Prime
Activists call for more funding in green finance
The Action Aid country Director Mr Xavier Ejoyi (C), together with other climate change activists from different civil society organizations pose for a photo during media engagement on April 30, 2024 in Kampala. PHOTO/DOROTHY NAGITTA
Activists from different civil societies in Uganda have urged the governments across the globe to prioritize funding environmentally- friendly activities to address the risks of climate change.
The 2023 Action Aid International study showed that major international banks play a big role in financing fossil fuels and industrial agriculture in the global south, with a total expenditure of over $460 billion annually. It also revealed that only $22 billion goes to finance climate action or solutions against climate change.
While addressing Journalists on April 30 in Kampala Xavier Ejoyi, the country Director of Action Aid International said: “We can't be talking that we are affected by climate change and so on and yet we are putting most of the money in funding investments in fossil fuel.”
Ejoyi urged countries to establish right policies and strategies that will help to regulate the finances meant to address the climate crisis.
On April 29, Action Aid Uganda commenced its celebrations of climate Justice Week of Action that is expected to end on May 17.
The celebrations will involve activities such as sensitization and awareness, planting trees, symposiums, among others.
The celebrations come at a time when leaders of the Loss and Damage Board kicked off their first meeting in Dubai on Tuesday to discuss a way forward on climate change.
The board of the Loss and Damage fund was formally established last year in the Conference of Parties (COP28) in Dubai, after decades of advocacy by civil society organizations and activists around the world, saying that countries that are on the receiving end of climate change such as Uganda and many countries in the global south need to be compensated for the losses and damages that they are incurring as a result of climate change.
During this global conference, climate change negotiators agreed to allocate over $700 million towards the loss and damage fund to support climate mitigation and recovery to seven countries in the global south, including Uganda. However, the Action Aid country director attributed it as a very small pledge towards a huge need for the damages caused to these countries
But Ejoyi insists the global south needs about $400billion annually.
“It is likely that the funding will not be effective, efficient, or sustainable,” he added.
In the same way, Moses Onen, the Programme Manager at Pelum Uganda, called upon the government to scale up mitigation measures on climate change.
“We are aware that the government has a political will to live to those commitments except the actions we are lagging. We call upon the different ministries to take up their roles in ensuring commitment,” Onen said.
Sheila Apiny, the Action Aid Northern regional programme coordinator, asked that the loss and damage funds should be used to address the issues of social injustice, land grabs, drought and floods that are happening in the communities.
“The research findings that we had as a result of the study that we undertook on Uganda's readiness to access the loss and damage fund far goes beyond the allocation,” she noted.
Sharon Ocola Katho, the communications officer at MEMPROW, a feminist organisation that fights for the rights of women and girls right from the grassroots level to national level, called for women-led interventions in addressing the climate change crisis.
