Commonwealth launches climate finance toolkit for small states
By Catherine Ageno
In response to the devastating effects of climate change that several countries including Uganda are currently grappling with, the Commonwealth has launched a toolkit to enhance access to climate finance.
The toolkit was launched during the Fifth Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub Steering Committee meeting, held in Mauritius.
Speaking at the meeting, the Commonwealth Secretary-General Hon. Patricia Scotland said the toolkit is aimed at supporting Commonwealth small states and other vulnerable member countries to access much-needed finance to mitigate and adapt to the devastating impacts of climate change.
She emphasized that effective global climate action cannot be achieved without adequate and well-targeted resources.
“With every news story, we hear about intensifying droughts in Africa, successive record-breaking storms in the Caribbean, or submerged atolls in the Pacific. It is essential to ramp up global climate action if we are to avoid the catastrophic impacts of an overheated planet and sustain human civilization as we know it,” Hon Scotland said.
Scotland added that climate finance is the oxygen needed to ensure that we deliver on the targets set out in national and global commitments, as captured in Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement.
“That is why the work of the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub is essential for small states and other vulnerable countries, as it supports better access to essential international funds”, she said.
Uganda, like the other East African countries, has been hit by extreme weather conditions which experts have blamed on climate change.
Hundreds of people have died in Karamoja and Lango sub-regions due to hunger-related complications while the latest catastrophe occurred in the Eastern District of Mbale where flash floods claimed the lives of more than 20 people and several others are still missing following the heavy torrential rains that pounded the area on Saturday night.
