Zambia and Italy have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation to combat climate change and promote private sector participation and activities to implement Public Private Partnership (PPPs) in tackling climate change.
Minister of National Development Planning. Alexander Chiteme and Italian Minister of Environment, Land and Sea Sergio Costa, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective countries in Rome, Italy on Friday.
Mr. Costa says Italy has secured a catalytic fund of Euro 2 million to bring the Memorandum of Understanding into effect.
He said “The Italian Government has committed to support the Zambian Government to raise investment funds for combating climate change and promotion of Sustainable Development as espoused in the Seventh National Development Plan.”
The € 2 million will go towards “preparing project documents that will be submitted to various funding agencies that include, among others, the European Commission, United Nations agencies, the World Bank Group, and other multilateral agencies to assist Zambia fulfill its commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).”
And Mr. Chiteme says that the Zambian Government has done sufficient groundwork in identifying projects that are a priority according to the Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP) and the National Climate Change Policy.
He says “the financing is in line with the mission that the Ministry of National Development Planning has undertaken to secure financing to meet the objectives of the 7NDP through co-operations like the ones initiated with the Italian Government.”