COP:19 Life is a struggle for Malawians in face of climate change
Malawi Minister of Environment and Climate Change Management Halima Daud has told the UN conference on climate change that Malawi expects concrete decisions that will help people adapt adequately to climate change to meet their livelihoods now and in future.
Making her statement at the conference in Warsaw, Poland on Wednesday, Daud observed that climate change has routinely subjected the 14 million Malawians to other impacts that negatively affect agriculture, human and animal health, fisheries, forestry, water, and wildlife resources.
“In addition to extreme rain and floods, the country also experiences severe droughts that continue to threaten food security and availability and access to water resources. As I speak to you right now, many vulnerable Malawians are struggling due to negative impacts of climate change.
“For them life is a continuous struggle full of hopelessness. However, the COP-19 here in Warsaw provides us an opportunity to enable many people like the ones I have cited to adapt adequately to the adverse impacts of climate change. We therefore need to make concrete decisions that will help such people to meet their livelihoods now and in future,” she said.
She concurred with the statements made by the chairpersons of the Group of 77 and China, Least Developed Countries as well as the African Group.
“The delegations have outlined with clarity, the perils of postponing action on the key climate change issues that confront us here in Warsaw. They have, sincerely made it clear that the world is impatiently waiting for our decisions, in particular on the issues surrounding adaptation, mitigation, capacity building, technology transfer, use of market mechanisms; agriculture, loss and damage and climate finances including the Green Climate Fund,
Daud said Malawi sees a great and increasing need for political and moral leadership and action in the face of these escalating threats of climate change.
She said the vulnerable people need an immediate assistance through effective adaptation and other related efforts. The current funding situation is, however, inadequate, she added.
“We need to fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund; agree on decisions that will properly balance funding for adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer and capacity building. Here in Warsaw, we must strengthen REDD plus and set up an effective monitoring, reporting and verification [MRV] system based on common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday warned that the world need look no further than the catastrophe in the Philippines to comprehend the profound and dangerous consequences of a warming planet, urging negotiators to rise to the challenge “with wisdom and urgency” and pave the way to a binding climate deal by 2015.
“Climate change threatens current and future generations,” Mr. Ban said in his address to the high-level segment of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, taking place in Poland.
