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Ministry of Green Economy and Environment in Zambia: A Situational Analysis
By Francis Chilufya Chanda
Introduction
A green economy can be defined “As one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities” (UNEP 2011, in: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development ― UNRISD). Zambian and most African economies and livelihoods are evidently dependent on environmental and natural resources such as minerals, woodlands, and water resources. The aim of this analysis is to provide a situational analysis of the setting up of the new Ministry of Green Economy and Environment tasked with the following portfolios: Biosafety; Climate Change Policy; Environmental Policy; Environmental Protection and Pollution Control; Environmental Research and Training; Forestry Extension and Development; Forestry Policy; Green Economy and Industrial Policy and Meteorological Services. The Ministry will be responsible for the following Statutory Bodies/Institutions: Environmental Protection Fund; National Biosafety Authority; Zambia Environmental Management Agency and Zambia Forestry College.
Rationale of the New Ministry
Most of African energy, food and housing are premised on the exploitation of finite and renewable resources, often utilising carbon fuels. Although some of these natural resources are renewable, others are not such as minerals. Others take decades to replenish, as in the cases of trees and natural habitats. Although the United Party for National Development (UPND) government was elected to power on the premise to grow the economy, unsustainable ways of using the environment would be detrimental not only to our wellbeing but to the environment and generations to come. The newly created Green Economy and Environment Ministry in a quest for a green economy, will formulate policies, pathways and mechanisms in which waste management could be handled. Due to the volume of campaign promises and their relative priority in the minds of the electorate, the new government runs the risk of putting recycling of waste, for instance, on the back burner. That is likely to reduce the impact on the environment of a green economy. On the positive side, if put on the front burner, recycling for instance, will have a positive impact as most of the resources in economic activity would be reused. For Söderholm, “One important way of encouraging recycling and reuse of products is to support product designs that factor in the reparability and reusability of products. Improved recyclability can also benefit from a modular product structure” (2020: 3). Developing a green economy, therefore, is imperative and the way to go for a country such as Zambia aspiring to be a prosperous Middle-income Nation by 2030 (Vision 2030: 2006).
The New Dawn Government of President Hakainde Hichilema
It is the context of a poor economy, depleting resources and the recycling imperative, the New Dawn government of President Hakainde Hichilema since 24 August 2021 when he was sworn into office and was handed the instruments of office found it necessary to come up with such a ministry to drive the agenda of the green economy through “Investment and innovation which will underpin sustained growth and give rise to new economic opportunities” (Phiri 2020: 8). Green economy pays particular attention to the management of climate change with its consequential global warming, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, desertification, resource depreciation and other environmental issues that have led to an assault and gradually to degradation of the ecosystem. It must have been envisioned by the in-coming government that green economy could save the earth and Zambia together with all her habitats from unchecked destructive forces unleashed by unsustainable development.
It is also true that economic growth is likely to be enhanced in Zambia through the establishment of the Green Economy and Environment Ministry coupled with political will and policies which, inevitably, will result into the creation of new markets with the potential to support international advantages when these new markets begin to pay dividends through exports and increased domestic sales. It is highly probable that the New Dawn government, through the introduction of Green Economy Ministry, intends to speak to the employment of the Zambian youths who played a pivotal and crucial role in the change of government which saw UPND ascend to power. World Travel and Tourism Council is clear on this when it says that:
A closer look at employment in Africa indicates that natural resource-based sectors such as agriculture, the mineral sector, forestry, and fisheries continue to remain the largest job providers. Together, these sectors account for 80 per cent of employment. Tourism, which relies primarily on the continent’s natural and cultural wealth, employs 6.3 million people” (UNDP: 2006).
But to achieve the much-needed recovery programme, the Zambian government, in the words of Sangji Lee, “Must use hard data to show how climate action, and shifting to a green economy, will have overwhelming benefits, and not just for the environment, but also in generating more jobs” (2021). It’s a strong considered view of Sangji Lee that “With the right choices, governments can address all of these crises at once, by making the transition to low-carbon, green economies” (2021). With such a purposeful, strategized and a thorough studiousapproaches to the economy, the new day could truly be dawning for Zambia.
It is therefore easy to follow when Jamba Journal of Disaster Risk Studies mentions that:
The ‘green economy’ concept has gained priority in various intergovernmental forums such as the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Green Economy Initiative, the OECD Green Growth Strategy and in discussions amongst G20 leaders. In addition, green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication has been declared a priority theme for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 (Rio+20; UNCSD) (Bass 2013:11).
The argument is that there are strong linkages between green growth and green economy and climate change (Jamba Journal of Disaster Risk Studies: 2016). The journal mentions those factors that are eliminated in the production system to achieve green growth and green economy arguing that they are the same factors that cause climate change. The example that the Journal cites, could be deciphered. The use of clean technology (carbon-free technology) for example, which is greatly emphasized in the green economy while preventing climate change is to avoid releasing carbon dioxide (avoid burning of waste which can decompose) which the atmosphere cannot absorb. Green growth also calls for the use of green practices and being sustainable including using renewable energy. Climate change adaptation takes into consideration all adaptation measures in communities such as sustainable consumption of water and use of renewable energy and solar energy (2016). All this is to ensure that the environmental and social aspects are taken care of.
For United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), the linkages between green economy and the social aspects could be seen through a social lens directing attention to the following issues: (1) Values, knowledge and discourses informing policy. 2. Social impacts and distributional consequences (3) Social institutions and relations (4) Role of social policy in transition (5) Power and participation (UNRISD).
Public opinion is cardinal in all the process of graduating into a green economy including making a deliberate effort to draw valuable local knowledge without which possible difficulties in the transition could be envisioned (UNRISD). So, the question which must be at the back of the mind is: which ideas and values will prevail and shape policy and practices as these largely depend on which worldviews inform public opinion and policy process (UNRISD). In the same understanding, it is easy and tempting, as (UNRISD) would argue, to begin associating the green economy with “win-win” assumptions, which, by the way have always “Tended to mask the fact that all change entails winners and losers” (UNRISD) . This, most likely is not the route the New Dawn government would wish to take but instead, again in the words of (UNRISD) to begin identifying “Social groups [which] stand to lose from industrial restructuring and more accurate pricing of carbon, market-centred approaches that may exacerbate existing inequalities, and strict environmental regulations that may negatively impact the livelihoods and identity of small farmers, indigenous groups and others.”
For Zambia and other developing countries, Patrik Söderholm would argue that to address climate and environmental challenges, scientific know-how that speaks to technical solutions must be adopted to check on the negative impacts of carbon-free energy technologies (2020). Söderholm adds that:
Sustainable technology change is also societal, organizational, political, and economic. These systems consist of networks of actors (individuals, private firms, research institutes, government authorities, etc.), the knowledge that these actors possess as well as the relevant institutions (legal rules, codes of conduct, etc.).
The development of new carbon-free technologies is the case in point here as articulated by Patrik Söderholm, who opines that technological undertaking such as carbon-free technologies require the establishment of new value chains as an umbrella for all actors that have not necessarily interacted in the past thus “A long process that can alter society in several ways, e.g., through legal amendments, changed consumer behavior, distributional effects, infrastructure development and novel business models” (Söderholm, 2021).
In the chain-value of green economy and in particular the Green Economy and Environment Ministry of Zambia, the stakeholders and interest groups could be the following:• Ministry of education: To design a curriculum that informs the green agenda and ensuring that the green lifestyle is inculcated from an early stage of learning say, early education through to tertiary. • Ministry of Agriculture: To place emphasis on prudent utilization of all the natural resources such as land, water, trees etc.• Ministry of Mines: To implement all policies and guidelines pertaining to decreasing environmental pollution to protect the quality of the soil, water, the air and the environment as a whole.• Ministry of Justice: To provide rigorous and a robust legal framework with punitive sanctions in which all stakeholders and interest groups must operate.• Ministry of Finance: To ensure increased budgetary allocation to support new innovations and research in the green agenda. • Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA): To “Provide for the conduct of strategic environmental assessments of proposed policies, plans and programmes likely to have an impact on environmental management; provide for the preservation and control of pollution and environmental degradation…” (ACT No. 12 of 2011).
Conclusion
In sum, even though the green economy agenda is healthy and long overdue, any government and more so Zambia which is showing all the signs of greening its economy through the creation of the Green Economy and Environment Ministry, the challenges are enormous. The UN environment programme is categorical when it says: “Even when there is a strong economic, environmental and social case for investing in greening trade, a number of important obstacles remain. These relate mostly to limitations in financial and human resources, weak regulatory frameworks, lack of enforcement mechanisms, and poor economic infrastructure” (UNEP 2021). In the case of Zambia there could be hard choices to be made. For example, is the New Dawn government ready to invest more into the green economy whose pay-off is in the long term? How does this play into politics with the Zambian electorate expectation of the improvement of the economy in the short term? Balancing this equation is sorely left in the hands of the Zambian political elite without abandoning the greening of the economy or leaving it to the whim of chance.
References
Arrow, K., P. Dasgupta, L. Goulder, G. Daily, P. Ehrlich, G. Heal, S. Levin, K.-G. Mäler, S. Schneider, D. Starrett, and B. Walker, (2004) “Are We Consuming Too Much?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 8 (3): 147 – 172.
Lee, Sangji (2021), “The case for a green economy,” https://www.undp.org/blogs/case-green-economy (Accessed on 17 September 2021)
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) (2021), “From Green Economy to Green Society Bringing the Social to Rio+20,” https://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(httpAuxPages)/0F0B5009A146EC7DC1257A090043BB68/$file/Rio%20Mag%20(small).pdf (Accessed on 17 September 2021)
UN environment program (2021), “GE-Top Report: Green economy and trade-Trends, Challenges and Opportunities’” https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/green-economy/what-we-do/environment-and-trade-hub/green-economy-and-trade-1 (Accessed on 17 September 2021)
Phiri, Rodgers (2016), “Is green economy achievable through championing green growth? A local government experience from Zambia: original research,” Jamba Journal of Disaster Risk Management 8(3): 1‒10, https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/253 (Accessed on 17 September 2021)
Söderholm, Patrik (2020), “The green economy transition: the challenges of technological change for sustainability,” Sustainable Earth 3(6): 1‒11, https://sustainableearth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s42055-020-00029-y.pdf (Accessed on 17 September 2021)
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