07 Nov 2019

The success of Botswana’s climate change agenda depends on the youth,  European Union Delegation representative to Botswana and SADC Mr Jan Sadek has said.

  He said that was because young people were critical thinkers with the capacity to identify and challenge barriers to change.

Mr Sadek  was speaking at the commemoration of Climate Diplomacy Week themed ‘Integrating youth in Climate Change Agenda’ in Gaborone on November 6.

He said the problems that the young would inherit were not of their making while the solution would be one of their making.

Mr Sadek said the nation still required greater awareness and understanding of climate change, hence the need to engage the youth from across the country.

That would enable them to give feedback on climate change challenges and effective response actions to their communities, he said.

The ambassador said climate change had a massive impact on the agricultural sector noting that the current situation of livestock dying, dams and rivers drying up was an unbearable burden on the country.

“Subsistence farmers are greatly affected in all this because they rely on livestock and their crops to survive,” he pointed out.

Ambassador Sadek urged every individual to take it upon themselves to find out what to do to assist in the issue of climate change.

“Small things like turning off air-conditions, reducing, re-using and recycling goes a long way in helping save mother earth,” he said.

Mr Sadek said he biked to and from work daily to reduce pollution that could have been caused by a car.

 

  For his part, deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism, Dr Oduetse Koboto said climate change had manifested itself in a number of challenges such as droughts resulting in severe water shortages.

  The worst, he said, had happened in 2019 particularly with the partial drying of the Okavango Delta and the death of over 600 cattle in the North West District.

In an effort to address challenges posed by climate change, Dr Koboto said Botswana joined the United Nations in adopting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“We incorporated this framework because it has an objective to stabilize greenhouse gases concentrations in the atmosphere and ensuring sustainable economic development and we were in agreement to that,” he said.

He said Botswana also adopted the Paris Agreement in November 2016 aimed at enhancing implementation of the climate change convention by commuting all parties to submit new National Determined Contributions every five years.

Dr Koboto explained that the agreement was within the framework component dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance.

Botswana, he said, was adhering to the agreement.

Ancient solutions director Mr Mphaphi Ndubo said despite being an ancient mode of transport, the bicycle was set to be the vehicle of the future.

He said cycling had the potential to help not only in reducing traffic and carbon footprint but also in improving  health.

Mr Ndubo said the climate change battle would only be won through collective efforts starting at individual or personal level.

Global Health Shapers vice curator, Ms Pato Kelesitse said to raise awareness, her organisation had a monthly cleanup programme, held climate lectures and had climate change activists who travelled around teaching people.

She pleaded with government to act on climate change issues.

Botswana will be hosting the National Adaptation Plan Global Expo, the second biggest climate change event after the conference of parties in April 2020.

The expo serves as a knowledge exchange forum for the youth who are considered an important stakeholder in sustainable development and achievement of emission reduction targets set in the Paris Agreement.

Climate Diplomacy Week was organised by Botswana Climate Change Network in collaboration with the European Union Delegation and the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Tourism.ENDS