Business Reporter

The United States of America’s (USA)’s move to rejoin the Paris Agreement could prove to be a huge relief for Zimbabwe, which anticipates that the move will unlock climate finance for its mitigation and adaptation programmes to ensure sustainable and climate compatible development.

The earlier pulling out of the US from the Paris Agreement was seen as a threat to climate aid, which would make it more difficult for developing countries like Zimbabwe who relied more on United Nations-backed funds (in which the United States was a top donor) to finance adaptation strategies particularly in agriculture and emission reduction in energy sector, which are two major priorities in the country’s climate change response strategy.

The Paris Agreement is a landmark international accord that was adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 aimed to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit the global temperature increase in this Century to 2 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing means to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees.

America is one of the top donors to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and to the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), with contributing around 21 percent of its total shares.

Among the top eight donors of climate financing to developing countries such as Japan, France, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway, America contributed US$9.6 billion between the GEF in 2011 and 2012, the largest donation by any country.

This resonates well with the Article 9 of the Paris Agreement, which stipulates that developed country parties have the mandate to provide financial resources to assist developing country parties with respect to both mitigation and adaptation in continuation of their existing obligations under the Convention. Other parties are encouraged to provide or continue to provide such support voluntarily

GEF, the largest funder of projects to improve the global environment and provides grants for projects related to biodiversity, climate change mitigation, land degradation, chemicals and waste, climate change adaptation and international waters while, GCF is a United Nations-backed fund which seeks to help developing nations in Africa and around the globe to tackle climate challenges by funding projects that reduce emissions, improve access to renewable energies, food security and others.

Last year Zimbabwe was awarded a US$26.5 million grant under the GCF to help the country build its climate resilience for vulnerable smallholder farmers in southern parts of the country and a total of 2.3 million people in targeted rural areas will benefit from the project.

In 2019 the country also received US$10 million grant to neutralise the effects of climate change under the project titled ‘Integrated Climate Risk Management for Food Security and Livelihoods in Zimbabwe focusing on Masvingo’ and up to 102 000 people in targeted areas are expected to benefit from the intervention

In an interview recently, UNDP resident representative Georges van Montfort said America is the major world economy and an important contributor to the action required to achieve the Paris Agreement and its withdrawal was going to affect climate finance, especially in developing parties.

“The withdrawal also meant the withdrawal of US funding in several areas. Upon signing, US had made a pledge of US$3 billion towards climate change action. The establishment of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) which planned to distribute US$ 100 Billion annually by 2020 evidently suffered replenishment issues as pledges from the US had fallen away (as did several other pledges).

“Contributions from the US towards research and contributions to future IPCC reports were suspended. The potential for funding for climate action reflected in Article 4 of the UNFCCC was significantly impaired. 

“This meant that developing countries, including Zimbabwe, would find it difficult to access aid for climate change adaptation and depend more on domestic and other resources,” he said.

He added that the quest for more financial resources, skills and technologies required for dealing with the losses and damage and instituting long-term adaptation measure in ever increasing in Zimbabwe. 

“Climate Change is an indispensable agenda for Zimbabwe especially given the increasing daily realities of recurring droughts, and devastating cyclones over the past 1.5 years (Cyclone Idai, Chalane and now Eloise) Climate change is not a conceptual idea that may or may not impact livelihoods in Zimbabwe, it is the stark reality for many Zimbabweans who have to adapt to the vagaries that a changing climate brings.

“The quest for more financial resources, skills and technologies required for dealing with the losses and damage and instituting long-term adaptation measure in ever increasing,” said Mr Montfort.

He applauded the country for making efforts in gathering its domestic funds for climate response strategy.

“Zimbabwe has made significant efforts in mobilising domestic and other financing for its climate response strategy, for example in climate resilient agriculture, the country’s efforts towards disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction, recovery and climate resilient infrastructure and overall resilience building across all sectors. The recently launched Zimbabwe NDS 1 is resolute in its climate change agenda.

“Funding windows such as the Green Climate Fund, where Zimbabwe has raised close to US$40 million for climate change adaptation, climate information systems, and adaptation planning, and the opportunities for knowledge and technology transfer for a green growth and climate resilient economy and for viable DRR strategies as guided by the Sendai Framework remain relevant to facilitate the goals in the NDS1.”

The Climate Change Management Department under the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Washington Zhakata said the pulling out of the US to the Paris Agreement was going to upset global climate governance and climate cooperation.

“The withdrawal of the US to the Agreement undercuts the foundation of global climate governance and upsets the process of climate cooperation, and the impacts are manifold, it also undermines the universality of the Paris Agreement and impairs states’ confidence in climate cooperation.

“As part of a global effort, developed country Parties should continue to take the lead in mobilising climate finance from a wide variety of sources, instruments and channels, noting the significant role of public funds, through a variety of actions, including supporting country-driven strategies, and taking into account the needs and priorities of developing country parties,” he said.

Mr Zhakata said climate finance will remain a key concept in the process of linking actions on tackling climate change as well as a key to attain 2030 Sustainable development Goals (SDGs).

“It was going to be a long and difficult journey for Zimbabwe and indeed most developing countries, to get the right amount of money and technology needed to adapt its social and economic systems to climate change. But one thing certain global temperatures must be capped at 1.5 degrees in this century, the higher the Paris Agreement target, should this world remain liveable.”

Africa youths’ representative in Africa Mrs Elizabeth Guluglu-Machache said that if America was going to keep out of the Agreement global collective efforts on emission reduction was going to be fruitless.

She added that the withdrawal of the US from the Agreement was going to impact negatively on the global initiative of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

“We need to understand that the goal of the Paris Agreement is for member states to work on ambitious goals in reducing Greenhouse gas emissions. Now, the US being the second emitter in GHGs would mean they would continue polluting whilst developing countries continue to suffer for they emit less for example Africa as a continent accounts for only 3 to 4 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industrial sources.

This would make the Paris Agreement lose relevance in my opinion because if one of the biggest polluters has left the Paris Agreement what more of the developing countries who contribute to 0.03 percent of GHGs. 

“As the world is fighting the global pandemic there are talks of building back better this includes having green economies and opting for renewable energy as a way of improving healthy lifestyles and sustainable cities. 

“Definitely for the US it would continue to be business as usual with more investment into the fossil fuel industry putting the lives of not only Americans at risk but the whole world.”

America is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases and it formally withdrew from the UN’s 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement on November 4, 2020. Under the Obama administration, the US was central to negotiating the deal five years ago.

But in June 2017 America former President Donald Trump announced his intention to pull the US out of the agreement, arguing that its rules, which require countries to set national goals for cutting emissions, disadvantage America to the exclusive benefit of other countries.