Posted on October, 27, 2021 at 08:34 am
President Lazarus Chakwera on Monday said Malawi has made significant strides in addressing climate change.
The President said this on Monday during a plenary session on the role and importance of the National Determined Contributions (NDCs) in relation to the Paris Agreement at the Fifth Global Sustainable Technology and Innovation Community (G-STIC) Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
"We have developed and are implementing the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) and a National Climate Change Response Framework (NCCRF).
"In 2016, Malawi adopted the National Climate Change Management Policy (NCCMP) which provides strategic direction to our priorities for climate change interventions covering both adaptation and mitigation," he said.
He said Malawi has also put in place a series of legislative sectoral frameworks and strategies to integrate environment and climate change management in socio-economic development activities, including within the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS III) and the Malawi Vision 2063.
Chakwera said Malawi has also established a Climate Change Fund as a basket for climate financing.
"Its purpose is to ensure that we manage climate finance by facilitating the collection, blending, coordination, disbursement and tracking of climate finance in line with the Enhanced Transparency Framework under the Paris Agreement," President Chakwera stated.
He said with all these initiatives, the country expects to achieve a diversified, targeted and modern climate change management program.
"Our key performance indicators will be a six per cent annual increase of land developed for irrigation; a moratorium on the market use of inefficient appliances and equipment which lead to higher energy consumption; an enhanced public understanding of climate change issues and lastly, greater use of adaptation and mitigation technologies in agriculture and health," he said.
Director in the Ministry of Energy, Cassius Chiwambo in his presentation at the G-STIC conference on overcoming data scarcity, said the establishment of the country-specific NDC centre is a means for tracking progress.
"Malawi established its NDC centre in February, 2021 to improve energy statistics collection and report-writing to help in policy and decision making, thereby achieve SDGs," he said.
SDG 7 recognises energy as a key enabler for development and advocates for universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy.
The Paris Climate Agreement requires each country to outline and communicate its NDCs to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) secretariat.
In 2015, prior to the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement, Malawi submitted and communicated its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and scale up adaptation actions through the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC)
Malawi's NDC outlines the country's post-2020 climate change priorities and includes mitigation and adaptation targets and measures, with concrete strategies for addressing the causes of climate change and responding to its effects.
Source: Nyasa Times