The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism in collaboration with the Uptake of Climate Change Adaptation research results in Africa (CLARE-Namibia) project on Thursday rolled out short courses on climate change for parliamentarians.

The six-day course attended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Natural Resources and Economics and Public Administration is being held under the theme ‘Namibia is heating up: What does global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius mean for us?’

According to a statement issued on Thursday, the course is part of a project which is being implemented by the University of Namibia (UNAM) and the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia (DRFN). It is aimed at raising awareness and understanding of Namibia’s climate change projections, the implications thereof and international commitments to create and enable action in Namibia.

Namibia ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1995 and the Paris Agreement in 2016, which established a global goal of limiting warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, and to pursue efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In her opening remarks, UNAM’s Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Development, Professor Anicia Peters noted that these courses aim to bring awareness on climate change impacts and vulnerabilities to a high decision-making level. The courses also advocate for political support to Sustainable Development Goal 13, which speaks about climate action, so that Namibia can speed up its efforts to build the resilience of its communities and affected economic sectors.

The courses respond to research recommendations from the work of the university in collaboration with other international universities, she noted.

“The recommendation is to strengthen climate change governance in Namibia, in particular, through our partnership with DRFN. We have institutionalised and strengthened the vertical climate change governance from national level through regional councils and to local constituencies in Namibia,” said Peters.

She also emphasised that the project builds upon the International Panel on Climate Change special report on the impacts of global warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways.

“By partnering in this project, we are performing our mandate towards awareness creation, training and capacity building regarding the 1.5 degrees Celsius and 2.0 degrees Celsius global warming projections and what they mean for Namibia in order to create urgency for climate action in Namibia,” said Peters.

Source: Namibia Press Agency