By MICHELO HIMAAMBO –
CLIMATE change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet at large.
It requires the widest possible cooperation by all countries and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response with a view to accelerate the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Acknowledging that climate change is a common concern of humankind, stakeholders should –  when taking action to address climate change – respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights.
This doesn’t exclude the right to health, right to indigenous people, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development.
It is for this reason that Zambia recently joined other countries that sent representatives to Paris to participate in the drafting of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The agreement represents the most significant step forward since international climate negotiations began more than two decades ago, and the culmination of years of hard work by negotiators in and among many other cities like Washington DC, Beijing, Bonn, Durban, Cancun, and Lima.
Zambia’s Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection permanent secretary Trevor Kaunda said Cabinet approved the newly formulated National Policy on Climate Change.
Mr Kaunda said the policy would provide a necessary framework that will coordinate response to climate change impacts in the country unlike in the past.
He said this when he graced the 22nd Session of the Conference of Parties (COP 22) United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change preparatory workshop in Chisamba.
Mr Kaunda said Government would continue to put in place necessary policies and institutional framework to address the challenges of climate change.
“We will also ensure that the country is adequately represented at international climate change conferences,” Mr Kaunda said.
Mr Kaunda said the national policy on climate change would strengthen institutional and human capacity by providing a long term vision to achieve sustainable development.
“Zambia shall continue to participate at these crucial negotiations on elaboration of modalities, rules and procedures for effective implementation of the agreement and ensure that the outcome reflects our national interests and development priorities,” Mr Kaunda said.
He said there was need to utilise the conferences (COPs) to align the country’s development priorities and aspirations with ongoing climate change negotiation processes.
Mr Kaunda said the conferences would help to mobilise resources to implement nationally appropriate policy options on mitigation and adaptation identified through technical examination process.
He expressed pleasure to note that the Ministry of Lands, with support from United Nations (UN) programme on climate change, had hosted a workshop to build the capacity of Zambian negotiators to enable their effective participation at COP 22 in Morocco in November this year.
During the recent preparatory workshop held in Chisamba, a climate change activist suggested that there is need for the Paris Agreement to be translated into local languages in order to make it easy for public sensitisation.
Ministry of Lands Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Chief Environmental Management Officer Richard Lungu said the review of the Paris Agreement was well done and explained to participants during the preparatory workshop.
He said the Conference of Parties (COP) will now go for the modalities of the implementation of the Paris Agreement which will be held in Morocco.
“Zambia is part of the of the United Nations (UN) framework convention on climate change. We are obligated to participate in the decision making process that is past by the conference,” he said.
Mr Lungu said Zambia’s participation will help in bringing the country’s national interest and developmental needs into the mainstreams of these particular negotiations.
“If we are not part and parcel of the decision making process, then the decision will be made for us by someone else, which means, we will be bound to go with other people’s decision,” he said.
He said the parties are now reverting to German where they are going to access the effectiveness of how the convention has been implemented.
Owing to what has become known as the “bottom up” structure of the accord, the outlines of the Paris Agreement were already clear months before the talks in Le Bourget began.
Each country was to submit a plan for reducing its own emissions, and some countries, including the US and European Union (EU) countries, pledged an absolute reduction in their emissions.
Others promised to reduce the ‘carbon intensity’ of their economies, which is to say to cut the amount of carbon dioxide  emitted per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Many analysts have pointed out that the plans known as Nationally Determined Contributions collectively are not nearly enough to avert catastrophic climate change, and neither are they necessarily going to be realised.
The Paris Agreement consist of twenty-nine articles and the original Agreement of which the Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Russian texts are equally authentic and shall be deposited with the office of the UN secretary general.