Africa-Press – Botswana. Although Botswana is among countries that contribute the least to global warming in both absolute and per capita terms as compared to other countries such as the European Union (EU), China, and the United States of America (USA), the country continues to struggle to secure enough resources to adapt.
Deputy Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Environment and Tourism, Boatametse Modukanele told that access to climate funds is made challenging by the lack of institutional framework.
“It is indeed difficult to access climate finance due to the processes that have been put in place to apply for climate funds as well as the absence of a dedicated institutional Framework,” he says.
This publication had asked the ministry on the following: “Former minister Philda Kereng expressed concern over difficulty to access climate finance. How much money did Botswana secure in climate finance at CoP28 in loans or other non-grant instruments?”
Finance was a dominant subject throughout the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (CoP28) talks which were held two months ago in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Modukanele provided with an update on CoP28 saying that despite the primary objectives of CoP being to establish international agreements and commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Botswana was able to secure a little over P2 300,000.
“Though CoP is solely for negotiations, at CoP28, an agreement to fund Botswana to the tune of US$170,000 under the Initiative for Climate Action for Transparency (ICAT) support was reached,” he says.
In response to the question, “approximately how much adaptation financing does Botswana need?” Modukanele couldn’t provide a specific quantum, save to say “The amount of adaptation finance needed by Botswana would vary based on several factors such as the specific projects and initiatives required to build the country’s resilience and the scope and scale of efforts to adapt to climate change.”
However, a paper titled “The State of Climate Finance in Africa: Climate Finance Needs of African Countries” points out that lack of data and expertise is the reason Botswana and several African countries are unable to determine the amount required for adaptation.
“The lower reported needs for adaptation compared to mitigation may reflect a lack of data and technical experience to estimate and cost adaptation measures,” states the report, adding that “to provide a comprehensive assessment of adaptation financing needs, it is critical to analyse and address constraints facing countries.”
Some have expressed worry that Botswana is being overlooked in terms of climate funds, while contributing the least to the problem of carbon emissions. Former minister of environment Philda Kereng admitted at CoP27 that access to climate finance was still “difficult”. However, Namibia revealed at the time that they had secured P7.4 billion in climate finance from the Dutch government and European Investment Bank. The late Namibian president, Hage Geingob, at the time stated the money were the highest amount of concessionary finance to mitigate the effects of global warming that his country had acquired so far.
Just two months before CoP28, South Africa revealed that it had secured over P9.2 billion in grants from wealthy nations to help it transition to green energy.
Botswana is a net sink for greenhouse gases since emissions from the usage of fossil fuels are low. However, Modukanele says Botswana is in need of finance given the country’s vulnerabilities such as “water scarcity, desertification, and the impact on agriculture and wildlife, requires finance to implement a wide range of initiatives, including sustainable land management, water resource management, renewable energy development, and infrastructure resilience.”
Sunday Standard
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