Belgium will help Mozambique to better prepare for the consequences of climate change.
Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit), who is temporarily taking over the Development Cooperation department from Meryame Kitir, has announced that the new cooperation program will run from 2023 to 2028 and comprises a total amount of 25 million euros.
Part of that funding (2.5 million) is set aside to provide support for the climate disasters that hit the country as a result of global warming.
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“Belgium will be one of the first countries in the world to explicitly include the theme of loss and damage due to climate change – the so-called loss and damage – as an area of action. In this way, Belgian development cooperation is responding to the increasingly louder demand from vulnerable countries for climate disasters in to tackle the south more strongly, a question that is also central to the Climate Conference in Egypt,” said Vandenbroucke’s cabinet.
The World Bank estimates that the average annual damage from flooding in Mozambique alone is $440 million. Climate change would have cost the country a total of about $3 billion. In 2019, Mozambique was hit by Cyclone Idai. 1,500 people died as a result.
Belgium, together with Mozambique, will examine how critical infrastructure such as roads, water and electricity supplies can be made climate-resistant. The aim is also to make the national economy more climate-friendly. There appears to be enormous potential in the field of solar, water and wind energy.
