The French Ambassador to Uganda H.E Stephanie Rivoal has challenged Uganda and other African countries to be cautious against replicating ‘mistakes’ that were made by the Western industrialized countries especially now that climate change is a global threat.
She said that Africa possesses a variety of solutions to the fast changing weather patterns but there must be political will in enforcing regulations.
The Ambassador made the remarks on Monday during the screening of ‘Tomorrow’, a documentary film that highlights the threat posed by climate change. The viewing of the film happened at the French Ambassador’s residence organized by the Embassy of France in Uganda.
“Africa must not repeat the ‘mistakes’ made by the West in their industrial revolution. The African continent can jump ahead and partake the development of the future because you have everything at your disposal rather than replicating the same poor decisions,” she told the guests including diplomats and government officials.
She intimated that in fact the industrialized countries like USA and others have suffered far reaching climatic effects among them racial and religious hatred.
She added; “While we (the West) lack the moral authority to stop Africa from developing through the same path of industrialization we took, we can’t shy away from the impact Africa has suffered – food insecurity, diseases and others.”
The Minister of Tourism Ephraim Kamuntu who was also in attendance stressed that unless global top industrial countries must honor their commitment to reduce carbon emissions, efforts by developing countries like Uganda will not yield much.
“Countries like USA and China must be held accountable for their past mistakes as well as to ensure that small countries benefit from the USD 200 billion pledged by industrialized countries,” the Minister said.
“A country like Uganda emits only 0.01% but the impact of climate change on our environment has been enormous and costly. When we see landslides in Buduuda, perennial floods in Kasese, this is resultant from the actions of big economies.”
“Even if we were to fully comply to the Paris Agreement on local level, without cooperation from countries like USA who emit much more, we won’t stop the glacier on Mt. Rwenzori from melting. These countries must be accountable.”
He however admitted that Uganda can not avoid dealing with the issue of climate change given the fact that an estimated 900,000 people are added to the already 35 million population each year yet the land mass is fixed. “Whether globally there’s compliance or not, as Uganda we have to survive.”
The Ambassador of Norway to Uganda Susan Eckey hinted on the need for proper regulations by government to create sustainable development citing the case of Uganda’s depreciating wetlands.