Zimpapers Logo

Nokutenda Chiyangwa Herald Reporter
Government intends to come up with a statutory instrument that will ensure reduction in emissions as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Zimbabwe has an obligation to reduce emissions under the UNFCCC’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

This means the country is supposed to reduce energy-related emissions by 33 percent below the “business as usual” emissions by 2030.

Speaking at a high level breakfast meeting on Sustainability, Profitability and Climate Change held in Harare last week, climate mitigation expert in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate Mr Lawrence Mashungu said that the key elements in this programme are energy efficiency and renewable energy.

“We are looking at the role of industry in implementing NDCs. We are working with stakeholders to achieve this target.

“The country has an obligation that they made in 2015 and we are working to meet that obligation to our maximum capacity.

“We expect the industry to ensure that they use energy efficiently. We need to use more renewable energy and that will give us less energy problems in the country.

“Because of this, the ministry is coming up with a statutory instrument aimed at guiding companies to reduce emissions. We need to deal with capacity building programmes before dealing with the issue of policy,” he said.

Mr Mashungu also said that the statutory instrument will require companies to provide data that will be used for the Government and stakeholders to understand where the country stands on the issue of climate change and reduction of emissions.

“We will have data provisions that will help us to understand where we are and understand the progress. Industries might have challenges in capturing data,” he said.

“We will also have low emission investments as most of the equipment is obsolete and not energy efficient. We need equipment that’s energy efficient in industries.”