UK ambassador to Somalia says London Summit key in bolstering Somalia’s climate change adaptation

GOOBJOOG NEWS | MOGADISHU: UK ambassador to Somalia Mike Nithavrianakis has said that there is urgent need to harness existing support by the United Kingdom and other international partners to enable the country start the process of adapting to climate change.

The ambassador said the UK Global Food Security Summit which opened in London today and co-chaired by Somalia and the UK will be critical in mobilizing international support to finding sustainable solutions to the perennial food insecurity in Somalia.

Speaking during an exclusive interview with Goobjoog News, the UK diplomat said that the international community should work closely with the Somali people in implementing the policies that will also see Somalia access much larger sources of climate finance and green finance funding.

“We should help Somalia access much larger sources of climate finance and green finance funding, and also address some of the longer term challenges of food security that will allow Somalia to be less exposed to the international price shocks that might move in one direction or the other.”

He added, “Somalia did not create the climate change that we are seeing in front of our eyes in the world today, but it is one of the countries most deeply affected by it.”

So the UK may have a clear sense of the policies and the strategies that need to be put into place to help Somalia, but we can only do that in a spirit of partnership, transparency.”

However, he pointed out that there is need to listen closely to experts on the ground so as to clearly align the policies to the needs of Somali people.

“We need to hear from the experts on the ground. Yes, they may be NGOs, they may be international organizations, but the primary voices we need to hear are from the Somali people and their to.”

He noted that while there is need to address urgent needs such as the effects of El- Nino, the international community should put in place medium and long-term strategies that will deliver over time a better, freer, fairer society for the People of Somalia who are having to deal with these challenges.

“I think we can only do that by getting the right participants in the room together, propose objectives, plans, get the Somalia delegation’s insights and input into that to help influence in as collective a way as possible,” he concluded.