WWF and Partners Conduct Webinar on the Politics of NDC

Posted on 4 August 2020

WWF in collaboration with Environmental Management for Livelihood Improvement (EMLI) with Financing from Norad and Sida conducted the first webinar on the politics of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) last week

The webinar sought to build knowledge and understanding among actors to influence climate related policies, plans and strategies and consequently place civil society at the heart of the NDC enhancement process.

The webinar was attended by representatives from Government and various networks including Climate Action Network-Uganda (CAN-U), Environment and Natural Resources Civil Society Organizations Network (ENRCSO), Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa-Uganda (AFSA), Advocacy Coalition for sustainable Agriculture (ACSA), Pan African Climate Justice Alliance-Uganda Chapter (PACJA)among others.

Ibrahim Mutebi, Renewable Energy Manager at WWF Commended Government for kick-starting the NDC enhancement process which shows commitment towards fighting climate change especially by increasing the country’s ambition on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

“The skills and knowledge generated through the webinars will help CSOs to effectively and constructively support as well as contribute to the NDC enhancement process”, he noted adding that the NDC enhancement process comes at a time when the global climate discussions are focusing on how countries can increase their climate ambitions to reduce global warming to below 2⁰C.

He added that WWF believes in having wider consultations on the process so as to get inclusive solutions from both national and local levels.

The Acting Commissioner-Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Water and Environment Mr. Bob Natifu presented on the overview of Uganda’s NDC and national processes.

He underscored the need to have more interactions on the NDC enhancement process hence commended WWF for supporting EMLI and other CSOs to contribute to such processes. He requested WWF-UCO to continue supporting EMLI in undertaking such Climate change actions. He informed that Uganda signed the Paris Agreement which sets ambitious goals for Climate change whereby NDC is a mitigation component as prescribed in Article 4.

He added that Countries have to submit and set forth both adaptation and mitigation targets: Uganda’s interest is adaptation but also put forward mitigation targets focusing on Nature based Solutions. Mr. Natifu said that Nature based Solutions will be considered in enhancement of Uganda’s NDC as they help in the implementation of mitigation targets and offer low costs to both adaptation and mitigation actions through increasing forest & wetlands cover and renewable energy inter-alia.

Mr. Robert Bakiika, the Acting Executive Director-EMLI made a presentation on Perspectives on NDCs. He said that the average global temperature has already increased by more than 1°C compared to pre-industrial levels according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“Greenhouse gas emissions have increased at a rate of 1.5% per year throughout the last decade, he said adding that the current emission rate, global warming will reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 (SR-1.5, IPCC)
Moving forward, the Ministry of water and environment through the Climate Change Department promised to send a well-structured road map on the consultations however, this has a strong bearing on the financial implications. Partners were advised to lay out a plan on how they want the consultations to be executed

A boda boda man struggling as transport is affected by floods in Kampala