The European Union (EU) has funded the Namibian government with N.dollars 59.5 million towards its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), a climate action plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impact.

The NDCs are long term goals agreed upon by world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21, 2015 in Paris to guide all nations to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change in an effort to achieve climate neutrality continent by 2050.

Speaking at the launch of the EU action support on the implementation and coordination of the NDC for Namibia here Friday, EU Ambassador to Namibia Sinikka Antila said climate change is a priority issue to be solved in unison among the international community, noting that every country is already or will be in future negatively affected.

Antila said climate change challenges require immediate, concerted actions, noting that the extreme droughts that Namibia has experienced over the years and recent devastating floods in Europe are a result of climate change.

The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian war had a deep global security impact on food and energy, and has therefore made the green transition realization more important in order to reduce the dependence on Russian gas and oil, she added.

“Namibia’s mitigation commitment is highly commendable, the updated NDC presents an improvement in the commitment of the devotion of Namibia to meeting the Paris agreement goal and following the road to net zero emissions by 2050,” she noted.

At the same event, Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism Executive Director, Teofilus Nghitila said Namibia’s target stands at 91 per cent to meet emission reduction goals by 2030 through aggressive plans to increase shares of renewable energy through various initiatives.

He noted that Namibia’s implementation of the NDC depends on the availability of financial resources from developing countries, adding that Namibia is in a very vulnerable position to climate change due to its geographical position, hence financial support is vital to ensure the implementation of the NDC action plan

“Climate change has taken its toll on Namibia already, for the past years we have experienced prolonged drought, veld fires and changes in rainfall patterns. Therefore, the government is obligated to formulate appropriate policies and regulations to ensure a collective effort of succeeding in achieving green emissions by 2030,” he noted.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency