Experts Across Africa Meet in Kigali to Discuss Climate Change

Clear short- and long-term adaptation plans are needed to deal with the challenge of global warming and other climate change impacts, experts from Anglophone African least developed countries meeting in Kigali said yesterday.

More than 80 participants from 18 countries are attending the workshop organised by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) in collaboration with Rwanda’s Ministry of Natural Resources.

The Minister for Natural Resources Stanislas Kamanzi said climate change adverse impacts are hampering development efforts in Africa’s least developed countries and there is a need to strengthen capacities to deal with climate change.

“Governments in the least developed countries develop different climate change adaptation plans, but the weaknesses are noted in the implementation process, even within government institutions,’’ Kamanzi said.

He added that budgetary constraints are a challenge, as governments have to spend on implementation of many development projects with limited funding.

Paul Desanker, UNFCC’s officer in charge of National Adaptation Plans and Policy Adaptation, said least developed countries have to face the unavoidable challenge of coping with and adapting to adverse impacts of climate change despite their limited capacity.

The New Times