THE country must prioritise the crafting of the National Climate Policy to mitigate effects of climate change and ensure sustainable development, a senior Government official has said.
The development of the policy has been necessitated by the increasing changes in weather and climatic conditions that have left many communities in dire stress as a result of heavy rains and droughts.
The various impacts of climate change have been keenly felt in the past few years with precipitation patterns varying from place to place while temperatures have also changed leaving communities vulnerable and failing to adapt to the changes.
The Climate Change and Water Resources Planning, Development and Management in Zimbabwe: An Issues Paper by Richard Davis and Rafik Hirji of August 2014 notes that, “Zimbabwe has a history of severe droughts driven by cyclones.
“Droughts and floods have very high social as well as economic costs.
“Some 80 percent of Zimbabweans are farmers or are engaged in agro-industry, and so the economic damage, impacts on livelihoods and human suffering associated with extreme weather events can be very high including water and food shortages, poor health outcomes, economic losses to subsistence and commercial farmers, and destruction of infrastructure.”
The development of a national climate policy is therefore expected to help policy makers make crucial decisions that avert the climate change impacts.
Speaking during the inaugural stakeholder consultative workshop in Harare, the Permanent Secretary for Environment, Water and Climate, Prince Mupazviriwo said the development of the National Climate Policy is necessary for mainstreaming climate issues into national development plans.
“The Government is now focusing on developing a National Climate Policy to guide key sectors and promote mainstreaming of climate and climate change issues into our national development plans and day-to-day activities,” he said.
“The Policy which is expected to reflect on climate issues, priorities and how to develop sustainably and in a climate resilient way will also be informed by the principles of international environmental laws including the principle of sustainable development as reflected in the objectives of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol.
“The Climate Policy will therefore not only ensure that Zimbabwe implements a more strategic, coordinated and unified response to the impacts of climate change but takes climate as a developmental launch-pad through maximising on any potential benefits as well as existing and future funding windows under the UNFCCC and other multilateral agreements.”
Infrastructure, Mupazviriwo said, had to be developed to help communities deal with climate change.
For instance, the development of irrigation schemes has been cited as one of the most important responses to recurring droughts.
“The National Policy will seek to guide and mainstream climate change issues into sectoral policies and development plans,” he said.
“This will ensure robust planning, review and strengthening of relevant institutional frameworks as well as development of appropriate infrastructure to cope with potential impacts of climate change.”
Mupazviriwo said the participation of all stakeholders is crucial in ensuring that an all encompassing policy is formulated.
“The importance of climate science in advising and addressing climate change issues cannot be over emphasised and climate change being a cross-cutting issue calls for the need for effective national dialogue, consultations and harmonisation of policies from other sectors,” he said.
“We need a policy that is based on robust modelling of climate parameters and projections, support the national developmental vision and national programmes such as the ZimASSET, gender sensitive and also sensitive to the values and interests of vulnerable groups, promote technology transfer, capacity building and information sharing.”
The Climate Policy is expected to help Government design comprehensive and strategic approaches on climate change adaptation, mitigation, technology, financing as well as public education and awareness.
Speaking during the meeting UNDP deputy country director-programme, Martin Maya said the development of the national climate policy was critical to development.
“The development of the national climate policy is consistent with the priorities set out by the national development blueprint –the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-ASSET),” Maya said.
“The climate change policy is extremely important to the national development process as it will create an enabling environment for the mobilisation of domestic and international financial and technical resources.
“We thus need to move with that sense of urgency in mind and adopting a truly multi-sectoral approach.
“I reiterate UNDP and the entire UN’s continued support.
“To development partners, I look forward to working together again in a coordinated manner as we embark on this journey of delivering on a Zim-ASSET priority.”
Speaking to The Patriot, Washington Zhakata the National Climate Change Coordinator in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate said the development of the policy comes at an opportune time seeing the many impacts of climate.
“We are observing so many impacts of climate change at local level in Zimbabwe with droughts and flooding recurring,” he said.
“Changes in the rainfall distribution throughout the season and the temperature changes have also become more evident than in previous years.
“The sad part is that some communities have not yet adapted to these changes and that is where the problem is.
“The development of this policy is therefore necessary in that it will result in the harmonisation of plans on climate change from all sectors and create a national budget for community survival.”