Zambia Signs Bilateral Agreements to Support the Energy Sector

 

November 19, 2024 

VIOLET MENGO

Lusaka: THE 29^th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) has seen Zambia witnessed two landmark events towards article six cooperation of the Paris Agreement and continued action towards climate change.

Minister of Green Economy and Environment (MGEE) signed bilateral agreements with Norway and Sweden at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan under its current engagement with buyer countries for carbon credits.

On November 16, 2024, Government signed a bilateral agreement for Article 6 Cooperative Approaches with Norway.

Mike Mposha (left) with Mr Sandvik

The agreement was signed by Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment Mr Tore Onshuus Sandvik and Zambia’s Minister of Green Economy and Environment, Mike Mposha.

The event was graced by other officials from both parties and supporting intergovernmental agencies at a momentous occasion that signifies cooperation towards climate action, emission reduction and achieving of global targets.

Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment, Mr Sandvik said that Norway believes cooperation under Article 6 can provide much needed finance for green investments in developing countries.

“Today, our countries are taking a major leap forward, paving the way for green investments in Zambia and a contribution to global mitigation ambitions,” he said.

Mr Mposha, the event was as a culmination of our respective preparations and efforts to ensure that we reach this milestone agreement.

On November 18, 2024 Government represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment, Dr Douty Chibamba signed a bilateral agreement with Sweden’s Swedish Energy Agency.

The event came after months of engagement with Sweden, including the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in August 2024 in Lusaka.

Zambia and Sweden

 The Swedish Energy Agency is one of Sweden’s   key expert government agencies which   promotes energy efficiency measures and   investments in renewable energy technologies   and is mandated to implement climate   cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris   Agreement.

 Acting Director General of the Swedish Energy   Agency Caroline Asserup, who signed on behalf   of the government of Sweden said “This   bilateral cooperation agreement is an important   step towards establishing concrete climate   projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions,   contribute to sustainable development and help   raise climate ambition in both Sweden and Zambia. We are pleased to further strengthen the cooperation between our two countries.” 

Mr Mposha, was one of the many dignitaries attending the signing ceremony.

He said “Our government is serious about participating in international carbon markets as an important avenue to achieve our nationally determined contributions, generate new carbon finance revenue streams, which will increase the country’s mitigation ambition and contribute to the sustainable development of our nation.”

The minister acknowledged both the Norwegian and the Swedish governments for their continued commitment towards climate action.

He further added that signing of the bilateral agreements would help Zambia as it opens up opportunities for public and private sector energy project developers to access carbon finance and pursue renewable energy power generation.

Both events were supported by the Supporting Preparedness for Article 6 Cooperation (SPAR6C) Program, led by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) with GFA Consulting Group and UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre as the leading delivery partners in Zambia.

SPAR6C aims to catalyze investment in greenhouse emissions reductions by supporting its implementation countries to enable transactions of Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) as allowed under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

Over the past two years, Zambia has progressed in the development of its carbon market framework and is in the process of developing first mitigation activities with the support of SPAR6C.

The Paris Agreement, signed by 197 countries in 2015, represents a historic global effort to combat climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Article 6 of the Paris agreement is the cornerstone for international cooperation, fostering global carbon market mechanisms that enable countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while fostering sustainable development.

Zambia is currently facing an energy deficit due to a combination of factors including a growing demand for electricity and limited investments in the energy sector.

These factors coupled with a severe drought and high dependence on hydropower, have drastically affected the capacity of its hydroelectric power plants to generate sufficient power to support economic growth.

Government, through the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment, have been seeking alternatives and exploring renewable energy and energy efficiency options to support the country’s efforts in power generation and low carbon power sector development.

November 14, 2024

VIOLET MENGO

Lusaka

THE 29th edition of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) opened on November 12, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan under the theme; “In solidarity for a Green World.”

Delegates have gathered for COP29, which has been dubbed the “Finance COP” due to its sharp focus on securing a robust climate finance agreement—the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), aimed at addressing the urgent need for climate adaptation and driving a global phase – out of fossil fuels including oil and gas, a backbone of many developed countries.

Climate finance, according to the UNFCCC, refers to local, national or transnational financing, drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions that aimed at addressing climate change.

The Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement call for financial assistance from Parties with more financial resources to those that are less endowed and more vulnerable.

For the African continent, COP29 is quite significant in a number of ways including the need for the realisation of the much-needed finance for adaptation and mitigation.

The African continent, just like other developing countries, look to COP29 to yield the desired finance from the developed countries for climate action.

When the African Heads of State and Governments gathered for the inaugural Africa Climate Summit (ACS) in Nairobi, Kenya from September 4-6, 2023, the leaders called upon the global community to act with urgency in reducing emissions, fulfilling its obligations, honouring past promises, and supporting the continent in addressing climate change.

The leaders called for the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage fund as agreed at COP27 and resolved for a measurable Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) with indicators and targets to enable assessment of progress against negative impacts of climate change.

Some delegates

 
 Heads of State and Government also called for the strengthening     of    early warning systems and climate information services, as   well as   taking early action to protect lives, livelihoods and assets   and    inform long-term decision-making related to climate change   risks.

 The call was with the understanding that many African countries   face disproportionate burdens and risks arising from climate   change  related unpredictable weather events and patterns including prolonged droughts, devastating floods, out of season storms and wildfires, which cause massive humanitarian crises with detrimental impacts on economies, health, education, peace and security.

A Researcher on climate finance and co-leads Global finance and Investments Areas at the Alliance of Bioversity International and International Centre for Tropical Agriculture’s Centre action, Pedro Chilambe, shares that the NCQG, which will be discussed at COP29 aims to re-establish and update the 100 billion which was set in Copenhagen in 2009 for developing countries.

Chilambe

“COP29 is a very important opportunity to guarantee that climate finance helps countries to achieve the targets both for mitigation and adaptation. This needs to be a well voiced push for grants financing to be the pillar of this goal. We have over 30 percent of climate finance coming in the form of loans,” Mr Chilambe says.

 He explains that one of the biggest challenges has been to accessing adaptation finance, and points out that a lot needs to be done to guarantee that countries are capacitated to access climate finance including in form of grant based financial instruments and mechanisms.

“Standardising the processes will be ideal so that we do not need to build different expertise to be able to access each one of the mechanisms but also to simplify the processes because we find ourselves having to do so much to access funding climate finance.

He asserts that the process should not be complex to access the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for example, as it is today.

“It is not just the complexity in terms of what is required in the processes, it is also the amount of investment needed to access the investments. To develop a GCF, proposal, there are hundreds of thousands of dollars that need to be invested for a country to access the funding,” he said.

He disclosed that most of the project preparatory facilities that exist, ranges between 100, 000 to almost a million for countries to be able to get one proposal to move forward.

From the African Union perspective, one of the key issues that needs to be done at COP29 is for developed countries to honour the Copenhagen commitment.

Africa Union (AU) One Health Data Alliance, Mary Kariuki is of the view that the commitment should be honoured so that the African continent that is suffering most of the impacts and effects of climate change can mitigate and adapt.

“We need to ask ourselves what mitigation and adaptation action we are putting in place because livestock on Africa are well adapted to our climate and we are really not contributing so much to the green gas emissions, only about four percent,” she said.

Her call is for African Governments to push the agenda and ensure there is international commitment towards what was agreed in the past.

For Zambia, the Minister of Green Economy and Environment, Mike Mposha is leading the delegation of climate change experts and is very optimistic of a good ending of the climate negotiations.

Mr Mposha who, on November 12, had a bilateral meeting with the Executive Director of the Loss and Damage Fund, Dr Ibrahim Cheikh Diong, said meeting discussed among other issues, Zambia’s nomination to host the fund board meeting in 2026, which will let Zambia become the first host the fund board meeting in Africa.

Dr Diong was particularly impressed with Zambia’s instrumental role played in the in the growth of the loss and damage fund. 

 

November 13, 2024

VIOLET MENGO

Lusaka        

THE African Group of Negotiators (AGN) has re-affirmed its position, highlighting adaptation and climate finance as its top priorities at the 29th session of the Conference of Parties (COP29) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which opened on Tuesday.

In keeping with the conference theme: ‘In solidarity for a Green World,’ AGN Chair, Ali Mohamed has underscored the importance of adaptation and climate finance, pointing out that the group has a clear mandate from its leaders to ensure fruitful outcomes on the two agenda items, in solidarity with the continent’s 1.4 billion people.

“We will be firm for COP29 to deliver on climate finance and adaptation, regardless of the circumstances surrounding our participation and who we are as a group,” said Ambassador Mohamed.

“We are here, representing the aspirations of 1.4 billion Africans, and we will ensure that we don’t fail. We have a clear mandate from our leaders that the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate finance must align with actual transition costs faced by developing nations, as the current frameworks substantially underestimate the capital required for nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) implementation across the continent.”

With a proposed quantum of US$1.3 trillion as the minimum annual threshold for climate finance, the African Group has continued to stress the importance of delivering climate resources through concessional instruments and grants, as current market-rate mechanisms have proven wholly insufficient for addressing the scale of adaptation and loss and damage responses required across Africa.

“For us in Africa, adaptation means agriculture support, resilient water infrastructure, and universal health coverage for all, amidst an increased climate-induced disease burden, among other necessary development support. We are therefore not treating our development needs as a separate subject from climate adaptation, which cuts across all our development needs in key sectors,” emphasized
the AGN Chair.

AGN Chair Ambassador Mohamed

Ambassador Mohamed highlighted the urgent need for enhanced climate financing and inclusion of health within the UNFCCC space, in a more structured way.

“Africa group is alive to the urgent need for enhanced climate financing support, with particular emphasis on grant-based and other non-debt burdening financing models for the health sector in Africa. We believe it is also about time for the health sector's inclusion and active participation within the UNFCCC space, in a more structured way,” said Ambassador Mohamed.

Other priority areas for the African group include the critical need for formal recognition of Africa's special circumstances under the Paris Agreement, highlighting the asymmetry between the continent's minimal emissions (four percent of global emissions) and disproportionate vulnerability to climate impacts, mainly seen in agriculture, water, energy and health sectors and the push for the Just Transition work programme to reflect Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) principles in its operational frameworks.

Africa is also calling for the operationalisation of the fund for Loss and Damage to support African countries in coping with the irreversible impacts of climate change and aid in the recovery of affected communities and finalisation of rules for carbon markets that are robust and deliver environmental integrity and the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement.

Can city relocation end cholera outbreaks?

February 21, 2018

VIOLET MENGO

Lusaka

 
CHOLERA, a highly contagious waterborne disease with the ability to cause death within 24 hours, has in the past few months ravaged the city of Lusaka. This notorious epidemic that knows no class broke out in October last year and has so far claimed about 80 lives while 3,635 people have been treated.

Some of the areas that were affected by cholera include Chipata, Kanyama, Chawama, Matero, Chilenje and Chelston.

However, on the bright side, the disease has inculcated good habits in people such as the cautious disposal of garbage, washing of hands after using the toilet and drinking treated or boiled water.

But, without adequate clean drinking water, better sanitation and hygiene practices, it is difficult to maintain high standards of cleanliness and win the fight against cholera.

It is believed that lack of access to clean drinking water and better sanitation are among the factors that ignited the outbreak of cholera in the capital city. However, Government has worked hard to curb the disease, but what remains is to find a lasting solution to recurrent cholera outbreaks.

Meanwhile, after a long dry spell in Lusaka, the heavens have finally decided to open up, and alas, causing floods in some townships of Lusaka.

And as the heavy rain pounds the rooftops of Kanyama township, Elledy Musumala closes the window of her tiny house and sighs.
“The rains are here and there is cholera too,” Mrs Musumala notes. She then explains how the outbreak of cholera in the unplanned settlement has negatively affected the lives of many people due to water shortages and the inadequacies of water infrastructure.

EIZ president George Sitali addresses members at the Indaba

Ms Musumala, who has lived her entire life in Kanyama, is now worried because the cholera epidemic has become a perennial problem.

Water supply and sanitation has been a huge challenge in most unplanned townships of Lusaka, prompting residents to draw water from unprotected shallow wells which are unsafe.

The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number six calls on countries to ensure access to water and sanitation for all. Improving these services to bring about economic gains is key in building resilience due to increased climate variability.

Engineering Institution of Zambia (EIZ) president George Sitali believes that the solutions to combating cholera include brainstorming and sharing of ideas that have the potential to produce feasible models.

Recently, EIZ held an indaba dubbed ‘Sustainable development in the water and sanitation sector” to put in place permanent measures to avoid future disease outbreaks.

Mr Sitali said the indaba theme had clear links to the Seventh National Development Plan under the growth outcome number three which emphasises improved access to water supply and sanitation.

EIZ’s mandate is to advise Government on matters relating to the engineering profession, to investigate and monitor national emergencies of public concern by, or likely to be caused by, an engineering product or service and recommend appropriate preventive and rehabilitative measures.

“Cholera response requires structural responses,” one of the engineers, Ennie Muchelemba, noted in her presentation entitled: “Rural water supply-faecal contamination of groundwater: Does disinfection using chlorine make the water safe?’’

Ms Muchelemba stated that safe drinking water should be free from pathogenic organisms and low in concentration of compounds that are acutely toxic.

This year, Government has allocated K564.5 million for water and sanitation in the national budget.
According to the National Water and Sanitation Council (NWASCO), access to water supply in urban areas stands at 86 percent, while in rural areas it is at 48 percent. This means that over six million people are without sanitation facilities.

Daniel Nkhuwa, a geology lecturer in the School of Mines at the University of Zambia, suggested that the capital city should shift from Lusaka to another place where proper city planning will be possible.

Professor Nkhuwa said over the years, Lusaka’s perspective has been lost, hence the need for an urgent re-think on how future developments of the city should be implemented.

He said there is need for a complete uproot of the capital city to some new location whose geology could allow for on-site sanitation system.

“The choices made many years ago have impacted on current waterborne diseases. The onsite sanitation should not have been permitted because the geology on the ground (of Lusaka) does not allow it,” he said.

Professor Nkhuwa’s presentation was entitled: ‘Is sustainable urban water development and prevention of waterborne diseases attainable in Lusaka under its current sanitation practices?’

While a lot still needs to be done to correct the current situation, especially in Lusaka, efforts on the ground are slowly yielding fruit. The US$355 million Millennium Challenge Account (MCC) project which aims at improving water, sanitation and drainage infrastructure has been almost completed.

The project is meant to help reduce the incidences of water-related diseases, give households more time for income generation, make businesses more productive and prevent residential floods.

It is for this reason that Ministry of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection principal engineer for rural water supply and sanitation, Abel Manangi, called on engineers to influence change in the prevention of waterborne diseases through timely advice.

“We hope the team of engineers working with Government will consider re-planning or re-development of cities and slums where disease outbreaks are frequent,” Mr Manangi noted.

Adding more insight on the topic, WaterAID technical manager Adamson Sakala advised engineers to be emphatic and proactive for their decisions to be taken seriously and implemented.

“We need to target the causes of cholera. This implies building water systems in whole cities and villages in endemic areas,” Mr Sakala said.

The resolutions of the indaba will be presented to Government for possible action. Former EIZ president Bernard Chiwala will lead the team of experts in drafting the position paper.

Adolescent girls making impact

VIOLET MENGO

Lusaka

Charity

 

IN A country where formal employment for young people is not readily available, Charity Phiri, 27, of Ng’ombe in Lusaka, is making ends meet at the Foundation for the Realisation of Economic Empowerment (FREE).

The foundation serves as an example of what economic empowerment of young people is all about.
Located in the heart of Ng’ombe township, FREE is a project generating income for young people through copper jewellery-making.
It started in 2010 by Dawn Bridget Close, initially targeting older women who were taught to make copper jewellery, but now has a bias towards young people.

This is because young people are said to be enthusiastic, open- minded to new innovations and are usually more eager to learn than the older women.

The foundation has a team of 10 dedicated adolescent girls who have been trained and are able to make different copper jewellery, including earrings, necklaces and bracelets.

Charity, the eighth born in a family of 10, completed her Grade 12 from Olympia School in Lusaka in 2007.

When she could not be supported to pursue her dream career in law, she had no option but to join FREE in 2013.

This was in a bid to raise money that could help her to carry on her dream career to become a lawyer.
“I learnt about the foundation from my aunt who used to be a member. I am here with the sole purpose of raising money that will allow me to go to study law,” Charity says.

She believes by becoming a lawyer, she will get the opportunity to defend the vulnerable people who lack legal representation in courts of law.

Charity also desires to uplift the status of her family which is currently known as a poor one with no hope of becoming better.

She is able to make any sort of jewellery using copper after undergoing training in jewellery production.

The products that she and the other girls make are sold locally at the Saturday market at Arcades Shopping Mall and other international markets such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
However, despite her determination to raise money for college, Charity has not been able to save as expected. This is because her income is unpredictable.

“I receive my wage depending on the products that I make and are sold out, this makes saving quite difficult. I always look forward to better sales of jewellery so that I could save enough money for college,” she says.

The highest amount of money Charity has bagged home was K1,800 in 2016. Her target is to make K3,000 per month.

Despite the meagre income she earns from FREE, Charity has developed love for jewellery -making and hopes to own her jewellery shop in future. This could be probably after she achieves her dream of becoming a lawyer.

According to her, if she had an opportunity, she could have borrowed money from the bank so that she could start the business and eventually raise funds for her university education. She has not been able to do so because banks demand that she provides collateral security.

She attests that it is difficult for small entrepreneurs without any form of collateral to get a loan from bank, but she is optimistic that the future is bright for her as she will not give up dreaming.

She works at the foundation five days a week from 09:00 hours to 17:00 hours and rests on Saturdays and Sundays.

FREE-funded by the Finnish embassy, encourages the young people to be assertive and plan to establish their own enterprises in future.

The foundation receives US$700 from the Finnish embassy monthly.

The founder, Ms Close, says the foundation aims to reverse the marginalisation of adolescents by providing them with the opportunity to better their lives.

This is in a bid to break the cycle of dependency through empowering young women to earn income.
The funding from the Finnish embassy is used to buy copper pieces which the girls use to make different jewellery sold locally and in other countries like the DRC.

The funding also enables Ms Close to train more young women how to run small businesses and become self-reliant.

“I chose the jewellery business because the global market for the business is growing, offering opportunities for the ladies to exploit the market,” Ms Close says.

Her goal is to add value to copper as too often African countries like Zambia are stripped of their natural resources when they are exported in raw form.

“Our jewellery is made from recycled copper, hot water heaters and from electrical wire,” she said.
FREE is moving towards processing its own semi-precious gemstones which will add greater value and appeal to the jewellery.

The young women at the foundation are happy with the kind of training and empowerment they have received. They hope to use the skill and knowledge to run their own enterprises in future.

Jemima Chilekwa, 25, is a University of Zambia (UNZA) graduate who completed in 2017. She has joined the foundation to gain entrepreneurial skills with the hope of running her own business.

“I studied Library Science and Development Studies, and when I could not find a job, the foundation took me in and I like what I am doing here,” Jemima said.

She believes adolescent girls need to rise up to the challenge to become agents of change by thinking ‘outside the box and embracing new things’.

Jemima has also been trained in silver smelting and looks forward to utilising the skill in future.
“My goal is to become finally independent,” Jemima says.

Collin Kaluba, 21, works closely with Jemima in silver smelting and the girls are excited and are determined to face and exploit future opportunities.

Finnish Ambassador to Zambia Timo Olkkonen said the embassy will continue to support initiatives that aim to uplift the well-being of the vulnerable.

TIZ tips Zambia on REDD+ funding management

VIOLET MENGO

Lusaka

THE first time one hears about REDD+, one gets bemused as to what the little-known United Nations instrument is all about. 

The acronym stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. 

It is a mechanism under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with the objective of mitigating climate change through reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases through enhanced forest management.

REDD+ is a proposed mechanism aimed at slowing climate change which would involve a massive transfer of money from developed countries as part of their commitment to decrease the impact of their own carbon emissions.

It also provides benefits to the forests dwelling communities in developing countries by measuring countries’ contribution to stabilising the atmosphere and to pay for it.

REDD+ has generally been lauded as a beautiful idea in efforts towards decelerating climate change.

indiscriminate cutting down of trees for charcoal.

In Zambia, the Lower Zambezi REDD+ Project is the first pilot project, which encompasses approximately 40 000 hectares of primary Miombo forests.

The area strategically protects 60 kilometers of the national parks boundary by providing a buffer zone between the park and communal areas which have a growing human population and a thriving charcoal business along the Great East Road.

In the Nationally Determined Contribution which Zambia presented to Conference of Parties in Paris in 2015, the country has pledged to ensure sustainable forestry management as part of its effort to fight climate change.

These and many more initiatives are being addressed to ensure sustainability of trees.

This is against the background that despite the world having three trillion trees on earth, practices such as cutting down trees, draining swamps and burning bushes to make way for agriculture, produce between 10 and 20 percent of greenhouse gas emission.

In an era of climate change, destroying forests is one of the most harmful activities. Forests are well known for their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, but when they are burned, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Climate change is probably the most significant challenge facing the world today. It is estimated that the forest sector and other sectors that impact land use through deforestation, forest degradation and other changes in forests contribute approximately 17 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Considering the colossal amount of money in the REDD+  funding, Transparency International Zambia (TIZ)  has taken a proactive measure, urging Zambia to ensure that the funds, once made available, are put to good use. The organization is  not only creating awareness on the REDD+  initiative, but has come up with initiatives that could prevent any form of corruption that comes with big money.

 “Where there is money exchange, there is always some form of corruption that come through”,” TIZ president Lee Habasonda said.

As such TIZ launched an assessment report on corruption vulnerability for REDD+ in Zambia.

The report entitled “A corruption vulnerability assessment for REDD in Zambia highlights the link between REDD+ and corruption. 

The report has pointed out that a vast number of forests where REDD+ is being promoted and funded are located within developing countries, which may be vulnerable to corruption and weak governance.

It also points out that many REDD+ pilot projects are in remote rural areas which making it difficult to monitor.

“Forests carbon remains an intangible commodity to be traded so it can be manipulated and also large influxes of funds from international development community and technical complexity of terminologies used which creates and maintains a situation of information asymmetry,” Habasonda said.

“Forests are a vital part of the carbon cycle both storing and releasing this essential element in a dynamic process of growth, decay, disturbance and renewal. It is an important commodity to be traded and therefore be manipulated, especially when it involve huge amounts of money from the international community,” Mr Habasonda said.

He said technical complexity of terminologies used creates and maintains a situation of information irregularity that opens doors for manipulation.

The various manifestations of corruption in the forestry sectors of countries receiving REDD+ funds are challenges that pose an obstacle to achieving the economic, environmental and social objectives of REDD+.

Mr Habasonda said the challenges suggest significant threats to the success of REDD+ if effective anti- corruption safeguards are not built from the start.

According to him, the launch of the assessment report is the beginning of getting people appreciate and take measures to ensure that there are able to survive and work within the framework that is available. 

Mr Habasonda said the challenges suggest significant safeguards are not built in from the start.

grow the forests

The report aims at bringing out the potential or existing corruption risks in REDD+ and forestry sector in the country so that they might be proactively addressed.

At the end of the report, are recommendations aimed at strengthening systems and processes to protect REDD+ from corruption.

Some of the recommendations include a call to ensure the full and effective participation of stakeholders in decision making and strengthening of forestry management.

The report also recommends security of land tenure especially on customary land, fair allocation and disbursement of funds and enforcement of laws and regulations as well as access to justice. 

Climate change has assumed a level of critical importance and Mr Habasonda says it is important that communities in Zambia understand some initiatives taking place in the country such as the REDD+ to monitor related activities.

The involvement of all people remains key, especially the political leadership.

President Edgar Lungu participated actively in the conference of parties which was held in Morocco.

And he is concerned that climate change can reverse the gains that the country has made and has called for concerted effort from all stakeholders in the fight against climate change.

His action and timely advice has been welcomed by TIZ who say President Lungu has shown exemplary leadership in the fight against climate change and should be commended.

“President Edgar Lungu has shown exemplary leadership in the fight against climate change to which both state and non-state should wakeup to the occasion and address climate change effectively,” he said.

Mr Habasonda called on Government to ensure that ministries provide funding to the relevant sections that are managing forestry and natural resources.