Wed, 31 Jan 2018 15:19:33 +0000
By MAILESI BANDA
THE Policy Monitoring and Research Centre (PMRC), has advised Government to allocate adequate resources for climate change initiatives to be successfully achieved.
PMRC executive director Bernadette Deka said with adequate resources, Zambia will be able to attain the set objectives enshrined in the National Policy on Climate Change.
Zambia launched the National Climate Change Policy on 3rd March 2017. It is aimed at stemming the impact of climate change and subsequent reduction of the country’s annual economic growth due to crop failure and the impact of climate change on energy production.
The National Climate Change Policy is a policy development that introduces a well-structured and coordinated national strategy to effectively tackle the adverse effects of climate change.
And in making an assessment on the policy report, Ms Deka said there is need to include Strategic Environmental Assessment which is a set of analytical and participatory processes for incorporating environmental considerations, at early stages of decision making, into policies, plans, and programmes that affect natural resources.
Ms Deka said SEA evaluates, at the highest strategic level, a project’s environmental impacts in the context of social and economic factors.
“There is need for the National Climate Change Policy to foster and provide critical systematic considerations at the sectorial, regional, and national levels to promote environmental sustainability, smart growth, and pollution prevention,” she said.
Ms Deka also said the policy must encompass a spectrum of analytical processes such as Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment, Strategic Social Environmental Assessment and Country Environmental Analysis.
She named other assessments as the Combined Strategic Impact Assessment, and Cumulative Impact Assessment.
The National Climate Change Policy is being driven by the Ministry of National Development Planning and includes special consideration towards vulnerable groups such as poor rural women, children and the youth in Zambia.
