Mugabe the odd one out at UN oceans summit

It is increasingly becoming undeniable that Zimbabwe is now in the clutches of a fully-fledged climate change scourge. The rains have been coming late, with their patterns unpredictable and often resulting in heavy flooding; there have been successive droughts; the winters have been too cold and the summers are now too hot, characterised by heat waves, among a host of other climatic changes that have left the country more vulnerable than before. There is no doubt the country is in a fix due to this atmospheric phenomenon.

In the face of such challenges, many would like to know what the government is doing with regards to efforts to help safeguard the majority of the citizens from the drastic adverse impacts of climate change — besides the country's president and his usual large delegations of senior government officials attending climate change summits.

Attending such summits is one thing and putting in place measures to help reduce the impact of the scourge is another. There is no use in the country continually attending such gatherings if the proposed solutions are not implemented back home. In this article, we seek to prove beyond doubt that the government of Zimbabwe is not in the least bothered by climate change.

It is expected that when government officials attend the climate change conventions and summits, they gather rich knowledge that they can capitalise on in a manner that unlocks value for the generality of Zimbabweans — through the implementation of life-saving solutions back home. In April 2016, there was an outcry from the public when President Robert Mugabe attended a climate change summit in New York accompanied by several delegates. The agenda, according to a government spokesperson, "had everything to do with the vagaries of the changing weather patterns which have seen the region suffer a devastating El Nino induced drought period ". There was a general feeling that such a trip would have served the country better if it had been attended by representatives from the responsible ministry, with a clear idea of the issues under discussion.

As if that was not enough, on June 4 2017, the president again left for the United Nations headquarters in New York to join other "world leaders" at a high-level Conference on Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14, commonly called the Oceans Conference. As has become the norm, he was accompanied by several senior government officials that included the ministers of Foreign Affairs (Simbarashe Mumbengegwi) and Environment, Water and Climate (Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri). This particular trip has proven mind-boggling owing to a number of factors.

First of all, why would Zimbabwe send a bloated delegation to the Oceans Conference when the country is landlocked? Not that oceans are not important, but rather, other countries are geographically better-positioned to deal with oceans than Zimbabwe. South Africa, whose coastline stretches for more than 2 500km, was represented by Environmental Affairs minister, Edna Molewa. Possibly Zimbabwe is the only country in the region that was represented by its head of state at the summit and yet the country could have been represented by its ambassador to the United States or Canada than spend several millions of the scarce financial resources on a trip with no direct link to Zimbabwe's policies and programmes. Secondly, given how costly such trips are, the money Mugabe and his delegation of 50-plus blew could have been used to finance climate change mitigation initiatives in Zimbabwe.

SDG14 advocates for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. Surely, Zimbabwe does not fit into this cluster and Mugabe and his delegation are simply exhibiting an affinity for globetrotting and grandstanding. It was not a surprise that Mugabe spent a greater part of his speech talking about sanctions against Zimbabwe, and not oceans! Given such a scenario, it becomes hard to believe that the country is taking seriously the issue of climate change and how it is affecting Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe still has no clear implementable strategic policy on climate change as the so-called Climate Change Response Strategy (CCRS) document is not in use. Besides, the CCRS document is not well known because it was not disseminated to the public as happened with the ZimAsset one. Clearly, the government does not yet recognise climate change as the economic, environmental, social, political, human rights and security problem that it is.

It is no longer possible for the country to discuss economic transformation or development without factoring in climate change issues. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Environment, Water and climate — which is expected to be at the forefront in pushing for action — seems either uninterested in the whole issue, or is not competent enough to deal with a problem of such a magnitude.

While those in positions of power are busy globe-trotting under the guise of attending climate change conventions, the ordinary Zimbabweans are getting increasingly vulnerable and powerless in the face of the debilitating effects of climate change. The failure of the government to deal with the 2014/2015 drought, and some places experiencing serious flooding due to excessive rainfall, with a case in point being the flooding of the Tokwe-Mukosi dam — among a myriad of other calamities the country is experiencing — is ample evidence of how unprepared Zimbabwe is to face the impacts of climate change. There is definite need for Zimbabwe to awaken to the climate change reality and prioritise actions with regard to what is at present the world's biggest risk.

Contact CNRG [Centre for Natural Resources Governance] on Cell: 0715387417, email: info@cnrgzim.org or website: www.cnrgzim.org