The Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change says lack of funding for in-depth research on loss and damages due to climate change in Malawi is one of the hindrances contributing to the failure in addressing the impacts of climate change.
Director for the Environmental Affairs Department at Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change,Tawonga Mbale Luka, made the statement on Monday during the opening of the 5-day workshop for African Regional Conference on Loss and Damage and Climate Change which is being conducted in Lilongwe.
Mbale said that there is a need to digest and come up with relevant information which can be helpful to the country in order to enable the country be able to come up with better long lasting solution instead of focusing on the same experiences without any possible solutions at hand.
Luka noted that a study published by UNICEF in September 2020 showed that 11 million people are expecting crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity in 9 Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries due to deepening drought and climate crisis as such it is important to work together and take collective action and responsibility for enhanced climate action.
She added that beyond that, there is a need to explore other avenues including domestic and probate financing for climate action on the continent by involving private sector considering that the sector has been left behind on the issue of climate finances discussions.
“In short, let this conference be an opportunity for us to deliberate and agree on how best we can mobilize resources with which we can implement climate actions to reduce the vulnerability of the people and ecosystems of Africa,” she explained.
On his Part, Panafrican Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) Head of Programs Charles Mwangi said that the workshop has come in good time as Africa is struggling with the issue of climate change which has left a lot of homeless and loss of lives due to different storms affected people.
Mwangi noted that African countries did not benefit a lot from the previous Conference of Parties (COP) but it is important to use this opportunity to come up with good inputs that can be presented in the coming COP27 so that the outcomes should be seen and appreciated by the citizens of every country.
The five-day workshop has been organised by Civil Society Network on Climate Change (ISONNEC) with funding from Panafrican Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). Participants from different countries like Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi among others will be attending the workshop.
