World off track on climate change agreement - Masisi
President Mokgweetsi Masisi says it is regrettable that the world is off track to meet the ambitions of the Paris Agreement on climate.
He said increasing climate risks threaten to escalate loss and damage for countries, undermining infrastructure, agriculture and livelihoods, and people’s health and wellbeing.
According to Masisi, Africa had little to contribute to causes of climate change, has little to contribute to the global fight for reducing carbon emissions but faces a big battle adapting to the consequences of a warming world to prevent loss and damage to people, the environment, cultural heritage, and economies.
Speaking during the Harnessing Climate Mobility for Adaptation and Resilience at COP27, Masisi stated that movement is an age- old human adaptation strategy. Yet without adequate regulation, he said the movement of people and especially forced displacement can create new vulnerabilities for those who move and the communities that receive them. He explained that there is a need to draw lessons from Africa’s current response to displacement across the continent and prepare for what lies ahead.
“Botswana is pleased to be a champion country of climate mobility in the
African continent and will use her influence to advocate for capacity building and knowledge transfer that should benefit the African Continent.
“Over the last few years, we have witnessed how prolonged droughts, flooding and storms have caused large- scale climate forced migration and displacement, bringing hardship and loss of infrastructure across the African continent”.
According to the Africa Climate Mobility Initiative Research Centre, the African continent will see an increase of climate forced migration and displacement over the coming decades, due to several factors among them desertification, cyclones and floods, Masisi told the conference.
He stated that it is for this reason that countries have to work around the clock until they find solutions. This is not the work of one leader, one country or community, he said, adding that adapting to climate change, and the movement of people it propels, will require collective efforts across societies, local and national governments, as well as informed decision making by the private sector.
According to the President, l multinational and African companies and financial institutions are valuable investors in both natural and human capital.
“We need to make sure that African institutions and people have data and information to anticipate climate risks. We need to improve data availability and bring state- of- the- art forecasting and modelling capabilities to the continent.
“If we want to reduce the harmful impacts of climate change, people and governments need time to prepare. Data and forecasting make early warning possible. It empowers our people to make plans if they face the eventuality of relocation,” he stated.
Masisi emphasised that the absence of all of these, makes the prospect of evacuation unreal with worsening weather phenomena. He said governments can direct investments towards predicted growth areas, rather than wait for the spread of informal settlements that lack access to basic infrastructure and services.
According to the president, doing so reduces the potential for escalating human, social and economic costs that arise from disasters and from habitation in increasingly threatened areas.
“Knowledge is key. It equips people on the frontlines of climate impacts: it enables those who face climate threats to make informed decisions on whether and when to move; it helps the places that will absorb them to plan ahead.
“The second area for cooperation is equipping our young people with the skills they need to advance a climate resilient development trajectory for the continent. We need to meet the promise of opportunity for our youth.
“We see industrialised countries use the transition to a green economy as an opportunity to boost their competitiveness. Similarly, we need to seize the opportunities that lie in the transition to a climate resilient development paradigm.”