PUBLIC, PRIVATE SECTOR NEED TO RAISE ABOUT E24 BILLION

MBABANE – Sustainability is a top priority for the Eswatini Sugar Industry.

This was said by Dr Wisdom Mdumiseni Dlamini, the Coordinator of the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Research (C3SR) at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA).
In his presentation during the 62nd International Sugar Organisation (ISO) Council session last week, Dr Dlamini said the industry was even moving towards certification in order to ensure market access and further align with world class sustainability standards. Such certification requires high levels of environmental sustainability which includes the need to demonstrate concrete steps taken towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change, among other stringent environmental conditions.

He highlighted on the status of certification wherein Ubombo Sugar Limited was certified with Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA 2.0), RES Simunye to be certified with Bonsucro (with Tambankulu), Eswatini Sugar Association (ESA) and Tambankulu were members of Bonsucro which is global certification programme for sustainable sugar production. He explained that Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) was a tool developed by the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) platform to help farmers assess their sustainability performance.
He added that for fair trade, at least 27 smallholder organisations were certified. It is said that the public and private sector need to raise about E24 billion (US$1.3 billion) for Eswatini to implement its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) as a vehicle for dealing with and responding to the challenges of climate change.

impacts

Last week during the 62nd I ISO Council session held at the Royal Villas Hotel, the UNESWA C3SR Dlamini presented on the impacts of climate change and adaptation measures in Eswatini. He indicated that the implementation of the NDC was conditional to receiving financial, technology and capacity building support from both the private and public sectors (local and international).  The NDC refers to the country’s intention to adopt an economy-wide GHG emissions reduction target of five per cent and potential to increase that target to 14 per cent reduction with external financial support by the year 2030. Eswatini submitted its first NDC to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2015 and ratified the Paris Agreement on September 21, 2016.

Eswatini’s NDC revision process was spearheaded by the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs and supported through NDC Partnership’s Climate Action Enhancement Package (through development partners United Nations Environment Programme, Food and Agriculture Programme, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, International Renewable Energy Agency, World Resources Institute, Commonwealth Secretariat) and United Nations Development Programme Climate Promise project. Eswatini is not a major contributor to the global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.

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