09 Nov 2022

Climate change is a human rights issue because its effects are devastating, particularly for developing states such as Botswana. This was said by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi in an interview yesterday as he wound up his visit to Egypt where he attended the 27th UN climate change conference (COP27) along with over 100 other world leaders.

     He said Botswana was keen on pursuing  innovative solutions to climate change challenges that threatened livelihoods globally.

       The pursuit of such solutions was in line with the Reset Agenda which encouraged research, inventiveness and digitisation, said Dr Masisi.

Government, he said, was committed to utilising knowledge systems to overcome the challenges.

“One of the fastest way to propel yourself an adequate response to any challenge, such as climate, which has caused people to migrate, is for us to invest in data collection and interpretation, to have to capacity to make more accurate predictions of potentially hazardous climate effects,” Dr Masisi said.

He said to that end, government was working on harvesting indigenous knowledge as well as the use of modern research and digital technology to find solutions to the dangers posed by worsening climatic conditions.

“A number of our indigenous systems of knowledge and practices are still known, and with the advent of digitilisation, which has become a priority for my government, we would be able to document and build on such,” he said.

 The President said government was in the process of laying the ecosystem through SmartBots and other programmes to make sure that discoveries would be made leading to innovation and solutions.  

He revealed that organisations such as UNEP had been supporting Botswana towards achieving that goal.

President Masisi said at COP27, Botswana continued to agitate for developed states, the biggest polluters, to fulfil their promise of contributing to the Green Climate Fund aimed at assisting developing countries to adapt and mitigate climate change as well as for mutually beneficial development partnerships.

“We are on a quest for partnerships to be developed on the basis of mutual respect and reciprocity with the biggest companies and research institutions of the world.  

We want to move away from the traditional donor system where others developed all the solutions and we consumed.  We want to co-create, innovate solutions,” the President said.

He said Africa had a legitimate claim to seek climate justice as the continent emitted around three per cent of global greenhouse gases but bore the brunt of severe storms, periodic droughts and warmer temperatures which enhanced evaporation and worsened aridity.

While acknowledging that coal  was a polluter, President Masisi said Botswana was endowed with the resource and needed to invest in research and development on cleaner ways of exploiting it.

“If you look at what we could do with the coal that we mine as a contributor to greenhouse emissions, it is negligible compared to what one single city in the west or the developed world does to pollute the environment.  

It does not suggest that we want to pollute more, but what we seek is research in cleaner methods of utilising our resources,” the President said. Ends