The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes that climate change is a transversal challenge that will undermine achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
As the world grows hotter, drier and harder-hit by extreme weather events and the effects of sea level rise, prospects of achieving the SDGs, including SDG 16 on peaceful, just and inclusive societies, are at risk. Climate change “amplifies existing risks and creates new risks for natural and human systems.”
It acts as a threat multiplier, disrupting livelihoods, driving displacement and migration, intensifying scarcities of natural resources, which can drive violence and conflict, and raising pressure on state-citizen relations.
The impact of climate change cuts across all aspects of the sustainable development agenda, posing urgent challenges not only to environmental conservation, but to the protection of human rights, food security and global public goods such as health and education.
Whereas countries are building effort to mitigate climate change through rapid greenhouse emission reduction and adaption, this effort could be frustrated by limited involvement of the citizens who are not only the victims of climate shocks but also the custodians of the natural resource base.
In Uganda, where millions of people rely directly on land and other natural resources, such as water and forests, for their survival and prosperity, the effects of climate change are likely to affect the most climate-vulnerable.
Climate change drives up competition for increasingly scarce arable land and water, fueling dispossession and land-grabbing, criminal exploitation of land and natural resources, conflict and displacement.
Because of land insecurity and dysfunctional land tenure systems in Uganda, land is one of the central issues around which people seek justice solutions. The most excluded and marginalized people – women, youth and indigenous people – struggle to claim and resolve disputes over land in a timely, fair and consistent manner.
Effective justice pathways to sustainable access to and use of land and natural resources are essential not only to the protection of people’s rights, but also to prevent conflict and sustain peace.
Rural communities are dependent on local water sources that are likewise threatened by changes in rainfall patterns, drought and wastage. These communities possess unique and valuable contextual knowledge of natural resources and have a vested interest in ensuring the sustainable use of land and resources.
Strengthening adherence to rule of law principles and mainstreaming environmental law across public policy can lead to the effective implementation of nature-based solutions, giving greater agency to the communities that depend on the land the most.
For countries with a record of human rights abuse and poor public accountability such as Uganda, there is an urgent need to champion an inclusive, people-centered, equitable and effective responses to the climate crisis.
Evidence has shown that, the causes and effects of climate change, as well as the actions needed to address them, are closely linked to issues of justice and equity. The people most vulnerable to the effects of climate change are those who already experience systematic exclusion and marginalization, and will be disproportionately affected.
In Uganda, the people living in least- developed regions, such as Karamoja and West Nile, who are already known for their vulnerability to conflict, are the most exposed. These communities are also already bearing the brunt of increased cost of energy access arising from adhoc policies made without their involvement.
For example, while the presidential ban on commercial production of charcoal had good intentions of protecting the remnant forests in these regions, it was not informed by the local context, and did not recognize unique vulnerabilities.
As a result, its enforcement is meeting challenges because of the high influx of refugees, especially in West Nile whose demand for energy and livelihood has exerted more pressure on the natural resources, leading to more encroachment.
The women and youths who have previously depended on the charcoal economy have lost their livelihood due to escalating energy prices, and could be a potential source of insecurity in the near future.
The loss of their livelihood has pushed most of them to illegal charcoal trade and smuggling, which has since escalated deforestation, despite the existence of the executive order.
The ability of these people to build resilience to climate change has thus been affected by poor economic systems often reliant on climate-threatened sectors such as agriculture and pastoralism, and limited capacity to address climate risks.
Women and girls, youth and children, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized constituencies bear the brunt of the impact. Most of the climate change interventions designed by government have no specific affirmative action and do not involve the underprivileged.
The highest burden of mitigating causes, and adapting to the shocks of climate change lies on the shoulders of the already weak population. The increased need to reduce the loss of forest cover, approaches to conserve wildlife, and water resources, have barred or restricted access by the citizens who have historically depended on these resources for their livelihood.
This manifests through evictions, arrests and harassment without courtesy of listening to the pleas of the people or providing alternative sources of livelihood. While these people have contributed less to the problem of climate change, they are expected to sacrifice the most, in generating solutions.
There is thus an urgent need to implement a transformative climate action that calls for coordinated political, economic and social justice changes underpinned by the rule of law. This can only be achieved through climate justice, which calls for a human rights-based approach, and multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Without such inclusive, equitable and effective policies and institutions, the climate crisis in Uganda will bring about more inequality, more injustice and less peace in the long term. Government must prioritize the involvement of the most affected in decision-making and ensure that the rights of the most vulnerable and disproportionately affected are protected.
The voices of the marginalized natural resource dependent communities who are most affected by the impacts of climate change must be heard in government processes, and the disproportionate effects of climate change must be recognized in program designs, while ensuring that the costs and benefits of climate mitigation and adaptation are distributed fairly.
The writer is an environment and natural resources management consultant and research fellow, Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment
