…Minister Neal Rijkenberg reveals
BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
(Pics Courtesy of Thembelihle G. Maseko)
MBABANE– Eswatini is escalating its climate change mitigation strategies!
The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development have joined in climate action and this was revealed by the Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg yesterday on the first day of the Inaugural Eswatini Green Indaba at Happy Valley Hotel in Ezulwini.
“This Indaba comes at a time when my ministry has joined hands with the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development to mainstream climate action into the recently developed National Development Plan. As such there are a lot of projects in that plan that are climate-smart and still need investment.
“Others, in particular infrastructure development projects, are still to go to the design stage, wherein there is a need to ensure that the designs are low carbon and climate resilient. We need to ensure that our infrastructure is resilient to the negative impacts of severe weather events that are becoming more frequent and more intense,” said the Minister.
His Honourable further said the Green Indaba was one of the initiatives that are in support of sustainable development in the country.
“We are therefore working guided by the universal values, in particular the principle of leaving no one behind. We have recently started engaging with the youth through a Youth Parliament Forum so that their voices can be heard and we can move along with them as we green the Eswatini economy. I am happy to note that they are involved in this Indaba.
“Having developed a Private Sector Engagement Strategy, we are currently working on a private sector engagement plan. We have also started engaging the business community through Business Eswatini. There is indeed value in the government working with the business community. I look forward to the outcomes of this Indaba, in particular, on how we can join hands to improve access to green finance, leading to improved climate action and sustainable development in Eswatini. This will indeed involve looking into innovative finance instruments that should not replace, but complement conventional finance.”
