Hon. Beatrice Anywar Atim -Minister of State for Environment (MWE) gave  Opening remarks where she  shared that Women in LDCs are continuously prevented from participating in high level conversations starting at village level.  ”Women continue to face various challenges like low education, inaccessibility to health services, and burden of care at family level, among others. ‘she said.

According to Hon Beatrice ,Women  continuously struggling to realize their full potential amidst the climate change crisis. She mentioned that not all hope was lost stating that ,government of Uganda has created opportunities for women to vie for spaces in leadership at national level from 10% to over 40% representation; scholarships to attend higher education; additional 1.5 points at attain higher education; among many other initiatives. She emphasized education and hands-on skilling, as well as economic empowerment as initiatives for women to step-up their game and be empowered to speak up in places of power and influence. She emphasized for women to work together, mentor, and support each other.

Elin  Sigurdarottir – from the ministry of foreign Affairs – Government of Iceland said 25% of the UNFCCC delegates were women. pointing that there  existing inequalities in participation in the COPs. Women still continue to suffer the brunt of climate crises. She diagnosed  that gender inequalities and stereotypes; systemic discrimination (systems have been built to discriminate women leading to systemic inequality of opportunities, hence inequality of outcomes; low labour force participation of women with majority of time spent doing unpaid care work (2.8 hrs more than men). she added that gender equality in Iceland was mainly involuntary but forced through legislation on equal pay; maternity and paternity leave, among others.

Sun Young Sur – United Nations Industrial development organization  (UNIDO) said limited resources allocated to building capacities of young people to participate in global processes like COP where decisions are made; lack of representation of youth at decision making tables at global level; socio-economic and political processes are dominated by the patriarchy and  cultural views that youth and women are unable to make decisions were some of the disablers for progress.

Hon. Winnie Masiko  – the moderator of the session highlighted development of tools and indicators that measure gender inclusion in various projects; planning for women and youth inclusion and participation in various opportunities and processes at the granular level; incorporation of gender in adaptation funds; design and implement effective and sustainable programs by understanding the experiences of men and women as these differ.

She said society recognition of the labour of women; reparations need to be made when it comes to climate change loss and damage (these are both economic and non-economic); having gender markers of the funds allocated towards gender equality; advising that parties need  to be more sensitive to the compositions of their delegates to COP and  supporting youth and women-led organizations to design and implement their programs.

Hon. Ruth Nankabirwa,the chief guest and keynote speaker at the event stated that Uganda has taken a comprehensive analysis following the launch of the energy plan early this year. According to the Minister, this plan will enable planning of Uganda’s energy systems, ensuring that populations have universal access to clean energy. ‘’ the strategy plan will provide the ground work for integrating energy as a resource for economic trade and security.’’-stated Nankabirwa.

During the event, Ms Irene Bateese-  Permanent Secretary -Ministry of Energy and mineral development highlighted that over 5 billion Uganda shillings will be needed to transition Uganda’s energy needs. Projecting that as the country moves towards exploration of nuclear energy, this plan will get uganda to 24,000 mega watts in the short term and 54,000 mega watts by 2040 which will account for a 20% reduction in terms of compliance.

”Once in full effect , the plan looks at deploying cleaner technology to ensure a low carbon emission economy. This plan will be executed by the government of Uganda ,through the ministry of Energy and Mineral development in partnership with the international energy Agency.” she added.

Mr. Bob Kazungu the national REDD+ Focal point at Ministry of Water and Environment  appreciated the government for putting in place the necessary legal frameworks for providing transition guidelines. He noted that Uganda as a country is now in a stronger position now that there is acclimate change act and a climate change advisory committee.

Mr. James cooper –Head of organization – Environmental products Mercuria drummed for the country to sight beyond technological initiatives intended to directly decarbonize Uganda’s oil and gas projects. Indicating that UNOC together with its joint venture partners Total Energies EP Uganda also plan to offset their emissions through implementation of nature based solutions.

According to James, initiatives by the climate resilience alliance is intended to enhance the performance of natural eco-systems to facilitate efficient carbon sequestration.’’ Our attention will be directed towards support to enhance conservation of existing forest cover and wetlands.

Dr. Micheal Nkambo, Mugerwa,-General Manager at Uganda Refinary Holdings company subsidiary of UNOC ,recognized that noble undertakings can only be realized through congregation of various partners, to collaboratively develop a sustainable response to climate change risks and impact, placing particular emphasis on mitigation measures and adaption .

Dr. Mary Akurut the Chief, Safety, Health and Environment officer at UEGCL, said they partnered with the National Forestry Authority to plant over 40,000 indigenous trees within the reservoir at Isimba Hydropower Plant. Covering an estimated land area of 100/450 Ha. ‘’Our plan is to liaise with ACR to reforest the rest of the reservoir land, not just Isimba, but Karuma, Muzizi, Nyagak, and Maziba.‘’ assured Mary. This she said was part of UEGCL commitment to support net zero carbon emissions attributed to Uganda’s Oil and Gas Projects.

A panel discussion of experts examined key issues and agreed that there still remain cultural barriers related to addressing sexual reproductive health. With the increasing climate change impacts, research findings show that girls are marrying early, and have adolescent pregnancies.

From the key discussions, need areas have been highlighted as indicated below.

• Concerns around Empowering the youth to integrate gender & health into the adaptation agenda.
• Engaging women and girls in decision-making at all levels of government and community.
• Multispectral interventions and partnerships with other like minded collaborators.

Alison Malmqvist, the director of sexuality and reproductive Health at PSI noted that to get this intersectionality into the COP 28 agenda, national processes must demonstrate commitments through traceable actions.

Uganda, with the support of FAO is in the process of  developing a gender action plan. At UNFCCC level, the gender action plan will end in 2024. Experts through the session panel discussions at the Uganda pavilion indicated that there is an opportunity to include SRHR issues in submissions to be discussed by the SBI next year. They also reached a consensus that CSOs should work with governments to ensure this integration.

The side event at the Uganda pavilion at cop 28 was hosted by the Ministry of Water and Environment and organized by a consortium of partners led by Regenerate Africa, National population council, Climate Action Network, Panorama and Pathfinder among others.

This comes as African nations are being pushed towards adoption of clean energy options to reduce further climate crisis.

Part of the campaign is the energy mix, asking for clean and renewable energy. In our interview with Patricia , she stated that Ugandan’s use electricity for any other need but not cooking because cost are still high. ‘’We want the accessibility to be enabled through the government of Uganda. Key issues on the transition is the concern around safety and the behavioral change aspects around the transition from charcoal to LPG’’ . –added partricia.

This campaign will be run through key stakeholders in the energy value chain. The organization was started March 2023.

Murthi VK Executive Director at Net carbon vision a company based in Dubai, pitched to Uganda;s delegates and  a team of ministers and members of parliament from Uganda ,Seeking opportunities in Uganda ,In his address, Mr. Murthi said  they realized Uganda has a huge potential when it comes to green carbon credits, and therefore as a company they are already exploring long term partnerships. From the delegates however, there was was  a lot of reactions ,when it comes to issues around measuring greenhouse gases, Hon. Abed bwanika raised the issues particularly on safety ,he advised that consultations should be comprehensive to ensure that the right frameworks are put in place by policy makers.

Mr Sivarama Krishnan –Chief technology officer advised that they are paying close attention how to approach concerns on how to reduce greenhouse emissions and  enable Ugandan enterprises and the government  make money out of it through carbon credits. ‘’We have engaged some of our industry partners who have shown interest to support Uganda in this industrialization journey.’’ Stated Krishnan .

This comes at a time when Uganda is in the process of passing a compliance instrument, regulating responsible production activities. Discussions are ongoing with various ministries with the intention to partner, these include the ministry of energy and aligned agencies in relation to GHG verification.