With drought-hardy cows, Botswana prioritises adaptation in new climate plan
Published on 08/01/2025, 12:50pm
The dry, sparsely-populated southern African nation is focusing its funding on ways to combat extreme weather rather than cutting already-low emissions
With drought-hardy cows, Botswana's NDC puts adaptation over emissions
Farmers look at their crops near Kopong, Botswana, in 2009 (Picture: Sarah Elsewhere/Flickr)
By Joe Lo and Vivian Chime
Botswana’s new climate plan focuses on adapting to drought, floods and cyclones over cutting planet-heating gases, in a move praised by African climate negotiators as a model that low-emitting vulnerable countries should follow.
The government plan – or nationally determined contribution (NDC) – submitted to the UN on Christmas Eve, does not significantly strengthen a 2030 emissions-cutting goal from an earlier version, but adds specific targets to promote adaptation measures like rooftop water storage tanks and drought-tolerant crops and cows.
As part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, all countries are supposed to submit stronger NDCs every five years. While a handful have done so already in the latest round, most of the 194 signatories to the accord will put forward their third plan this year. Having failed to submit an updated plan like most nations did around 2020, Botswana’s new NDC is only its second.
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/01/08/hold-with-drought-hardy-cows-botswanas-ndc-puts-adaptation-over-emissions/
