Editorial: Take green growth campaign to every corner of the country

Government launched the Green Growth Week yesterday as part of intensified efforts to chart a sustainable climate change mitigation strategy. The one-week campaign was launched with a high-level policy dialogue on the country’s Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy. The drive is a timely boost to Rwanda’s long term aspirations of putting climate change mitigation at the fore front of national development. Over the years, Rwanda has taken deliberate efforts to prioritize climate change mitigation and this is the core of the country’s Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy. Key stakeholders should use this drive to share knowledge and improve the understanding of sustainable development in an era where climate change is a global threat. The campaign should be taken to every corner of the country to build on the current holistic approach to ensure that climate change effects don’t affect the country and the world in general. Investing in climate change mitigation as well as ensuring its sustainability is work in progress, but the world must stay the course. One of the key areas where Rwanda has demonstrated global leadership in the climate change fight is the landmark Kigali Amendment that took seven years of negotiations. Last month, the landmark amendment which kept parties to the Montreal Protocol awake at Kigali Convention Centre for 24 hours showed clear signs of entering into force after Sweden became the 20th country to ratify it. This means that it meets the threshold for the agreement to enter into force at the earliest possible date, according to the treaty: January 1, 2019. The amendment has been described by experts as a key pillar of global Climate Action and “a significant step” towards staying within the temperature limits as agreed in Paris. However, the fight against global warming requires concerted efforts from all countries, especially the developed world which is the biggest contributor to global warming.

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Editorial: Take green growth campaign to every corner of the country