Rwanda’s revised Green Growth and Climate Resilience National Strategy (GGCRS), seeks to achieve great action against climate change, and ensure improved livelihoods for Rwandan residents, officials have said.

It was launched by Environment Minister Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, on June 5, as Rwanda joined the rest of the world to celebrate World Environment Day, under the theme "Solutions to Plastic Pollution”.

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The strategy’s key objectives are to achieve energy security and low carbon energy supply that supports the development of green industry and services and avoids deforestation.

Others are to achieve sustainable land use and water resource management that results in food security, appropriate urban development and preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem Services; as well as to ensure social protection, improved health and disaster risk reduction that reduces vulnerability to climate change impacts

"The revised Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy reaffirms our vision to integrate green growth principles into our national development for inclusive, low carbon and climate resilient growth – while also contributing to global climate action," Minister Mujawamariya said.

"The new strategy also reaffirms the Government of Rwanda&039;s long-term commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by serving as the country's long-term strategy for low-emissions development,” she observed.

Rwanda aims to reduce emissions by 38 per cent by 2030, according to information from the Ministry of Environment.

The strategy aims to guide national policy and planning in an integrated way, ensuring alignment with other key documents; mainstream climate change in all sectors of the economy; and position Rwanda to access international funding and investment to achieve climate resilience and low carbon development.

Rwanda first adopted a Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy in 2011.

The strategy has now been revised to align with Vision 2050 in order to remain adaptable to possible future scenarios, responsive to trends, and serve as an implementation-ready, fully costed, and workable instrument to guide green growth and climate resilient development, according to officials.

It is built around four thematic areas, namely green industrialisation and trade, green urban transition and integration, sustainable land use and natural resource management, and vibrant resilient green rural livelihoods.

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On average, the investment required to implement the revised strategy will reach $2 billion (over Rwf2 trillion) annually, of which approximately $700 million will come from government budgets and spending, while it is expected the remaining part will come from partners including the private sector.

"While the financial resources required for the strategy are significant, they correspond to the ambition we have set for ourselves. With the revised Green Growth and Climate Resilient Strategy, we are thinking big!," Mujawamariya said.

Resilience to climate change matters

The Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Ildephonse Musafiri, said the sector faces weather variabilities – prolonged drought, and unpredicted heavy rains, pointing out that resilience to them was a must.

He said that adaptation to climate change is a matter of urgency, as the country wants to deal with the available challenges and at the same time be able to feed its people adequately.

He cited the development of research on drought-tolerant seeds or crops, which should be one of the areas to be developed thanks to the strategy.

"I wish we are able to promote, for example, drought-tolerant seeds for major crops like maize, beans, cassava, soybean, to ensure food security for people and [livestock animals],” he said.

Also, he said that erosion, often caused by heavy rains, washes away huge part of top fertile soil every year – which negatively affects farm productivity – and there was a need to protect the soil with effective means including terracing, and agroforestry.

Also, he said that irrigation should be scaled up, but with a focus on solar-powered technologies that are eco-friendly. Currently, he said, irrigation largely relies on equipment that uses diesel fuel to pump water, "which is also environmentally unfriendly”.

UNDP Resident Representative for Rwanda, Maxwell Gomera, said that the strategy is in line with averting disastrous events caused by climate change, citing the death of 135 people as a result of disasters caused by heavy rains in different parts of the country on May 2 and May 3.

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"The strategy is ensuring that we strengthen several sectors of our economy,” he said.

He cited energy, where "we are ensuring that by 2030, or 2050, the majority have got access to clean energy, including cooking energy, but also lighting energy.”

Also, he said that the strategy seeks to reduce vehicles that pollute the environment as they are powered by fossil fuels, by adopting those run by electricity.