Scotland pledges to invest £12 million (about $18 million) by 2019 in sub-Saharan African countries to help reduce the impact of climate change, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced on Monday during the UN global climate change summit in Paris.
The country plans to double the £6 million invested over the last five years in the Climate Justice Fund launched in 2012 to combat the effects of climate change covering 11 projects in four sub-Saharan African countries, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania and Rwanda.
The fund was initiated in response to 'the injustice that the world’s poorest communities, who have done least to cause climate change, are bearing the brunt of its impact, due to increasingly erratic weather patterns and more climate-related disasters such as floods and droughts.'
“Now, the first and most important priority in tackling this injustice has to be to address climate change itself. That’s why Scotland backs the case for an ambitious agreement at the Paris summit,' Sturgeon stressed.
'We are determined to lead by example – we have some of the most ambitious statutory targets anywhere in the world,' she added.
In 2009 the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed ambitious climate change legislation. Using 1990 as a baseline, the country is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 42 percent by 2020 - and at least 80 percent by 2050.
By Zeynep Beyza Kilic
Anadolu Agency
zeynep.karabay@aa.com.tr