… Plan translated to siSwati and braille
BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– Climate change mitigation strategies are taking shape in the country!
Yesterday, the country met its Paris Agreement commitment by officially launching the National Determined Contribution (NDC) Implementation Plan.
The polished event took place at the Hilton Garden Inn in Mbabane and it was attended by the Acting Deputy Prime Minister, who is also the Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Moses Vilakati, Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg, Government officials and United Nations officials.
“Climate change is one of the biggest threats and injustices of our time. We can take climate action through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are national climate action plans that embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
“The NDCs are the single most important instrument for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and achieving its long-term goals for climate adaptation and mitigation. Eswatini became a signatory to the Paris Agreement in 2016 and submitted her latest NDC in October 2021. The translation into Braille and siSwati is of great importance as we continue to strive towards leaving no one behind,” said the Acting DPM.
Vilakati also added, saying this today is a milestone day as the Kingdom of Eswatini was launching the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Implementation Plan saying it covered 12 areas including agriculture, health, water, ecosystems and biodiversity, infrastructure, energy, waste, industry, forestry, gender, youth and disaster risk reduction.
“The NDC will take US$ 1.3 billion (E23.7 billion) to implement between now and 2030, and the implementation plan will serve as the main framework tool for resource mobilization.
“We are grateful to the NDC Partnership and development partners, in particular UNDP, FAO, UNEP, IRENA, World Resources Institute, Commonwealth and COMESA who supported Eswatini’s NDC revision process. Needless to say, we need more development partners on board as we implement the NDC. We also need the private sector, academia and NGOs to support NDC implementation. It is only through collective action that we can achieve NDC goals.”
The Acting DPM further said although Eswatini emitted very little greenhouse gases, they have a very ambitious NDC and therefore, invited their development partners to also be ambitious in giving resources to implement the NDC.
“We have a number of projects that have been developed into concepts and some have received support, while others still need support. I, therefore, call on development partners to step up the resource mobilization for Eswatini.
“Finally, I want to thank NDC Partnership for all their support. The NDC implementation Plan has been uploaded to NDC Partnership’s website and will be revised on an ongoing basis with inputs from stakeholders. Tracking progress is very important so that we gather lessons learned and improve continuously.
With these words, I would like to announce that Eswatini’s NDC Implementation Plan is now officially launched!”
