Zimbabwe Looks For More Funding From Russia To Tackle Climate Change -Environment Official

Zimbabwe Looks for More Funding From Russia to Tackle Climate Change -Environment Official

Zimbabwe hopes that Russia will provide the country with more funds to help the country go green, Washington Zhakata, the director of the climate change management department at Zimbabwe's ministry of lands, agriculture, water, climate and rural resettlement told Sputnik on the sidelines of COP24 on Wednesday.

KATOWICE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2018) Zimbabwe hopes that Russia will provide the country with more funds to help the country go green, Washington Zhakata, the director of the climate change management department at Zimbabwe's ministry of lands, agriculture, water, climate and rural resettlement told Sputnik on the sidelines of COP24 on Wednesday.

Zhakata also expressed gratitude to Russia over allocation of $1 million for development of Zimbabwe's Low Emission Development Strategy that will make it possible to review the country's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for implementation of Paris Agreement.

"It would be a pleasure to have more financing from the Russian government. This is the first type of funds we have received from Russia. So, we hope, if we come up with the right outcomes of this program, then it will generate more interest for Russia to now invest in clear demonstration projects in order for us to go green because this is an issue of going green as a country," Zhakata said.

Vangelis Peter Haritatos, Zimbabwe's deputy minister of lands, agriculture, water, climate and rural resettlement told Sputnik that Russia has played a positive role in Zimbabwe adding that "it is good to be friends" with Moscow.

COP24 is taking place on December 2-14 in the Polish city of Katowice. The main goal of the conference participants is to discuss ways of implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

The Paris climate deal, created within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, went into force on November 4, 2016. It has been ratified by 184 of the 197 parties to the accord. The deal aims to keep the increase in average global temperature at below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.