Namibia’s Deputy Minister of Environment Forestry and Tourism, Heather Sibungo on Wednesday called on African countries to submit more ambitious nationally determined contributions (NDCs) as well as adopt ambitious deadlines for achieving net zero emissions.
Speaking at a press briefing in Windhoek, Namibia, Sibungo said Namibia further calls on developed countries to provide the means of implementation and support for the effective implementation and enhancement of nationally determined contributions by developing countries. Namibia has revised its NDCs to address shortcomings identified as hampering effective implementation, she added.
The semi-arid nation has revised and updated its NDCs and set a target for reforestation of about 20,000 hectares every year as of 2021 and at the same time to reduce the deforestation rate by 75 percent by 2030.
Sibungo said a considerable amount of finance is urgently needed to support NDCs implementation to reach a net zero emissions trajectory as soon as possible.
“Namibia urges the scaling up of the levels of climate finance, by providing concrete long-term targets for climate finance pathways and accounting methodologies for the collective goal by developed countries to reach 100 billion U.S. dollars a year from 2025 and beyond, while striking a balance of the allocation between adaptation, mitigation and loss and damage through a significant increase of grant-based support for adaptation,” she said.
The Conference of Parties or COP27 will be held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, from Nov. 6-18, 2022.
At this year’s conference, Namibia will be represented by a delegation from the government, private as well as the academic sector while the country will have a pavilion to accommodate all side events.
