The Risk Of ‘Vision Impossible’

THE statement delivered by Marco Hausiku, Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on October 3 refers.

I should first and foremost thank the Minister for putting the issue of Climate Change on his agenda, as he rightly stated in his address “Namibia regards climate change as one of the urgent challenges facing humanity today”. However the concern raised by the Minister pertaining to low rate of investment flow in the areas of renewable and cleaner energy sources appears to be misdirected, as the problem of low investment in these key areas for economic development is domestic oriented rather than international, hence the solution lies at home and not in New York.Although Namibia has been a signatory to the Climate Change Convention and its Kyoto Protocol, the country has so far failed to put into place appropriate structure and institutional mechanisms to take advantages of market opportunities offered through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the climate change regime.Given the said failure Namibia continues to forfeit its market opportunities i.e.to attract investment from first world countries that are desperate to invest in CDM projects in order to generate the carbon credit required to offset their carbon emission requirements under the Protocol.Thus, Namibia is failing to receive appropriate technology that goes with the investment in CDM project.Yet again its the technology that would address the productivity concern the subject of the just ended symposium under the NUNW.It is also the failure to take advantage of some of these opportunities that led the country to drop in Competitiveness rankings.In this regard the concern raised recently by the President of the Namibian Employers’ Federation (NEF) Vekuii Rukoro should be the concern of all Namibians.His concern is that unless concrete actions are taken now to improve the institutional set-up Vision 2030 will become vision impossible.On that note, I would like to call upon the Minister of Foreign Affairs to redirect his energy in this regard to domestic institutional arrangements.Concrete action rather than what one may call political rhetoric would help much.With the passing of the Environment Management Bill by the National Assembly recently, the onus rests with the National Council to review this bill with the urgency it deserve for it to be signed into law by the President as soon as possible.The same urgency would be required from designated ministries and other institutions to create the appropriate framework within which CDM can operate thereby opening up door for investment flow, technologies acquisition, improved productivity and competitiveness ranking.I hope the Minister is back home to follow-up on the CDM related issues here.The biggest question that I want to leave with the Minister and the government in general is: If the CDM office is operational in other countries in the region including our major economic partner South Africa, why is it not operational in Namibia? Linekela Via e-mailHowever the concern raised by the Minister pertaining to low rate of investment flow in the areas of renewable and cleaner energy sources appears to be misdirected, as the problem of low investment in these key areas for economic development is domestic oriented rather than international, hence the solution lies at home and not in New York.Although Namibia has been a signatory to the Climate Change Convention and its Kyoto Protocol, the country has so far failed to put into place appropriate structure and institutional mechanisms to take advantages of market opportunities offered through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the climate change regime.Given the said failure Namibia continues to forfeit its market opportunities i.e.to attract investment from first world countries that are desperate to invest in CDM projects in order to generate the carbon credit required to offset their carbon emission requirements under the Protocol.Thus, Namibia is failing to receive appropriate technology that goes with the investment in CDM project.Yet again its the technology that would address the productivity concern the subject of the just ended symposium under the NUNW.It is also the failure to take advantage of some of these opportunities that led the country to drop in Competitiveness rankings.In this regard the concern raised recently by the President of the Namibian Employers’ Federation (NEF) Vekuii Rukoro should be the concern of all Namibians.His concern is that unless concrete actions are taken now to improve the institutional set-up Vision 2030 will become vision impossible.On that note, I would like to call upon the Minister of Foreign Affairs to redirect his energy in this regard to domestic institutional arrangements.Concrete action rather than what one may call political rhetoric would help much.With the passing of the Environment Management Bill by the National Assembly recently, the onus rests with the National Council to review this bill with the urgency it deserve for it to be signed into law by the President as soon as possible.The same urgency would be required from designated ministries and other institutions to create the appropriate framework within which CDM can operate thereby opening up door for investment flow, technologies acquisition, improved productivity and competitiveness ranking.I hope the Minister is back home to follow-up on the CDM related issues here.The biggest question that I want to leave with the Minister and the government in general is: If the CDM office is operational in other countries in the region including our major economic partner South Africa, why is it not operational in Namibia? Linekela Via e-mail