The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism needs about N$112.3 billion to successfully address Greenhouse emissions by 2030, its Minister Pohamba Shifeta has said.
Namibia is expected to implement the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) programme as per the requirement of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change.
Shifeta said it is through such a documented programme that the ministry pledged its commitment to the world towards limiting the global temperature rise to well below 1.5 degree Celsius.
“In addition, this shows how well and how we intend to increase resilience across our key economic sectors. In terms of limiting our greenhouse gas emissions, we have targeted four sectors such as, Energy, Waste, Industrial Processes and Product Use; as well as Agriculture, Forestry and other Land use,” said Shifeta.
“We aim to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 91% by 2030. The implementation of our NDC will cost around N$112.3 billion of which N$65.2 billion is for mitigation measures and N$47.1 billion is for adaptation targets, respectively.”
In terms of funding, Shifeta said, 90% of the required funds to implement the NDC will be sourced from multilateral and bilateral sources and only 10 % of the funding will be sourced domestically.
“In view of the above figures, the Ministry will continue to work with different development partners and multilateral funding windows such as the Adaptation Fund, Global Environmental Facility and Green Climate Fund to mobilise climate finance,” he reaffirmed.
Still on the well-being of the ecosystem and biodiversity, the Minister said a total of 1600 applications for environmental clearance were received in 2022, and over 75% environmental clearance certificates were issued, especially for activities related to hazardous substances, infrastructure development, land rezoning and mining.
On that note, he commended the swift processes that have improved over the years due to the online application system and intensification of awareness activities.
The Ministry was also able to inspect 80 sites for environmental compliance and monitoring during 2022, he said.
Shifeta noted that Illegal sand mining remains a challenge, of which he says the Ministry is working closely with Traditional Authorities and Nampol to better regulate ever-increasing sand mining activities.
“The Ministry has also developed draft regulations specific to sand mining in terms of the Environmental Management Act to improve coordination and regulation of this difficult challenge,” he reiterated.
In terms of solid waste management, the minister stated that the ministry is working with various stakeholders on waste disposal standards and guidelines.
“We are currently in consultation with the Namibia Standard Institute to adopt the South African minimum requirements for waste disposal at landfills.”
Furthermore, Shifeta said the Ministry has submitted a proposal to cabinet to ban the single use plastic carry bags in 2023 as a measure to reduce litter and environmental degradation.
