Uganda to host global climate change meet

Preparations are underway for the country to host a global conference on climate change next year, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa has said.
Mr Tayebwa said this yesterday during the ongoing 18th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of Commonwealth (CSPOC) Africa Region in Yaounde, Cameroon. 

“I am excited to actively see to it that Uganda hosts the first Carbon neutral CSPOC conference in January 2024,” Mr Tayebwa said in a statement.
 Among the topics lined up for discussion at the conference include issues around the environment, climate change and the role of Parliament, and diverse and inclusive parliaments (youth and gender sensitivity), among others, according to information from the website of CSPOC.

 Carbon neutrality refers to balancing the carbon dioxide people or companies release into the atmosphere through everyday activities through interventions like tree planting.
 Mr Tayebwa said they would start by measuring the compliance of the delegates to mitigating the release of carbon, one of the gases that causes climate change.

 “We will establish this by evaluating the tickets delegates will use to measure their carbon footprints, and if they are using paper, we will establish what kind of paper and how much has been used in preparation for the journey,” he said.

 Mr Tayebwa said the country already made progress in addressing the problem of climate change, such as enacting the Climate Change Act 2021, aligning the National Budget to the climate change fight and promoting E-parliament where the use of paper is reduced.
 The CSPOC conference brings together the speakers and presiding officers of the parliaments and legislatures of the Commonwealth. It focuses on the sharing of experiences, collaboration and partnership across the Parliaments of the Commonwealth.

 At the same conference in Cameroon, Mr Tayebwa also called for the removal of trade barriers among countries in Africa and embracing plans for regional airlines instead of national airlines.

 “We have realised as Africa that trade, not aid, is the one which will liberate us. And for trade, you start with your neighbours –intra-Africa trade. We need to reconsider the requirement for visas for travellers within Africa and allow people to move within the continent without such requirement,” he said.

 “In Africa, it is only Ethiopian Airlines making a profit. Can we have regional airlines? Why should we see each other as competitors? The money which could have been spent on schools and hospitals is being burnt in the name of promoting airlines because they [airlines]are not making profits,” he said.