Today's Edition
ABDULLAH ABU DAIF (CAIRO) - Mahamat Hano, Minister of the Environment, Fisheries, and Sustainable Development of Chad, stressed that the upcoming COP28 climate summit in the UAE will be an important step towards achieving the goals of climate change adaptation, supporting developing countries in confronting climate change, and mobilising concerted international efforts to secure urgently needed funding for the “loss and damage fund”.
In an interview with the Aletihad, the Chadian Minister praised the UAE’s exceptional work in organising COP28, highlighting that the summit will be one of the most significant climate summits in its history, as the UAE is a global hub for hosting and organising major international events, all of which achieved unprecedented success. “There was a consensus on the UAE hosting the COP28 summit, especially with its interest in supporting finance to developing countries to adapt to climate change.
"Chad is continuously working to bolster its relations with the UAE, namely in the field of environment. Recently, my country has started to suffer greatly from climate change impacts, such as desertification, which is one of the most critical environmental problems facing Africa in general. Chad suffers from climatic volatility and its climate varies according to the geographical nature, which is divided into three regions with different weather conditions,’’ the Minister said.
The Lake Chad Basin region, which is overlooked by Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, is considered one of the regions in the world that suffers the most from climate change impact in the past five decades. The increasing rates of drying up of Lake Chad led to other environmental changes, such as declining in crop and livestock production, fish stocks and fisheries, according to Hano.
The Chadian Minister explained that climate change caused droughts, flooding and the shrinking of Lake Chad, resulting in two major problems in the region: competition over scarce water resources and human migration.
“The previous climate summit in Egypt presented the financial needs of developing countries, and we succeeded in presenting most of the challenges we face which led to a breakthrough agreement on new loss and damage fund for vulnerable countries. However, so far, the finance that was approved have not been collected, amounting to about $100 billion from rich countries that have the largest share of greenhouse gases emissions. My country has several goals for its participation in COP28, including increasing support for the country’s programmes and speeding up finance flow, which will require honest discussions and solutions to the challenges that have disrupted the smooth flow of finance,” he said.
“We will also demand the industrial and rich countries to bear the responsibility for losses and damages caused by climate change impacts. Chad is working on a plan to adapt to climate change impacts, which will include a large-scale of investments in agriculture. We will call on all countries in the world, especially the UAE and other Gulf countries, to invest and support us in this regard,’’ the Minister said.
Hano also emphasised the need for organisations representing developing countries to join efforts to speed up finance flow to developing countries through the loss and damage fund, enabling these countries to address climate change impacts.
“Severe drought followed by the worst floods in 30 years have led to rocketing food prices and left a record 2.1 million people in Chad acutely hungry, according to United Nations agencies. The United Nations children’s fund said, as a result of the climate disaster, 10% of all children under five are affected by severe malnutrition, and one in three will suffer from stunted growth,’’ the Minster said.
