EAC Climate Change Workshop to curb Global Warming in East Africa
Representatives from the East African Community (EAC) Partner States, government officials, international development agencies and civil society organisations gathered in Arusha, Tanzania for a one-day workshop on Climate Change.
The Climate Change, Renewable Energies and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources in East Africa - The Role of Climate Finance workshop, which was organised by the EAC, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) and Tanzania Civil Society Forum on Climate Change (Forum CC).
Putting a spotlight on the current climate finance architecture and its opportunities for use in East Africa, the delegates looked at ways in which climate finance mechanisms can help boost the sustainable use of natural resources and renewable energy in the region, with an emphasis on the perspectives of the civil society.
Delivering the keynote address, the EAC Director for Productive Sectors, Mr Jean Baptiste Havugimana reiterated the effects of climate change on agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, fishing, wildlife and the health sector.
Mr Havugimana said that the EAC has initiated regional climate finance readiness activities that aim at having the EAC Secretariat and the East African Development Bank accredited as Regional Implementing Entities to the Adaptation Fund and the Green Climate Fund so as to directly access international climate change financing for the mitigation of climate change.
“The acceleration of human-induced changes in the climate system, including sea level rise, with negative implications and projections for the African continent”, said Mr Havugimana.
He said that the adverse impacts of climate change were a major challenge to socio-economic development in East Africa due to the region’s heavy dependence on natural resources which are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
“The impacts affect key economic drivers such as water resources, agriculture, energy, transport, health, forestry, wildlife, land and infrastructure, and disaster risk management, among other things”, said Mr Havugimana.
Speaking at the forum, Mr Jackson Muro, the Director of the Tanzania Civil Society Forum for Climate Change, cited the drastic change in weather patterns in East Africa as one negative effect of climate change.
“In Tanzania, for example, rainfall has become less predictable and droughts have become both frequent in occurrence and last longer compared to a few years back. Sea levels are rising at an alarming pace and several parts of the coastal region are at risk of being submerged like Pangani town in Tanga. There are already some parts that are now completely under the sea as is the case of Mazwe Island near Pangani”, Mr Muro said.
“In many parts of Tanzania, temperature has increased by about 0.2 to 0.6 degrees Centigrade for the past 30 years. The impact of increased temperatures is evidenced by the fast decline of snow on Mount Kilimanjaro and other mountains in the region”, he added.
The EAC Secretariat was officially accredited as an observer to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by the 18th Conference of Parties (COP18) in Doha, Qatar. Since then, the EAC has been playing a key role in the international climate change policy discourse through providing leadership on regional climate change policy setting and mainstreaming of climate change adaptation and mitigation in regional integration programmes, projects and other initiatives in accordance with the EAC Climate Change Policy adopted by the EAC Heads of State in April 2011.