Working Paper 1-2010: Trade and Climate Change: The Environment from Developmental and Economic Perspective in Southern African Development Community (SADC)

There is an increased recognition that actions to address climate change and the environment are intimately linked to economic growth and sustainable development goals and needs. Actions to promote increased resilience to climate change impacts and a lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emission economy in Southern African Development Community (SADC) fall across a variety of sectors, such as energy, agriculture, health, water resources and infrastructure. The achievement of a number of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets, most notably in poverty reduction, will be compromised by five climates change induced human development tipping points, including reduction on agricultural productivity, heighten water insecurity, exposure to extreme events, collapse of ecosystems, and increased health risks.

To obtain effective answers to how to address climate change and the environment from trade as well as developmental and economc perspective in SADC, it is crucial to engage a variety of government stakeholders in SADC such as ministries of finance, planning, energy, health, etc as well as other relevant stakeholders, such as the private sector, NGOs, and civil society. Thus, the paper take cognisance of the fact that the SADC countries together with the rest of the world that are signatory to the Kyoto Protocol ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1995 and became legally obligated to adopt and implement policies and measures designed to mitigate the effects of climate change and to adapt to such changes. As a result of this paper, both the technical understanding of key climate change issues and their economic and policy implications within the context of the Convention will be enhanced and the integration of climate issues into national development and economic planning in SADC wll be enabled.