Actions we can take to protect our environment

Earth’s inhabitants, especially us humans, are at crossroads with the increasing pattern of global warming orchestrated by our actions toward mother nature. 
While this existential threat to humanity would be keeping us on alert and cognizant of our actions towards the environment, most people do not seem alarmed. 
Environmental protection and sustainability concerns continue to be treated as side issues despite being a central development agenda that if not addressed, the future is in jeopardy.  June 5, the designated World Environment Day, passed almost like any other insignificant day. It fell on a Sunday and church services and sermons went on as usual without alluding to the day, and its implications whatsoever.  This issue is certainly not about churches or religions, but I am citing this as a missed opportunity for sharing the message considering the crowds that churches pull. 

The day was also barely reported about by the media save for a few mentions hidden away in the inner pages of newspapers. 
This is a worrying tale of how we’re treating mother nature while expecting it to always be good and kind to humanity. 
Fortunately, Uganda has a strong foundation to act and enshrine all climate actions within the public and private social spheres of the development spectrum. We have the National Climate Change Policy that was approved in 2015 by Cabinet. Its goal is to ensure a ‘harmonised approach towards a climate-resilient and low carbon development path towards sustainable development in Uganda. 

This is accompanied by the National Climate Change Act of 2021, which articulates the government’s response mechanisms to climate change. 
One of the stated purposes is to operationalise the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change, Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement, which are the critical global action footprints to ensure climate adaptation and resilience actions that ensure environmental protection and sustainability. 

With such solid and well-intentioned steps, we can have thematic actions that are central to environmental protection at the centre of our national development plans across ministries, departments, and agencies. 
Going Green education and campaigns ought to be institutionalised within the public and private sectors. For instance, schools can be mandated to have climate response education and assessments as part of their immersion while being encouraged to take care of the environment beyond the tokenism of one-off tree planting events. This can include urging children to create, plant, and nurture woodlots for agroforestry, and biofuels.  

As a country our dependence on wood fuel for our cooking and related energy needs is obvious. As a result, forest cover has been lost. With so low adoption of other fuels, we’re on a self-destructive path.  
This is an opportunity to rally communities to ensure that households propagate and build wood fuel lots for their energy consumption needs as a sustainable source of income besides other benefits including sustained rain patterns for agricultural production. 

In addition, catalysing the role of the private sector, and other community actors such as NGOs in different spaces would be a great multifaceted approach that ensures that the whole country is vibrantly addressing the issue of protecting planet earth. 
With concerted efforts and strong calls for action from powers that be, the spirit to preserve our favourable climate and weather patterns that make us thrive all year round can be engrained in our development ecosystems. 
The author, Mr Moses Otai is the country director of ChildFund International