Tanzania to attend symposium on climate change

Minister of State in the Vice-President’s Office (Union and Environment), Mr George Simbachawene

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania will attend a 12-day global UN-sponsored symposium that starts on December 2 in Madrid, Spain that will discuss threats and hazards the earth faces as a result of climate change. The meeting is organised under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Tanzania’s attendance was confirmed here over the weekend by the Minister of State in the Vice-President’s Office (Union and Environment), Mr George Simbachawene, after meeting the European Union Ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Manfredo Fanti. The latter extended the invitation to Tanzania, the minister said.

Ambassador Fanti called on the minister in his Dar es Salaam office as part of procedural consultations relating cooperation between Tanzania and the EU.

Mr Simbachawene explained that Tanzania attached great importance to the Madrid meeting because, he explained, the impacts of climate change and its unpredictability were consistently and increasingly felt in Tanzania.

“The risks associated with climate change are already evident in various economic sectors essential for Tanzania’s livelihoods and sustenance, including water, energy, agriculture and food security, livestock, infrastructure, human settlements, human health and ecosystems. In most vulnerable communities, the impacts of climate change pose a direct threat to people’s survival,” the minister said.