Zambia National Policy on Climate Change 2016.

The Zambia National Policy on Climate Change is a cross-sectoral policy enacted in 2016, whose overall objective is to provide a framework for coordinating climate change programmes in order to ensure climate resilient and low carbon development pathways for sustainable development towards the attainment of Zambia's Vision 2030. The policy is guided by the principle of 'sustainable climate change response' according to which all climate change actions shall be environmentally sustainable and positively contribute to national economic growth and social development objectives, including poverty alleviation, access to natural resources and basic amenities, gender equality and equity and infrastructure development.
The adaptation and disaster risk reduction efforts will include measures to: Strengthen the mechanism for identifying risks and hazards in order to facilitate planning and early warning; Strengthen surveillance and control of climate change related pests and diseases; Strengthen the resilience of infrastructure, ecosystems and promote innovation, knowledge and education; Promote use of financial instruments such as weather-indexed insurance, carbon instruments and catastrophic bonds to enhance resilience and cover climate related risks; Promote the adoption of appropriate Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) technologies for different agro-ecological zones; Promote landscape based livelihood diversification; Promote monitoring and management of wildlife habitats; Establish and/or strengthen mechanisms for monitoring networks and information systems for improved utilization of climatic data and information; Promote climate change related public health plans and National Policy on Climate Change interventions; Promote the communities' ability to develop physical and social infrastructure that are resilient to the adverse effects of climate change; and Promote the protection of water catchment areas, including the development of environmentally friendly infrastructure for bulk water transfer (waterways), storage, management and utilization of water resources.
In conjunction with the objective of increasing the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the policy also introduces actions that will help making agriculture, forestry, and fisheries more productive and sustainable by promoting investments in climate resilient and low carbon development pathways in order to generate co-benefits and provide incentives for addressing climate change more effectively. To this end, efforts will be focused on: Promoting sustainable land use planning to protect key ecosystems and related services such as carbon sinks; Promoting landscape based livelihood diversification; - Promoting the development and implementation of Nationally - Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMAs) in the sectors; Ensuring that investments adhere to sustainable development principles and are in line with low-carbon development principles; Promoting scaling up of alternative energy sources, energy efficiency and conservation; Reducing forest degradation and loss of forest ecosystems; and Strengthening the fire management and soil conservation.
A few poverty reduction measures are also introducted in conjuction with the disaster risk reduction ones such as the promotion of community-based risk management activities and use of social safety nets for the most vulnerable.
Other measures related to crosscutting issues include: Capacity building activities in order to strengthen the institutional and human resource capacity in order to effectively and efficiently address all aspects of climate change at, national, provincial, district and local levels; fostering research and development efforts to improve understanding and decision making in responding to climate change; Education and public awareness to promote communication and dissemination of climate change information to enhance awareness and understanding; Inclusion of gender considerations in the implementation of climate change programmes in order to enhance gender equality and equity; Technology development and transfer to build national capacity to benefit from climate change technological transfer; Promotion of green investments to promote investments in climate resilient and low carbon development pathways in order to generate co-benefits and provide incentives for addressing climate change more effectively; and Mainstreaming climate changes into policies, plans, and strategies at all levels in order to account for climate change risks and opportunities in decision making and implementation.
Regarding governance, the effective implementation of the National Policy on Climate Change will be achieved through collaborative efforts by all stakeholders. The Council of Ministers shall be the supreme decision making body for overseeing Climate Change interventions in the country. A Steering Committee will be established as the main advisory body to the Council of Ministers on policy and programme coordination and implementation. The Ministry responsible for Environment and Natural Resources will be the lead institution in overseeing the implementation of this Policy and will report to the Steering Committee of Permanent Secretaries, while the Ministry responsible for National Development Planning, will be responsible for overall coordination and oversight, and mainstreaming of Climate Change in National development planning processes. The Ministry responsible for Finance will be responsible for resource mobilization in line with its mandate. To effectively monitor and evaluate the implementation of the National Policy on Climate Change, a comprehensive Monitoring & Evaluation framework will be developed and the Ministry responsible for National Development Planning will provide overall oversight on its implementation.