Invest more in climate change responses - PM

By David Mugabe

KAMPALA - Uganda’s Prime Minister has called for more investments in appropriate responses to adverse climate conditions to help contain its increasing negative impact.

Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda noted during a climate change discussion at the Kampala Serena Hotel recently that the ability to respond in a timely manner to natural climatic events will have significant economic benefit.

“Special attention should therefore be given to planning ahead for resilience and to reducing long term vulnerability,” he said at the conference organized by the World Bank.

“There is overwhelming evidence that good early detection and warning systems and natural hazard risks are highly concentrated in specific hotspot areas around the country.”

Climate change in the form of long and heavy droughts, uncertain weather patterns where the previously known rainy seasons of early and mid-year have shifted and are no longer predictable, are hurting food production and risking man’s very survival.

Estimates from the World Bank indicate that 2010/11 drought alone cost the country about 7% of its GDP or sh5.6 trillion by current economic value.

“Improved information forecasting systems would for example improve agriculture productivity and food security, enhance hydropower production,” said the PM.

Last month, Pope Francis urged the world to act quickly to prevent "extraordinary" climate change from destroying the planet.

"The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth," said the pope.

There are also less visible but equally significant impacts like reduced agriculture productivity – sometimes an entire harvest is lost because rainfall does not arrive.
 

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Sometimes, the rains do not arrive in time

Rugunda referred to studies that show that 80% of loss of life and 70% of economic losses from all natural hazards resulted from floods and droughts. “Climate change poses a huge economic and social cost in all sectors of the economy from infrastructure, water, energy, agriculture and health”.

Uganda contributes very little to climate change, with deforestation as the main catalysts for greenhouse gases.

But it is one of the most exposed to the dangers of these global issues. Rugunda called for better management of forest cover.

The new World Bank country manager Christina Malmberg Calvo said it is difficult to ascertain what specific form climate change impacts will take.

“But what we do know is that climate change will affect every activity in Uganda and every Ugandan so we need to prepare so we can minimize the impacts,” she said..

Calvo pointed out that there are effective and inexpensive measures that governments and communities can take to protect vulnerable people and their assets.

“The key is to get in early – prevention, prediction and preparedness.”

She commended Uganda for its progressive efforts in addressing the adverse impact of climate change by putting in place the legal, policy and institutions. A climate change department already exists.

The African Adaptation Gap report of December 2014 indicates that adaptation costs due to past emissions are between $7-15b annually by 2020.

According to the ministry of water and environment, even where the emissions gap is closed and a pathway to hold warming below two degrees by 2050, adaptation costs could hover around $25b per year.



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