Opposition UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema has urged the PF Government to share with the Zambian people its vision and goals for the forthcoming Conference of the Parties (COP) 21 to be held in Paris, France.
Hichilema feels the climate change conference is very important to this country, saying the agreements made are likely to shape the country’s economic and social development for now and future generations.
Below is his full statement:
With one month to go before the Conference of the Parties (COP) 21 in Paris we call on Government to share with the Zambian people the precise details of its vision and goals for the conference.
COP is the decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and between 30 November and 11 December this year its state parties will meet in an attempt to agree for the first time on a universal and legally binding international agreement on climate which is applicable to all countries and which aims at keeping global warming below 2 degrees centigrade.
This conference will be a critical moment for us. The agreement will shape our economic and social development as a country and bind future generations of Zambians. The far-reaching impact of climate change is one we must plan for properly. As Government has failed to diversify the economy to protect it from changes to commodity prices, we must now put pressure on them to ensure they do not leave us similarly vulnerable on the environment front, for which our agriculture and tourism sectors are highly dependent.
Coming out of COP 20 in Lima, Peru, emphasis was placed on the fact that governments must be transparent and accountable in national consultations towards the preparation of the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC). Our own Government has not shared that document with the population, least of all had any transparent consultation process. The COP 20 had specific areas of concern, including mitigation, finance and adaptation. What is our Government anchoring the INDC on? This information has not been given to us as stakeholders but is critically important and directly relevant to us. The areas that are heavily affected by climate change policy are Agriculture, Energy and Manufacturing. This is the reason we need to have interest as a people. What our Government commits to at the global level has consequences at the country level. I am speculating, but suppose the Government wants to finance the climate change interventions using domestic resources, what is the implication of that on social spending and taxes? Suppose they want to finance them externally, how will this happen, borrowing or access to financing arrangements such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF). All these issues have not been disclosed in a process that demands “transparency and accountability.” If the PF have been following the debate after Financing for Development III (three), the global finance landscape is changing and changing very fast. The fact that we are not willing to reform our domestic resource mobilization, that alone is a source of worry, yet we are going to COP21 in Paris in a month’s time and the people have no idea what their Government wants out of it.
In the UPND we hold that protection and preservation of the environment is both a moral responsibility and an economic imperative. Our approach would see a combination of measures that together make a powerful impact. For the COP21 our INDC would have two things, Mitigation and Financing because we have gone around the country and all citizens basically cry for two things, new technologies and funding. We cannot probably start talking about mitigation before we are sure how that mitigation will take place in the absence of having a sustainable financing mechanism. We are saying this because from the Monterrey Consensus in 2002, the financing model has changed. This is the reason we insist in internal reforms before we can start making new commitments which we know will not be implemented in the current economic and policy structure. What do I mean, Zambia has many policies and strategies that need harmonization and this is what we all need to understand and should be part of the reforms that we need to do in order to implement climate change programmes.
In addressing the economic structure to support COP21 outcomes, firstly, in developing our sectors we can benefit from the vastly increased body of global knowledge on how best to develop these in environmentally friendly ways. For example, we have talked about the imperative of developing our tourism sector, which is greatly underexploited to date but could be a great source of jobs, and there is opportunity here to specifically develop eco-tourism. This addresses two things, other that being climate smart, we also create jobs. Climate compliant tourism is a niche on its own which we can run with to attract local and international tourism.
Secondly, education is going to be key. In order for us to lower harm to the environment it is necessary for all Zambians to be well-educated on what they can do at home, work or in the community to be a good steward of the environment. Climate change is as a much a micro phenomenon as it is a macro phenomenon. At micro level, it is very much a behaviour driven undertaking. We therefore have to address the behaviour of our population so that as we implement mitigation measures, they are already part of the lifestyle of our populations. All these are mitigation measures.
Thirdly, COP will also involved discussion of various financing mechanisms that developing countries can benefit from to support their efforts. We must make sure Zambia is considered a favourable destination for such support by demonstrating our commitment and capacity to utilise these opportunities to drive our progress forward. This is very important and dovetails with what we would like to propose for the COP21.
It is important to note that the agreements signed in Paris will be put in place across the board. Only by going to Paris with a clear mission and sense of what terms will benefit all Zambians can our Government hope to come away with a fair deal for our nation.
In Paris the PF Government must demonstrate that they recognise that international statesmanship is not about travelling lavishly around the world at the expense of your fellow citizens, but instead it is about vision, leadership and shaping agreements that deliver the best deal for the nation and its shareholders, namely the people of Zambia. Our strategies should not be driven by the funders but rather our own strategies.
Hakainde Hichilema
UPND President