Uganda Passes Climate Change Bill on Greenhouse Emissions

Ugandan lawmakers have passed the national climate change bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions and tackle the climate crisis, authorities said on Wednesday.

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The framework bill will provide climate change response measures, participation in climate mechanisms, and measuring of emissions and financing for climate change actions, among others, Beatrice Atim Anywar, minister of state for environment, told Xinhua by phone.

The bill, which now awaits presidential assent, was overwhelmingly passed at the country's parliamentary in the capital here on Tuesday.

"The bill is timely in tackling the climate crisis. It provides institutional arrangements for coordinating and implementing climate change response measures in Uganda," said Anywar.

"It provides a framework strategy to guide the government in planning and budgeting for financing and monitoring of climate change programs and activities," she added.

The bill's objective is to give force of law in the east African country to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit temperature rise to as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible.

"We have not been having a legal framework governing climate interventions. The absence of such framework was an obstacle in translating identified priorities into implementable actions with tangible climate change benefits," said Anywar.