COP 26: Museveni blames “rebellious human beings” for Uganda’s Climate problems

President Museveni has said that “rebellious human beings” are responsible for Uganda’s climate change.

The president said that God created nature to support life, but “ignorant and rebellious” people have refused to obey this command, putting lives at risk.

President Museveni made these remarks in his statement to the ongoing 26th United Nations Climate Conference (COP26).

The president said that “In Uganda, the irresponsible actors, have committed the following sins; invading the forests that covered 45 percent of Uganda’s land area in 1900 AD, invading the wetlands (swamps), invading shored of lakes and banks of the rivers, invading and settling on mountain ridges, wrong agricultural practices and cutting of trees carelessly.”

These acts according to President Museveni have contributed to Uganda’s climate problems, which have resulted in adverse floods, prolonged drought among other climate disasters.

Museveni said that to avert this, the Ugandan society must change from a pre-capitalist, subsistence-based society, to a middle-class, skilled working-class society.

The president said that his government has been using four stimuli to achieve a sustainable shift to the middle class and skilled working-class society.

“We have been using four stimuli: universal education; full monetization of the economy (wiping out the subsistence economy); modernizing the economy (industrialization, digitization and developing the services sector); and electrification of the economy so that we do away with the use of the biomass for energy (fire-wood).

The president also said that the government is taking care of the majority of the population shifting from agriculture to services and industry.

“Only a few people should remain in agriculture. In the USA, UK, etc, the people in agriculture, especially primitive agriculture, cannot allow the conservation of forests, wetlands, etc,” Museveni said.

Mega Sinners

However, the president was quick to add that although Uganda has its “sinners”, there are some “mega sinners” who need to be stopped.

Museveni said that the mega sinners are six, and they include USA - 13 percent, China - 30 percent, India - 6.8 percent, India - 6.8 percent, etc.

These according to Museveni are the mega emitters of Co2 and they need to lead the world in the retreat from the precipice into which they are threatening to throw the whole world.

The president said that clean energy like solar, wind, geothermal, etc is now cheaper and these big emitters should know better.

Solutions

Museveni said that addressing climate change requires the world to banish greed, ignorance, irresponsibility, and rebelliousness.

He advised the world should remove the use of coal to at least 37 percent, target removing automobiles, industrial fuels, etc - much of the 45 percent, and remove dangerous farming practices like allowing cow dung to decompose outside.

He said that these sills minimize ozone layer-eating gases.