The Botswana Climate Change Policy 2021.

The Botswana Climate Change Policy 2021 has as objective to mainstream sustainability and Climate Change into development planning and in so doing, enhance Botswana’s resilience and capacity to respond to existing and anticipated Climate Change impacts. The policy also promotes low carbon development pathways and approaches that significantly contribute to socio economic development, environmental protection, poverty eradication and global goal for reduction of Greenhouse-Gases (GHG) from the atmosphere and SDG’s. Guiding Principles of the Policy are: precautionary principle; polluter pay principle; public participation; sustainable development; environmental, social and economical considerations. Adaptation Measures envisaged in the Policy include actions in the context of: Agriculture and Food Security (Enhancement of food production and agricultural sustainability. Food security and sustainability must be achieved in the context of integrated development planning and land use reforms that can reduce natural resources degradation, human wildlife conflicts and significantly contribute to job creation and poverty eradication; Exploration and development of innovative agricultural initiatives that can enhance income generation such as agro-tourism ; Adoption of strategies that will enhance the application of water and nutrient conservation technologies and create an enabling environment for investments in use of renewable energy for agricultural activities; etc); water (utilization of shared water courses for the benefit of Batswana; integrating Climate Change response measures in the water planning processes across all economic sectors; consideration of defining potential water aquifers and adopting appropriate measures of protection for water security and sustainability; promotion of rain water harvesting, water re-use and recycling for domestic, agriculture, industrial and commercial purposes;etc); human health; human settlement; forest management (prioritize climate research and feasibility studies on forest conservation, restoration of ecosystems and the use of modern technologies for controlling invasive species and veld fires; promote the use of indigenous knowledge and traditional forest management practices that contributes to increased forest cover and land rehabilitation; control of illegal logging; etc); land-use planning and allocation (Ecosystem land use planning; etc); Disaster Risk Reduction; Biodiversity and Ecosystems; Gender (Empowering communities especially women, youth and people living with disability to actively participate in the implementation of Climate Change response measures at both rural and urban areas; Adoption of strategies that are targeted at increasing resilience of most vulnerable groups such as women, youth, children and people living with disability to Climate Change impacts through provision of means of implementation such as technologies, finance and capacity building; etc.)
Mitigation measures include: carbon budget; carbon market; sustainable energy initiatives; waste management; and public procurement.