BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MBABANE – “Economic production happens in towns, so most of the climate change issues start in towns.”
These were the words of the Interim CEO of the Mbabane Municipality, Bongani Dlamini, when speaking about the climate change municipal policy development session hosted at the Hilton Garden Inn in Mbabane today.
The climate change municipal development session was organised by the municipality so that stakeholders can engage on the issues which contribute to climate change.
“There are many emissions and materials we use which cause the environment to change the way it does, such that there is too much rain or none at all,” said Dlamini on the extreme weathers caused by climate change.
“In all this, we need to look at what role we can play as a town to fight this unfortunate trend of climate change,” said Dlamini about the policy development session.
Dlamini’s words were echoed by Nontobeko Mlangeni, who was representing the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
“75% of global carbon dioxide emissions come from cities. We discovered that Mbabane contributes 20% of the country’s emissions. We also discovered that these emissions come from the cities mostly come from buildings and the transportation sector,” revealed Mlangeni.
The Mbabane municipal policy development session on climate change comes at the heels of the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28), a global conference on climate change, where Eswatini Prime Minister Russel Mmiso Dlamini represented the country and reaffirmed Eswatini’s commitment to fighting climate change.
