Act fast on Climate Change Bill

‘It’s been a long time coming but I know that a change is gonna come.’ These are lyrics from the late American Sam Cooke’s iconic song ‘A change is gonna come.’

These words capture our current climate change predicament. As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a US science agency, recently noted, 2015 saw atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide rise by the biggest margin since records began. This rise injected even more power into climate change.

In case you are fed up with this ‘climate change stuff,’ and feel that we talk about it too much, just call your folks in the village. They will tell you how worried they are that the rains have really delayed. Before the month began, there had been no rains in most parts of the country.

Climate change is here with us, and it keeps causing havoc both directly and indirectly. Since its hazardous effects have been well chronicled over the years, it is arguably more important for us to focus more on what to do now that it is already here. The 13th Sustainable Development Goal answers this question, ‘Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.’

Our Senate and all concerned need to heed this call and finally activate the Climate Change Bill, which has already been passed in the National Assembly. This unprecedented Bill will provide a legislative framework for climate change-related action that is already long overdue.

The message to the Senate and all concerned is therefore simple; climate change is a matter of life and death — pass the Bill without further delay. It must fly into an Act of Parliament and subsequently be implemented fully.

But as much as climate change legislation is critical, it is not a silver bullet. We must all heed Mahatma Gandhi’s words and be the change that we wish to see. At the heart of this change is our climate resilience. Unless we adapt accordingly to a changing climate, we will end up on the wrong side of history.

Money should not be an excuse for inaction because billions of dollars of climate funds were committed in the Paris Agreement. In this regard, developed nations have a moral and legal obligation to deliver these funds and we must therefore keep pressing for them through both private and public sector levels.

In the final analysis, we must choose to move from plan to action. Climate change is real; its impact is devastating and ultimately slows down our economic growth.