By Ephraim Modi D.S
South Sudan government is seeking financial assistant amount to USD 80 billion to help in the fight climate change.
The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has on Monday launched an Environmental Awareness programs dabbed as “Nationally Determine Contribution” (NDC) with an approximate budget of 100 billion US dollars.
Speaking at the launch, the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Joseph Africano said that all government institutions will have to implement at least three strategies.
According to the official, government will co-share the funding with international partners to initiative the fight that would be posed by climate change.
He said the NDC will be budgeted starting next year with the total budget of 100 billion USD.
The Undersecretary said government will raise 20 billion USD and the International Community will be required to raise the remaining 80 billion US dollars to fight climate change.
He stated that plans for implementing fight against climate change are all in place and waiting for its facilitation for execution.
Africano said government will implement three strategies from the NDC programs raising 20% of the 100 billion USD by next year to 2030.
“From next year, all the government institutions will have to at least implement three strategies from the NDC which will be budgeted. When we put all that in our strategies, and we budget for it, we as government will be able to raise 20 billion up to 2030 …then the other 80 billion is something that the international community will raise up…,” the official said.
The Undersecretary said that environmental awareness is an important channel for communication and interactions, environmental outreach, creating awareness to general public, decision and policy makers, private sectors and as well promoting the political will.
A Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) or Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) is a non-binding national plan that highlight climate change mitigation, which include climate-related targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions.
South Sudan is experiencing a serious natural and man-made environmental issues over time and space.
Poor waste management pollutions from oil production, deforestations, climate change effects resulting into floods, droughts and migrations among others.
Africano also stressed on the policy of compensating trees that were being cut down by planting 100 million trees in ten years.
However, he has appealed for capacity building of the staffs, and also pleaded for technology transfer to be able to produce energy from rational sources.
“To generate energy for reasonable sources, we need to get into capacity building and technology transfer, because without the new technologies of getting solar, and hydro, we will not be able to build up,” he said.
According to the Paris Agreement that South Sudan participated in its negotiations in 2015 which is a legal binding international treaty on climate change, it sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2ºC and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5ºC.
The Paris Agreement said that developed countries should take lead in providing financial assistance to countries that are less endowed and more vulnerable, while for the first time also encouraging voluntary contributions by other parties.
Climate finance is needed for mitigation, because large scale investments are required to significantly reduce emissions and for adaptation, as significant financial resources are also needed to adapt to adverse effects and reduce the impacts of a changing climate.
Managing and protecting the environment is a shared and collective responsibility of all stakeholders, Community Base Organizations (CBOs), Faith Based Organization (FBOs), the press, private sector and general public.
South Sudan experiences a wide variety of environmental problems, including soil degradation due to the widespread deforestation with consequent loss of biodiversity and wildlife habitats, pollution of rivers and the wetlands, over-exploitation of fisheries and conflicts.
Environment is a home to all living organisms and from where we drive all our basic needs for survival.