Francistown, Genk Cities Collaborate On Climate Change

Lebogang Mosikare | Monday February 17, 2020 15:14

While US President Donald Trump believes that there is inconclusive evidence that climate change exists-a statement that attracted the wrath of climate environmental activists around the world-including young Swedish climate change activist, Gretha Thunberg, CoF and Genk escalated their twinning agreement by signing a MoU to address the scourge of climate change.

The great gesture of the two cities resonates well with the words of Professor Xuemei Bai-an urban environment expert from the Australian National University (ANU) Fenner School of Environment and Society.

Bai is urging cities around the world to collaborate with scientists to address the scourge of climate change because cities alone cannot manage to do that without collaborating.

Professor Bai said researchers, policymakers and city authorities needed to work more closely together to improve how cities mitigate and adapt to climate change.

“A lack of long-term studies of urban climates and their impacts make it hard for city officials to plan decades ahead, so science needs to have a stronger role in urban policy and practice,” Professor Bai said.

During the signing ceremony of the MoU at Cresta Thapama Hotel on Thursday, the mayor of Francistown, Godisang Radisigo, and his counterpart from Genk, Wim Vries, emphasised the need for people to learn about climate change and its impact on their lives.

The two mayors said that it was imperative that people, especially the youth, are aware of climate change and how to mitigate it.

The two civic leaders said that as such, it was vital for the people of Francistown and Genk to share ideas of how to tackle the scourge of climate through sharing ideas.

Although they acknowledged that their past MoU was faced by challenges which hindered some of their targets to be met, they now pledged to do everything in their power to make sure that their agreement succeeds in order to defeat climate change which they described as an existential threat.