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Climate change is now a major factor in the economies of many countries, although as President Mnangagwa has noted more so in most of the developing states, and Zimbabwe needs to be able to cope but can also take advantage of the measures that are needed to survive.

There are two aspects to climate change, the effects it has on the country and the measures the country must take to fulfil international obligations to reduce global warming and the accompanying climate change.

The effects, regrettably, are largely negative for Zimbabwe. Besides having a warmer climate, we are likely to see more droughts, if only because a warming Pacific Ocean will generate more El Ninos, and we will probably see more cyclones, since warmer seas in the southwest Indian Ocean will trigger more of those.

Already everyone has noted that the rains now almost invariably come later, and even this year with a La Nina in the Pacific likely to bring normal to above normal rainfall, the forecast is still for a later start to the season than the historical averages would suggest. This appears to be one of the effects of the general rise in global temperatures.

Addressing the third Zimbabwe Economic Development Conference in Victoria Falls this week, President Mnangagwa noted that what we are already experiencing requires innovation, modernisation and industrialisation.

These are precisely what the economy requires in any case, as Zimbabwe develops into an upper middle income economy, but the climate change makes the thrust more urgent.

It was already dubious as to whether what we were doing was adequate for the modern world, and climate change makes the need to move forward essential, rather than just something that was useful.

The President noted that there were opportunities for Zimbabwe and for businesses in the country.

One example arises from the large lithium reserves, now being mined.

Many of the renewable sources of electricity, and the planned switch-over for the global vehicle fleet from petroleum engines to electric engines, will require a vast increase in battery production.

Solar and wind energy require storage for when the wind dies down and when night starts falling, and electric cars need a large battery rather than a fuel tank.

Zimbabwe will be supplying a lot of the lithium needed for all these batteries, but as the President noted, it would be better to supply the batteries.

There are other examples of new businesses and new industries. While solar panels are being installed on ever more buildings, the really heavy energy consumption of heating hot water is usually done better with a solar water heater, and some businesses are now pushing the latest designs, made right here in Zimbabwe.

There are growing markets to make electricity use more efficient, again a new business.

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Other areas where mitigation is essential is in agriculture, those dams and irrigation systems, and that again requires innovation and industrialisation.

No matter how many dams we build, there will be limits on how much water we can store, so irrigation has to become ever more efficient, with waste cut as close to zero as possible and careful research on the optimum amount of water for each crop.

We can grasp the opportunities that combating climate change opens up and use these to help accelerate our industrial growth, basically the cornerstone of our economic growth. But this will require more capital, in both public and private sectors, and hence the pressure to increase investment and end sanctions so there is more access to international funding.

The Second Republic has been making the right moves, cleaning up the investment laws and policies so ever more investors are keen to come to the country, and building up the engagement and re-engagement policies, along with prudent financial management.

It is worth noting that when the El Nino drought hit, we had the plans ready and started implementing, using our own resources.

Others saw what we were doing, and saw we were doing it right, and have been prepared to chip in. But it was that initial home-grown effort that attracted the attention and so made others think it was worthwhile to help out.

Zimbabwe has international obligations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Our contribution to global warming is effectively zero, as we are a small developing country and so long as we maintain forests could probably keep a small negative carbon emission while using coal to generate all the extra electricity we need. But the obligations are again opportunities, and again need access to the sort of capital funding that is supposed to be coming online.

Solar is an obvious renewable energy for Zimbabwe, especially as hydro is now so variable with droughts a major menace.

Huge solar arrays are not cheap, and they only generate power when the sun is shining, so need large storage complexes as well.

As anyone who has fitted panels to their house or business knows, the storage is usually the most expensive part of a system.

So again 24/7 power will need the solar power stations coupled to battery parks once solar power moves beyond just coping with daytime peaks and becomes a major source of grid power. These are not a bad investment, but we need to get the figures and costs sorted out.

The resulting power supply needs to be affordable, after all.

Combating climate change is not all gloom and doom. Both dealing with the effects and meeting the national contributions we have agreed to, open opportunities.

We need to push for the investment and global funding to speed things along, but we can start from where we are and with what we have now and start moving forward with our own resources.