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Role of Parliamentarians: Communicating Climate Change Science - by Dr Moses Amweelo

24 September 2010, New Era Publications
URL: http://www.newera.com.na/article.php?articleid=13227

The parliamentarians, as elected representatives of the people, play a very active role concerning climate change and sustainable development in our country as well as at regional and international levels.

The members of parliament are increasingly required to handle issues of a highly technical nature of climate change science and keep track of modern technological developments.

Few of them come from a scientific or technological background, but they are constantly bombarded with information and demands, which assume some scientific understanding.

Many rely on parliamentary staff to provide impartial, policy relevant information. These staff have a key role to play as “middlemen” between parliamentarians and researches.

The scientists and the parliamentarians are encouraged to work together in the projects related to the climate change science in their constituencies so that rural communities can benefit from the knowledge of this country’s scientists.

Scientists have examined various causes for this warming trend: looking at the impact on temperature of natural variations, volcanic activity, changes in solar activity, urban heat effects and more.

However, the significant cause of the warming trend we have seen is the ‘Greenhouse Effect’ – a well-understood phenomenon that was discovered in 1824 and first measured in 1859.

Scientists confidently predict that increases in global average temperature will cause more unpredictable and extreme weather, will change rainfall patterns and melt glaciers, permafrost and other ice and will contribute to sea level rise and increased numbers of disasters.

Climate change will see an increase in droughts, flooding and forest fires, and even with relatively low levels of warming, research estimates that 300 000 people already die every year from its effects.

Poor communities in developing countries are the least equipped to cope with change, meaning that poverty will worsen and their suffering will increase.

Climate science is an active branch of scientific inquiry where new research is released and debated by a wide community.

To help the world understand the broad lines of agreement shared by the majority of climate scientists, the UN regularly assembles a panel of almost 3 000 scientists, drawn from research institutions in 190 countries, to assess the body of climate-science knowledge and deliver a clear summary of what is and isn’t known, (IPCC).

Our Parliament needs to take a proactive role in advancing the climate change agenda in our political debates and mainstream adaption and mitigation strategies in policy and laws in order to protect lives and livelihoods of the people. The parliamentarians initiate legislation that promotes socio-economic and environmental equity.

In 2007 the Namibian Parliament passed a Bill on the Environmental Management showing the commitment of the Government to maintain the ecosystem and effective utilisation of natural resources.

The Parliamentarians always ensure that legislation makes budgetary and technical provisions for integrating climate change into national sustainable development strategies.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics, Natural Resources and Public Administration of the National Assembly of Namibia became earnestly involved in climate change issues at international level when a resolution was taken at the ACP-EU joint Parliamentary Assembly held in Papua New Guinea from November 17 to 28, 2008.

The resolution urged parliamentarians as lawmakers to play a vital role in urging their governments to implement the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol.

Climatic variability is a common phenomenon in Namibia, which results in experiences of persistent droughtss, floods and unpredictable and variable rainfall and temperatures.

The bulk of the GHG emissions in Namibia comes from the agricultural and energy sectors. These products contain or release gases that have an impact of distortion on the natural atmospheric set-up that results in global warming and consequently impacting on agricultural crops and livestock outputs as land becomes more arid.

In addition, the changing climate results in social impacts such as health problems and more worrying, like in Namibia’s case, serious disasters such as flooding.

Research priorities of the parliamentarians and scientific bodies need to be investigations of, or monitoring climate aimed at reducing some of the key uncertainties in projecting future climate states.

In particular, work should focus on making climate projections more policy relevant for a regional/community area, rather than on global or continental scales. This work will inform our government on two main levels: the level of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions required to avoid dangerous interference with the climate; and what are the regional effects of climate change.

Parliament should strengthen networks, cooperation and exchange of information with the various stakeholders and institutions on the climate change debate and related environmental issues, and continue to organise parliamentary conferences on climate change to educate parliamentarians on the subject in order to make them contribute effectively in the climate debate and develop sound laws to mitigate against its effects.