The consultation workshop on mobilizing investments and resources for Zambia’s climate change related programs and National Adaptation Plan took place from 13 to 14 December 2017.
On the margins of COP 23 in November 2017 in Bonn Germany, the Zambian government through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources in close liaison with the Zambian Embassy to Germany requested the Global Water Partnership to support development of a comprehensive strategy for resource mobilization.
Mr. Alex Simalabwi, GWP Executive Secretary and Head Africa Coordination Unit said the objective of the strategy is to leverage Zambia’s accreditation and participation to UNFCCC and other climate change related conventions, mobilize resources and investments to support climate resilience growth, development and advance Zambia’s Job creation and industrialisation agenda.
“This workshop kicked off the process to develop a comprehensive investment mobilization strategy and also reviewed ongoing proposals prepared for submission to the Green Climate Fund and others sources.”
Mr. Simalabwi said the request to GWP by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources was within the context of its plan to support implementation of resource mobilization for climate change adaptation.
“GWP and partners are supporting the development of a strategy for mobilizing investment in the water, energy and natural resources sectors within the framework of the NDCs and NAP. The Investment and resource mobilization strategy builds on the National Cooperation Development Strategy and ensure mobilization of resources from multiple sources,” Simalabwi noted.
He said the Strategy will also consider the wider climate, water and energy nexus synergies and impacts and where relevant build on the ongoing work in Zambia on National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), Green Climate Fund project preparation and will be undertaken in collaboration with Africa GreenCo (GreenCo) - that aims to set-up a government co-owned public-private partnership - creditworthy intermediary to stimulate private sector in energy sector.
To unlock private sector investments in energy, innovative models of unlocking investments in water and energy will be explored as part of the Zambia Investment mobilization strategy.
For energy, GreenCo, will act as intermediary off taker only and will not manage the physical transmission and distribution of electricity. It will not own any grid infrastructure or seek to replace existing utilities. Rather than replacing existing structures, it will complement them and facilitates the implementation of wider utility rehabilitation and balance sheet optimisation objectives.
Once sent up, GreenCo will transform the risk profile of power project development today by leveraging the existence of increasingly liquid and expanding Southern African Power Pool.
The power pool provides an alternative route to market which will eventually break the sovereign ceiling imposed by the current model of individual power projects contracted to individual national utilities; resulting in lower off taker risk, cheaper credit, lower tariffs and lower contingent liability impact to the government.
Zambia is one of the countries highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Zambia’s socio-economic development and livelihoods are very much dependent on natural resources that are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts.
In response to the challenges, the Zambian Government, through the Ministry of National Development Planning, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources facilitated the formulation of the National Policy on Climate Change. The Policy was adopted by Cabinet on 26th April, 2016. The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is the lead institution in overseeing the coordination of implementation of the National Policy on Climate Change of 2016.
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has been coordinating the development of programs and projects that will help in implementing Zambia’s Climate Policy, and in meeting its global commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement, mainly through developing and implementing its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plan (NAP). The Ministry is also mobilizing resources to support the implementation of climate change related programs and projects.
With GWP support, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is facilitating the process of formulating the national adaptation plan for Zambia. This important process will culminate into development of the National Adaptation Plan which will elaborate the medium and long-term adaptation priorities for the country.