and hydro-power, including improving energy efficiency, with $35 billion earmarked for adaptation, mainly in agriculture.

Common ground

A lot of what the Zimbabwean civil society is pushing for dovetails with what climate negotiators in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate are building at in their “position paper” to the African Group. As Zvigadza spoke about how the Paris Agreement rulebook should include firm provisions for “training and capacitating local communities to adapt to climate change” his sentiments echoed loud to what Elisha Moyo, a climate researcher with the Zimbabwe Government, said at the same meeting.

“Our objectives should centre on ensuring to building the resilience of our communities and economy to climate change and variability,” Moyo told the conference, jointly organised Zero Regional Environmental Organisation, Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, supported by Hivos and Act Alliance.

Moyo highlighted the need for the Paris accord “to remain favourable to developing nations” by recognising a principle that puts all countries at the same level, but with different capacities and capabilities to respond to climate change. For years, civil society organisations have been involved in climate change advocacy, putting pressure on governments and big businesses to take action against, or risk the dangerous impacts of rising global temperatures.

God is faithful.

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