Rwanda Ministerial Statement on 10th Anniversary of the Climate Investment Funds
I wish you take this opportunity to congratulate the CIF on its ten year anniversary. This remarkable milestone is testament to the hard work of passionate individuals around the world, and especially the CIF leadership team. Thank you for your commitment to climate action and the health and wealth of our planet.
The support and commitment of the CIF to climate vulnerable nations, such as Rwanda, demonstrates the success of the fund over the last decade.
With support from the CIF, Rwanda developed and presented its Strategic Programme for Climate Resilience (SPCR) to the Sub-Committee for the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience in December 2017, at which time it was endorsed.
Rwanda’s SPCR is a holistic and multi-sectoral investment plan that demonstrates our country’s commitment to broad-based climate resilience. It also shines a spotlight on the high-impact investment opportunities in our dynamic and results-oriented economy. The goal is simple: to build a developed, low carbon and climate resilient nation by 2050. CIF is playing a crucial role to realise this vision.
Rwanda has been steadfast in its support for global climate action. We are a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In 2004, we signed the Kyoto Protocol and ratified a year later. As party to the UNFCCC, Rwanda has consistently undertaken our obligations, including developing National Adaptation Programmes of Action in 2007, and more recently signing and ratifying the Paris Agreement as well as the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. Our Nationally Determined Contribution to the global effort, submitted in 2015, reaffirmed Rwanda’s commitment to multilateralism in addressing the threat posed by a warming planet.
Domestically, Rwanda elevated climate change to a national development priority through our Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy that is now informs the overarching National Strategy for Transformation. Across Rwanda’s governance architecture, climate change has become a cross-cutting issue and the environment is now at the heart of everything we do.
It is in this context that we developed the Strategic Programme for Climate Resilience as an investment vehicle to enable Rwanda to meet its climate goals. It will also ensure the country is well equipped to face the challenges brought on by climatic uncertainty. The programme has the potential to transform Rwanda’s economy, and is essential to safeguard our development gains against the impacts of climate change. The vision of our SPCR is for Rwanda to not merely survive climate change, but to thrive in a warmer world.
The climate resilience investments in the programme amount to just over 500 million US dollars. This scale matches both Rwanda’s climate resilience needs and its level of ambition to meet climate change head-on. This amount represents approximately 5% of Rwanda’s total Official Development Assistance (as of 2015 levels) over the programme’s ten-year timeframe.
We are confident that Rwanda’s commitment to enhancing adaptive capacity and to effective, efficient, and exemplary governance means every dollar will yield exponentially larger, sustained and economy-wide climate resilience benefits.
It is an immense privilege for Rwanda to be chosen by the Climate Investment Funds as a beneficiary under three of its high-impact programmes – the PPCR, the Forest Investment Programme, and the Scaling Up Renewable Energy Programme. Undoubtedly, these choices reflect the potential the CIF sees in Rwanda as well as a recognition of our ability to deliver. Rwanda’s SPCR embodies this same potential, and comes with the same firm commitment to deliver.
We are hopeful that the CIF will be recapitalised in the near future given its proven track record and demonstrated impact on the ground. We encourage partners to consider the support they can provide.
Since the approval of our Strategic Programme for Climate Resilience, Rwanda has been working with the World Bank to develop a project pipeline for the Green Climate Fund and the next International Development Association cycle.
In November last year, we held a roundtable at the inaugural Africa Green Growth Forum in Kigali to attract partners to support implementation of the SPCR. We have also held capacity building workshops on planning for adaptation across government, civil society and the private sector.
Rwanda’s Strategic Programme for Climate Resilience has the potential to transform the country’s adaptive capacity. We are honoured to share our experience and hope it will benefit other pilot countries.
To conclude, I would like to once again thank the CIF leadership. As we mark this important anniversary, let’s work together to keep the momentum going and turn our plans into a reality so they may benefit all humankind.
Thank you for your kind attention and I wish you fruitful deliberations.
Vincent Biruta
Minister of Environment
Rwanda