Among the great challenges of this century is climate change. Planet earth is undergoing transformations brought about by the actions of man against nature. Pollution, desertification, flooding, deforestation have a negative impact on our land and are the cause of climate disruption. To deal with this problem, which risks having disastrous consequences for nature and humans, the United Nations, from the beginning of the century, wanted to take the bull by the horns by integrating into the Millennium Development Goals, then in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through SDG 13 measures relating to the fight against global warming. Djibouti is a hot spot. With the support of its partners such as the UNDP, the Ministry of Town Planning, Environment and Tourism (MUET) has undertaken actions aimed at mitigating the negative effects of climate change. Overview.

Djibouti is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in Africa and at the same time the most exposed to natural disasters. The rate at which the impact of climate change is affecting the country and especially the poor and vulnerable people whose lives depend heavily on natural resources is very alarming. There have been cases of internally displaced people due to the climate in Djibouti.

These people are also called climate refugees. Organizations like UNDP, which are accredited with vertical funds dedicated to climate change, environmental protection and biodiversity conservation, are helping the government of Djibouti access funds to tackle this cause. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MUET) which functions as the operational and political focal point of one of these funds - the Global Environment Fund FEM- and which also serves as the designated national authority for the Green Fund for the Climate and other funds such as the Adaptation Fund, implements several projects on climate change in collaboration with accredited entities such as UNDP.

“We have just finished our work in Adailou and Assamo where we have helped communities to strengthen agro-pastoral activities. These activities included something very innovative and yet practical in the local context, such as drip irrigation, tunnel farming, small-scale vegetable gardening, and climate-resistant engineering structures at the community level. As external funding is limited and is channeled to pilot new ideas or approaches, the long-term success of these project-based activities lies in strong national ownership, UNDP and MUET jointly began to explore options National Climate Change Fund structures and mechanisms. ”, Asserted Ms. Fatima Elsheikh, UNDP resident representative in Djibouti.

Since 2012, the UNDP has promoted access to the government of Djibouti to a total of US $ 21,899,716, or Fdj 3,876,249,732 for the development and implementation of initiatives relating to climate change, biodiversity and natural disaster management. UNDP projects pay particular attention to the development of the capacities of local communities in order to enable them to minimize the impact of climate change on the living conditions of rural populations and to ensure the sustainability of actions to develop and strengthen the community. Food Safety.

Djibouti is one of some 200 countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and approved the Paris Agreement in November 2016 following the historic conference of the parties held in Paris in 2015. The famous global campaign aiming to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius is the result of the Paris Agreement and the annual contribution of 100 billion dollars from countries, especially highly industrialized countries, to support control projects against climate change. To ensure that parties who have endorsed the Paris Agreement have expressed their commitment to follow climate-friendly development in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Each country has a report on the NDCs which clearly mentions the approaches, policies and activities that each country is implementing and will implement to follow the pathways of climate-friendly sustainable development. Djibouti submitted its report on the NDCs in 2016, in which it pledged to act in favor of the climate.

SDG 13 is devoted to actions related to climate change adaptation as well as climate change mitigation. The Ministry of Town Planning, Environment and Tourism (MUET) is the reference ministry for issues related to climate change in Djibouti.

Dini Abdallah Omar, secretary general of MUET

"Equipping local populations to adapt to climate change"

Climate change has two components at the global level as in Djibouti. There is the component called mitigation, which is how to reduce greenhouse gases. And the adaptation component which consists of how to adapt to the consequences of climate change which are already there, such as floods, drop in rainfall, increase in sea level, etc. In terms of mitigation, it will be necessary to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and increase the use of renewable energies. In Djibouti we do not have oil or coal so this problem does not arise for us, but we have great potential to develop renewable energies. The sun is abundant, the wind is always available. We also have geothermal energy. The potential in terms of renewable energy is very important. It is the Ministry of Energy that is developing projects in this direction such as the Lac Assal wind turbine project, solar panels in Grand Bara, through funding from the Green Climate Fund. As for climate change adaptation, with the UNDP we have two projects. First in Petit Bara where we have put in place 5 to 6 boreholes and rehabilitated the water reservoir that had been made by the Ministry of Agriculture. Also agricultural perimeters have been created in Petit Bara. In Aidalou and Assamo, dikes were built to slow down the flow of rainwater so that the wadis do not discharge everything to the sea. We have trained farmers in this region and offered them equipment. In the Hanleh plain and the Tadjourah region, many boreholes have been built with very high flow rates. We rehabilitated the old agricultural perimeters and set up a nursery to carry out reforestation. Construction of dikes to protect the city against flooding, multiplication of agricultural perimeters, the objective of all these projects is to allow the population to have access to water and to practice agriculture there and therefore to adapt to climatic changes. With the decrease in rainfall and frequent droughts, it is no longer possible to practice the extensive livestock farming that the population used to practice. The alternative is to have a small herd but well nourished and protected. Hence the establishment of boreholes in agricultural perimeters which will be used to feed cattle. We are also setting up a veterinary support and training program for the benefit of these rural populations The essential is to have access to water and to have a source of income, either in the form of breeding or agriculture.