The number of rainy days in Rwanda has declined by between 35 and 45 days per year due to climate change, scientists have said. Herman Hakuzimana, the Environment, and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation specialist at the ministry of environment told The New Times that trend analysis in climate change in Rwanda covered the period from 1971. He, however, said that in the northern region there has been a rise of 5.6 rain days. “This decline in the number of rainy days is the main cause of dry spells frequently observed across the country especially in central and eastern regions,” he said. Due to global warming, trend analysis for the period 1971-2016 showed a temperature increase of 1.4°C has been recorded since 1970. Rwanda’s average temperature is higher than the global average (1.09°C) shown by the UN-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released this week. The report has warned that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach. This IPCC report, he added, confirms this analysis as it states with confidence that in all land regions in Africa, mean temperatures and hot extremes have emerged above natural variability. “The Government of Rwanda is committed to taking urgent action to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change,” he said. Some of the existing strategies to address climate change effects in Rwanda include Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy (GGCRS), adopted in 2011. The strategy is currently under review to align it with the Vision 2050 to ensure it defines a development pathway for Rwanda that is climate-resilient and harnesses green economic innovation. Activists dealing with climate change have urged the government to invest more in projects and programs that build resilience to global warming effects such as floods, landslides and droughts. There are two ways of dealing with climate change. One is called mitigation which means making the impacts of climate change less severe by preventing or reducing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere while adaptation means building facilities that will build resilience to climate change effects such as floods, landslides, drought once they befell. Faustin Vuningoma, the Coordinator of Rwanda Climate Change and Development Network in Rwanda, told The New Times that unlike big emitters of gas emissions, Rwanda needs to invest more in climate resilience projects. “Rwanda being the least developed and insignificant emitter, has to focus on adaptation and supporting communities to be resilient to climate shocks,” he urges. Commenting on the new global warming report, he said: “The findings are simply that we need to take action in reduction of GHG emissions immediately with the lead by big emitters.” He said that the main challenge is that big emitters of global warming gases evade their duties because of their own interests they obtain from such emissions. According to Hakuzimana,” Given that Rwanda is among the most vulnerable Countries to climate change, adaptation is a key concern and a priority for the country.” He said that Rwanda’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs ) or climate pledges prioritized 24 adaptation actions to be implemented up to 2030 to strengthen the country’s resilience to climate change . Government needs at least over $5.3 billion for adaptation actions. In terms of mitigation, he said, the government committed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions up to 38 per cent by 2030.
