Saving Mother Earth needs concrete action – Nandi-Ndaitwah at COP30

Namibia on Friday stood its ground at the United Nations Climate Change 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30), stating that only by concrete action can the future of Mother Earth be secured.

In her statement in Brazil, president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said no amount of conferences will bring meaningful impact if countries do not take action against climate change.

“The future will not judge us on the number of COP conferences and other climate related conferences we hosted, but on the concrete actions we have taken to save mother earth for her to be able to take care of us now and in future,” she said.

She called on member states, multilateral development banks and private investors to provide predictable, sustainable and accessible financing at affordable costs, to support technology transfer and to strengthen national and community capacities through grants and highly concessional finance.

She said to meet its targets on climate change by 2030, a robust resource mobilisation based on common but differentiated responsibility must be implemented without failure.

“The urgency is also based on the fact that the financing gap is widening in most of our countries and public debt is growing,” she said.

This, she said, is exacerbated by the cost of capital that is exceptionally high for developing countries based on perceived risks that do not reflect the realities on the ground.

To enable developing countries to meet
their obligations, Nandi-Ndaitwah said there is a need for international financial architecture to be reformed so that trade practices are fair, and the cost of borrowing reflects real risks.

The president said there is a need to combat desertification, land degradation and drought.

“We can do that as a collective by implementing the Namib Declaration which was adopted during the Desertification COP11 in Windhoek in 2013,” she said.

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