Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) has joined Rwanda and the rest of the World to celebrate World Environment Day (WED) on June 5, under the theme “Ecosystem Restoration”. Okechukwu Daniel Ogbonnaya, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) Country Representative Rwanda said that the theme aligns with GGGI’s Strategy 2030 that sets the course for inclusive green growth. “This theme crucial in a period where countries are working towards recovery from the impacts of the pandemic. Ensuring a recovery that is sustainable, low carbon and resilient will be key to restoring our ecosystem and reduce biodiversity loss,” he said. “GGGI supports Rwanda in ecosystems restoration through the development of projects and programs that support the implementation of partners’ plans in areas such as green investment, climate action, climate-resilient agriculture and sustainable forests” “These are some of the direct areas of interventions that speak to the WED 2021 theme,” he said adding cross-cutting solutions also accelerate progress in poverty eradication, gender equality and social inclusion. Ogbonnaya noted that man-made facilities must be in harmony with the natural environment with limited impact on biodiversity loss. He said urbanization has to be well planned to ensure that this rapid urbanization and associate use of natural resources doesn’t result in loss of biodiversity. GGGI has supported Rwanda in green cities development of city master plans to become sustainable and climate-resilient cities. “The master plan clearly identified fragile ecosystem within cities that are protected from man-made development,” he said. GGGI’s interventions are supporting Rwanda’s Green Growth and Climate Resilient Strategy, a 2050 vision for the country of being “a developed, climate-resilient and low-carbon economy”. Ogbonnaya said that GGGI’S role has been to provide technical and advisory support to implement some of the programs of actions such as low carbon urban systems and sustainable land use. “This support has spanned policy development, project design and mobilizing green financing to implement these actions,” he said. Some of the interventions include the Rwanda Green Building Minimum Compliance System developed by Rwanda Housing Authority with support from GGGI. This output is a direct contribution to the Programme of Action 10 Low Carbon Urban Systems under the green growth strategy. “Our audit findings and recommendations on greening existing public buildings such as Nyarugenge Pension Plaza, Administrative Office Complex, MINAFFET and RDB buildings is directly linked to the energy sector mitigation actions identified in the updated Rwanda National Determined Contributions,” he said. These rapid studies offer insights on strategies to improve the performance of existing buildings and thereby reduce GHG emissions. He said GGGI provides capability building to ensure institutional strengthening to achieve the set goals within the strategy. Rwanda Sector Experts and Civil Society organizations in sector are equipped with knowledge and skills to develop bankable project proposals that will contribute to the implementation of the new updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). In addition to the low carbon urban system, the revised cities master plan is designed to promote low carbon and energy-efficient urban development like prioritization of (Non-Motorised Transport) NMT and energy-efficient housing development. Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, The Minister for Environment said: “World Environment Day is an opportunity to dialogue on how to advance Rwanda’s green growth agenda towards a green and climate-resilient economy that we aspire to reach by 2050.” Commenting about the day’s theme she said: “Healthy ecosystems underpin economic growth, human wellbeing and sustainable development.” Rwanda has committed to restoring two million hectares of degraded land and forests by 2030 and so far 900,000 hectares of them are already being restored.
