Climate change policy delayed

By Gerald Tenywa

As vagaries of nature continue to pound Uganda, Government has delayed approving the Climate Change policy leading to haphazard intervention and wastage of resources, according to Climate Change experts.

Robert Bakiika, the director of Bwaise Facility Environmental Management for Livelihood Improvement said cooperative action against Climate Change is needed.

“We do not have coordination and monitoring that would promote effective implementation of actions to address Climate Change,” said Bakiika, adding that Government, Civil Society, communities and researchers are working independently.

Bakiika was speaking at the Climate Change Forum organised by the Climate Change Unit in the Ministry of Water and Environment and funded by GIZ, a German Development agency at Hotel Africana, Kampala. He wanted Government to move faster and approve the Climate Change as part of the effort to relieve women who suffer most under the burden of Climate Change.

In reaction, David Obong, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Water and Environment said the Climate Change Police will be approved by the end of the year.

According to Bob Natifu, the Spokesperson of the Climate Change Unit, the draft policy has been formulated after wide consultations with views from the local community in order to make its implementation easy.

He said the draft policy is under discussion at the policy committee of the environment under the Prime Minister’s office and that it will be cleared sooner than later.

“It has to be discussed in order to make implementation easy,” says Natifu agreeing with the PS that the policy will be ready by the end of the year.

He said the rain season were becoming unreliable negatively affecting many of the farmers who directly depend on rain fed agriculture. The occurrence of weather related disasters such as landslides in the mountainous areas and floods in the plains of Teso and drought were becoming more frequent.