By CHUSA SICHONE –
VICE-PRESIDENT Inonge Wina has said that the load-shedding that the country is currently experiencing is part of the effects of Climate Change.
Speaking when visiting French Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Minister Segolene Royal paid a courtesy call on her at her office in Lusaka on Friday, Ms Wina said Zambia had not been spared by the Climate Change impacts.

. Wina

Ms Wina commended France for its leadership on Climate Change matters and that Zambia was a signatory to several international agreements and frameworks on Climate Change and that the country was going to participate in the Climate Change conference in Paris in December.
“However, in Zambia today, we are experiencing the impact of Climate Change in that we have experienced low rainfall in certain parts of the country and this has impacted negatively on our food security as well as resulting in load-shedding because of power shortages in various water bodies in the country.
“So the issues of Climate Change are no longer theoretical but real issues that affect the lives of our people on a daily basis,” she said.
Ms Wina was happy that Ms Royal earlier spoke about biodiversity, global warming and the developed countries’ contributions to the Green Fund for Climate Change initiatives as those big countries’ industries were also to blame for the carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
Ms Wina also talked about the need for Zambia to find alternative sources of energy particularly for household use to avoid depletion of the country’s forest.
“Our trees, our forests are in danger and really at risk of great depletion because of lack of alternative sources of energy. So what you are telling us about starting small solar energy plants in rural areas will definitely go a long way in responding to some of these challenges,” she said.
Meanwhile, Ms Wina said the sending of a French delegation of investors to Zambia recently demonstrated the confidence the French government had shown in the Zambian Government and the citizens as a whole.
Ms Wina assured Ms Royal that Zambia was a peaceful country which valued the rule of law and democratic tenets, adding that the Government valued foreign direct investment as it was a demonstration of the confidence they had in Zambia.
Ms Royal acknowledged Zambia’s commitment to tackling Climate Change and pledged her country’s willingness in that area by, among other things, promoting renewable sources of energy such as solar, especially in rural areas.