NEW YORK-(MaraviPost)-Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera says developed countries need to mobilise more funding to help Least Developed Countries (LDCs) mitigate the negative impacts of climate change.
President Chakwera, who is the LDCs chairperson, was speaking at the Green Climate Fund event in New York, the USA on Monday, September 19, 2022.
He said although strides had been made in blending climate finance, especially in the energy sector, Malawi was still looking for investors to partner with it in the fight against climate change-induced disasters.
“Developed countries still need to keep on scaling up the mobilisation of funds to meet their pledges,” said Chakwera. “If they do not, they should not imagine that the devastation of our countries by climate change will not affect them.”
“If we do not swim together, we will surely sink together, because climate change does not respect borders or care who has the most money,” said the Malawi leader.
He added: “It only spreads pain, and if we are going to survive it, the mitigation measures must be spread as well, especially by strengthening the weakest links among us. It’s the only way.”
Chakwera said it was becoming a challenge for LDCs to finance climate change public sector alone because the COVID-19 pandemic, global economic slow-down and declining demand for LDC exports had contributed to shrinking fiscal space and worsening debt situations.
The Malawi leader told the gathering that hundreds of thousands of Malawians require food assistance because their crops were destroyed by climate-induced drought and flooding.
He also said the country was rationing electricity following the destruction of a 130MW Kapichira Hydroelectric Power plant by Cyclone Ana and Cyclone Gombe.
“As a result of these things, we have seen our development progress reversed before our very eyes,” he said.
President Chakwera has engaged in various activities ahead of his maiden in-person address to the 77th United Nations General Assembly on September 22, 2022, in New York, US.
