A
newly launched Inclusive Green Economy Network East Africa (IGEN-EA) network
hopes to says there is need for green investments in the region the face of
rising global temperatures and declining biodiversity.
The network officially launched at
the end of the week, is to be hosted in Uganda by the Africa Institute For
Energy Governance (AFIEGO).
Unlike the past where AFIEGO has partnered
with civil society in the push for environmental protection and governance, AFIEGO
Executive Director, Dickens Kamugisha they have decided to partner with
non-civil society actors interested in green growth path to development.
///Cue In “IGEN is actually part of
the……
Cue Out……. suffering more than us”///
An inclusive green economy (IGE) improves human well-being
and builds social equity while reducing environmental risks and scarcities.
It
is a key strategy to achieve shared prosperity within the planetary boundaries.
In an inclusive green economy, growth in income and employment is driven by
public and private investments that reduce carbon emissions and pollution,
enhance energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity
and ecosystem services.
Over the past decade, more and more governments and
partners have begun to apply principles of green economy in planning policy
reforms, regulation changes and strategic investments.United Nations Environment launched the Green Economy Initiative
(GEI) in 2008, which consisted of global research and country-level
assistance encouraging policymakers to support environmental investments
within the context of sustainable development.
Thanks
to this initiative and the work of other agencies, “green economy in
the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication” was
placed on the 2012 Rio+20 agenda and was acknowledged as a tool for
achieving sustainable development.
Kamugisha says they will focus on
attracting investments to small-scale organic agriculture, fisheries, tourism
and clean energy solution like solar and others.
///Cue In “ If we say
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and that is what we
are going to be focusing on”/////
According to Byamugisha, that the decision to
push for green investment is out of the fact that people being targeted against
environmental degradation need to feel and realize the benefits.
Kamugisha says currently
many people continue to destroy wetlands and forests for rice or sugarcane cultivation
because they are not seeing alternative to the resources they are destroying.
The launch of IGEN-EA comes at
the time when climate-focused
investment options are gaining popularity globally.
One of those is the
Green for Growth Fund (GGF)- an impact investment fund that mitigates
climate change and promotes sustainable economic growth, primarily by investing
in measures that reduce energy consumption, resource use and CO2 emissions.
