Part of the Zambian delegation to the GCF: Picture courtesy of GCF Newsroom
By Friday Phiri
Zambia’s official visit to Green Climate Fund (GCF)’s headquarters has highlighted major steps the country is taking to deal with climate change, says GCF Executive Director Howard Bamsey.
Welcoming Zambia’s official delegation visit to GCF’s headquarters in Korea on 9 February, Bamsey highlighted the country’s ability to respond to climate change.
”Zambia has a comprehensive action plan to address climate change,” he said. “This roadmap has been established with collaboration among multiple national ministries and provides a model for other countries,” added the GCF chief.
The Zambian delegation, which included three government ministers, held a day of discussions with the GCF Secretariat to encourage greater understanding of the Fund in Zambia, and to deepen the country’s ongoing partnership with GCF.
The Zambian officials detailed a number of ways the country is addressing climate change, including; the establishment of a National Designated Authority to deal with GCF issues; identification of three Zambian organisations as potential GCF Accredited Entities; and recent progress on six projects that the Southern African country is presenting to GCF for possible future support.
The group also included representatives of private sector bodies and other organisations that could one day become GCF Accredited Entities – the essential components driving the Fund’s climate finance on the ground.
And elaborating the impacting of climate change on development, Minister of National Development Planning Lucky Mulusa highlighted the intractable ties between climate change and national development in this Southern African country, already feeling the onset of climate change through droughts, flash floods and extreme temperatures.
“Rainfall patterns in Zambia are becoming irregular, affecting the large number of people who rely on agriculture,” said Mulusa. “So poverty levels are rising in areas where climate change effects have most taken their toll.”
Mulusa pointed to an unexpected drop in water levels at Kariba Dam, the site of one of the world’s largest hydroelectric dams on the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe, as a sign of how decreased rainfall can disrupt economic development.
The resulting shortage of energy supply from low levels at the dam has hit Zambia’s economy hard as it relies on hydroelectricity for about 95 percent of its electricity.
GCF is currently considering a number of projects in Zambia, with the majority focusing on leveraging private sector investment. And the GCF Executive Director said he was pleased to see the inclusion of private sector representation in the Zambian delegation.
“Fundamental to GCF’s role is its use of resources from public sources to leverage private sector investment,” he said. “If we can succeed in that, then we can succeed in the climate change response.”
Zambia’s ability to draw up climate finance proposals has been enhanced by GCF’s readiness support programme. The country signed a readiness grant agreement with GCF at the Fund’s 11th Board meeting in November 2015, hosted in Livingstone, which also marked GCF’s approval of its first projects, now numbering 35.
Agriculture and Climate Change 