Remarks at Regional Inter-Ministerial Conference on Migration, Environment and Climate Change

• The Honourable Minister of Water and Environment, and the entire team from the Ministry
• All Ministers, Members of Parliament and representatives of Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies
• All visiting member stated and regional delegations
• Your Excellencies, Ambassadors
• Our senior UN colleagues – especially our UN Regional directors visiting Uganda and among them a special mention to the Regional Directors of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) & the International Organization for Migration (IOM)– the two organizations on the UN side chaperoning us in this conference
• UN colleagues present here   
• Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, All Protocol observed
• Good morning

On behalf of the United Nations system in Uganda, I thank the Government of Uganda for hosting this important conference on Migration, Environment and Climate Change. A special vote of thanks to the Ministry of Water and Environment for coordinating the organisation of the conference, which will discuss the impacts of climate change on human mobility in the East and Horn of Africa region ahead of the 27th session of the Conference of Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

All nations here are part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate change. Today, 197 countries have ratified the Convention, and each Member State has reaffirmed its commitment to sustainable environmental management. Between 1992 when the framework came into being and today, the situation has become undeniably dramatic. Climate change has become a reality much faster that anyone predicted in the 90’s. It has now become an all encompassing threat. Droughts, floods, rising temperatures and extreme weather events are worryingly more and more frequent impacting Agriculture, health, security, our development trajectories – as we know too well from our region. And of course, the most vulnerable suffer the worst effects.  Our countries, and our continent more broadly, stand out globally for being disproportionately vulnerable to these planetary risks, while having contributed least to the factors that cause their making. This disproportionate vulnerability stems from a low socioeconomic base. While a global phenomenon, the poor are disproportionately vulnerable because they lack the resources to afford alternative goods and services. This deprivation drives migratory pressures as communities search for better prospects.

These new challenges make it that much harder to reach our development agendas. In Uganda’s case, this challenge puts pressure on the national development ambition enshrined in Vision 2040.

We know what is causing the climate crisis – it is our own human activities and our globally unsustainable lifestyles, our unsustainable patterns of consumption and production.  Our UN Secretary-General has continuously sounded the alarm. Earlier this year at the General Assembly, he asked us all to go into emergency mode. That the battle is to keep the 1.5-degree goal alive will be won or lost in this decade. And that we were of track towards that goal. He added, “We need an avalanche of action.”

I do not think anyone here doubts the science. Nevertheless, UNEP, through its 2021 emissions gap report corroborates this state of emergency by noting that the current global ambition to reduce emissions sets us on the path to a 2.1°C temperature rise by the end of the century – which is 0.6°C above the safe threshold.   Globally we are still working on the politics that would allow us to move from the path of 2.1 to that of 1.5°C. We can all only hope and apply efforts towards the political will necessary, before much more social upheaval and many more lives and livelihoods are lost.  

While waiting for the results of this more strategic work, The UN has added to the Government of Uganda’s effort to develop a Climate change plan, the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) that provides an overall guiding framework for the implementation of Uganda’s climate change mitigation and adaptation actions to address climate change. Issues of migration, refugee influx have been considered in the NDC.  The plan has been developed with Civil Society Organizations, youth and private sector. Now of course is the work required of all stakeholders to really ensure effective implementation of the plan and harness those benefits towards our development goals.

The NDC is a good step in the right direction. And we need to more systematically and consistently ensure we put on our climate lens in the full spectrum of our development agenda and the work we all do. For instance, we can better integrate response to environmental concerns in Uganda’s humanitarian work to support refugees. Some work is of course ongoing, but so much more could be done.  When supporting the development of local entrepreneurs, we can put particular emphasis on climate smart technologies. 

Financing is of course a major headache for all our governments, especially following the pandemic and the unfolding impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war.

And in these times of especially challenged finances, we will need better ways of working. We will need to coordinate more efficiently. We need to manifest more whole of Government approaches, and upgrade that to whole of society approaches., and further into whole of region approaches. As a UN we will also need to manifest more robust whole of UN approaches. We need to invest in efficient coordination among all Development Partners. We need to come up with ways that will make our collectively limited monies stretch further. This is not going to be easy, it will be very uncomfortable but increasingly we do not have a choice, so I hope we find the leadership required to do these hard things.

Here in Uganda, His Excellency the President has consistently asked us to do more. We need to rally more effectively around that call and do more. Today in Uganda, Karamoja is in the news for its humanitarian situation which is partly causing climate change. Hopefully the result in this situation will be a better development approach in the short, medium and long term tailored to Karamoja and its own unique characteristics that will build both the resilience of the people and their environment to climate change. So, when we eventually pass this very distressing period, the region does not revisit it again.  Again, adopting a changed approach will not be easy, but I hope we will collectively find the will to get it done.

This conference is timely. I reiterate that the issues are of great concern to us – the UN family - here in Uganda.  And I hope that just like the River Nile starts in Uganda and makes its way into and through Egypt, that our deliberations in Kampala will also strongly impact the discussions further downstream in the COP27 negotiations in Egypt.

Thank you