‘Zim exposed to climate change shocks’
ZIMBABWE remains vulnerable to climatic shocks and without adaptation, climate change could cost the country nearly 5% of its gross domestic product annually by 2050.
This is according to the Zimbabwe Country Climate and Development Report and the Country Private Sector Diagnostic Report reports launched recently by the World Bank.
“Zimbabwe is a lower middleincome country with abundant natural capital and growth potential, but is highly exposed to climate change, with its immediate ability to address climate challenges severely constrained,” says the World Bank.
“While Zimbabwe is rich in natural capital, both mineral and renewable, existing public sector resources to address climate change challenges are limited by weak domestic revenue mobilisation and limited access to development finance due to arrears to multilateral development banks.”
The Bretton Woods institution noted that recurring macroeconomic instability characterised by high inflation, exchange rate distortions and unsustainable public debt levels with high external arrears were also adding to the country’s woes.
“These macroeconomic challenges and slow structural transformation have exacerbated the impacts of existing climate variability, exacting a heavy burden on the poor, particularly in rural areas.
“As a result, extreme poverty has doubled over the past decade, reaching levels typically found in low-income countries,” the bank said.
According to the bank, Zimbabwe’s current macro-economic constraints pose a double bind in which the inability to finance development, climate adaptation and mitigation is leading to increased land degradation, higher net emissions and less climate resilience.
The international financial lender recommended that Zimbabwe needs to take immediate lowcost and “no-regrets” climate actions to build resilience and stem emissions growth, including greening the mining industry, supporting conservation agriculture, and protecting and growing human capital.
“Zimbabwe needs to reinvigorate its agricultural knowledge innovation system. This can build on the government-supported Pfumvudza programme, and Zimbabwe’s history of applied agricultural research and extension.
“The best option for developing a flagship safety net programme would be to focus on scaling up the harmonised social cash transfers, while introducing mechanisms for vertical and horizontal expansion during shocks, and livelihoods support to improve beneficiaries’ resilience,” the bank added.
Meanwhile, government on Wednesday launched two handbooks — the Climate Education Handbook and the Guidance and Counselling Handbook at a regional education summit held in Harare to address integration and enhancement of the education systems with special focus on the mental health of teachers and mitigating climate change effects.
The summit was held under the theme: Scaling a youth-led social support and mentorship programme to improve the quality of education for marginalised girls in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“The handbook is designed to promote youth climate literacy and equip young people with the necessary knowledge and skills to take action on the effects of climate change and secure a climate-smart present and future,” Primary and Secondary Education minister, Torerai Moyo said.
Climate change is proving to be one of Zimbabwe’s the biggest challenges, prompting the country to formulate a National Climate Change Strategy in 2020 which emphasised the importance of climate education.
Moyo indicated that the guidance and counselling teacher support manual provided practical solutions to addressing the mental wellness of the country's educators.
“The (handbooks) empower our teachers with life skills to enable them to survive in a dynamic society.
“The purpose of this manual is to create a world school climate that takes teacher, child and adolescent mental health needs seriously,” he said, adding that both materials aligned well with the country’s curriculum.