Kutesa calls for 'collective action' on climate change

By Taddeo Bwambale

Tackling the devastating effects of climate change will require collective action and a new global plan, the President of the 69th session of the General assembly has said.

Kutesa, also Uganda’s foreign affairs minister, made the remarks at a press conference at the UN meeting on climate change in Lima, Peru on Tuesday.

“Our planet is moving towards the tipping point, with climate change threatening the existence of humankind. Small Island States are especially vulnerable,” he said.

He described climate change is ‘one of the biggest global challenges of our generation’ whose handling requires a sense of urgency and unity, rather than through a ‘casual’ approach.

“Our planet earth is warming. Greenhouse gases concentrations are on the increase. Snow is diminishing. Ice is also diminishing. Sea-levels are rising. Droughts are becoming longer and frequent. Floods and landslides are increasing,” he observed.

Kutesa said there was little doubt that human activity was primarily responsible for the trend, and calls for our collective urgent actions towards mitigation and adaptation.

He noted that the adverse impacts of climate change were affecting every country around the world, threatening food security and undermining poverty eradication and sustainable growth.
 

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Muhavura Mountain, one of the Rwenzori ranges

“Any delay in combating climate change will come at a great cost to us all,” he warned, citing the example of his home country Uganda where glaciers on Mt Rwenzori have reduced.

“In Uganda, the snow-capped glaciers on Mountain Ruwenzori’s highest peaks at almost 17,000 feet had a combined area of around 2.7 square miles at the start of last century. It now occupies less than 0.4 square miles,” he said, noting that the glaciers could be depleted in the next two decades.

Kutesa said collective political will of the international community and an ‘ambitious’ commitment were needed to respond to the growing challenge.

“Our challenge is to have a climate agreement that promotes socio-economic development in a sustainable manner,” he later told journalists at a press briefing.

The Lima conference is considered a decisive step in achieving a universal, binding agreement in Paris in December 2015.

The General Assembly is scheduled to start negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, an ambitious and transformative socio economic development programme to end poverty.

Kutesa said current efforts to address climate change must focus on the three dimensions of sustainable development-social, economic and environmental aspects.