Uganda has policy documents that recognize climate change as a serious threat towards achieving national development. Uganda has an obligation to reduce the amount of emissions under the national determined contributions agreed upon during the conference of parties COP 21 in Bonn. Countries were supposed to spend up to six per cent of GDP towards climate change for mitigation and adaptation measures.
Yet, despite numerous commitments and available opportunities to scale up climate change spending, funding to this subsector has been decimal over the past 10 years. Remember that most of Uganda’s employed population depend on the rain-fed agricultural sector that is most vulnerable to climate change impacts.
Uganda is also moving towards commercial oil production and yet the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) data shows that fossil fuels such as oil will increase climate change through pollution and add to greenhouse gas emissions.
One would expect a substantial increase in climate change spending to mitigate such effects from oil activities. That, however, is not the case. The climate change department, which is supposed to coordinate climate change policy, is underfunded to a tune of $230 million. In FY 2019/20, of the Shs 522.7 million budgeted for wage and non-wage expenditure, a paltry Shs 7 million was allocated towards climate change interventions and the rest to wages and salaries!
Amidst these developments, Uganda has been mapped as the most vulnerable country to climate change with limited capacity to cope. The occasional flooding, poor harvests, famine and long droughts are clear examples that unless new approaches and appropriate financing are explored, the country will incur enormous costs.
However, recent data from Water and Environment shows that this has not been achieved amidst the commitment to scale up this global phenomenon on funding and yet the energy sector remains the largest contributor – 72 per cent – to global energy emissions.
This increase in emissions has been exacerbated by lack of commitment among developed countries to increase the amount of climate finances towards this cause. In fact, climate change financing from MDCs to LDCs was estimated at $56.7bn in 2018, which falls below the agreed funding requirement of $100bn by the UNFCCC member states.
It was also agreed that the biggest emitters should be the biggest contributors of funds towards projects that aim at reducing climate change, such as renewable energy projects. For instance, China, which is the biggest emitter of carbondioxide, is ranked number one to invest in renewable energy amounting to $760bn in the last 10 years, followed by the United States of America and Europe, according to an OECD 2017 report.
Yet Uganda that is in advanced stages of oil exploitation has done little to finance climate change despite commitments available. The country has not done enough to mobilize additional financial resources for climate interventions and yet the country has been projected that it stands to lose close to $9 billion in the next ten years, according to Act Alliance.
Compliant countries to the Paris agreement, Kyoto protocol and UNFCCC are bound to combat climate change and reduce global emissions and provide the necessary financial resources to confront climate change. Member states, especially among EU, have now stepped up the game to achieve climate neutrality by 2030 and reduce levels of pollution.
Therefore, this provides immense opportunities for Uganda to increase climate change financing but also tap into the international funding agencies and among rich countries to provide the necessary climate finance.
It will also provide technologies to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy-reliant economies. Increasing funding to the local governments that implement climate change programmes will help in achieving the national development objectives outlined in the forthcoming NDPIII.
The author is a resource economist at the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO).
