 Thank you very much Mr. Kitty. The Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda was invited to come and open this very important conference. Unfortunately, he brought back to say he had had very important engagements elsewhere. So he asked me to step in for him. He asked the Ambassador of Ireland to Uganda the Vice Chancellor of Makera University the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Water and Environment the Chairperson of the list of developed country negotiators one of the members of parliament officials from the International Institute for Environment and Development conference sponsors, distinguished conference delegates the members of the media, ladies and gentlemen it gives me great pleasure and honor to officiate at the opening session of this 11th International Conference for the Commitment Based Adaptation that is being held here in Uganda for the first time Let me start by welcoming all the delegates to this conference and in a very special way the international delegates who have traveled miles and miles to come and participate in this conference I would also like to welcome back those delegates who participated in the conference field trips I hope the field trips provided you with an opportunity to see parts of Uganda but more importantly witness the challenges our rural communities are experiencing as a result of impacts of climate change and the efforts that are engaged in to adapt at the Commitment level Ladies and gentlemen climate change poses the greatest threat to development not only in Uganda but in almost all the developing countries and the entire globe in general there is no longer any doubt that the global climate system is changing the latest scientific information given by the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that there is 95% certainty that climate change is caused by human beings global warming poses serious development and environmental problems with far reaching social and economic consequences the very existence of communities in the country of Uganda is particularly threatened by erosion of their natural source capital by the impacts of climate change I therefore applaud the International Institute for Environment and Development and the Governors of the Community-Based Adaptation Conferences for taking the initiative to mobilize policy and decision makers, academicians, researchers and the climate adaptation practitioners to discuss this important subject earlier that focuses on empowering communities to use their own knowledge and decision making processes to take action on climate change the theme of this conference is harnessing natural sources and ecosystems for adaptation this theme is directed relevant to Uganda whose economy and the livelihood overhands rural communities largely depends on its natural sources and especially the climate Ladies and gentlemen I'm informed that the program for CPA 2.11 conference has been designed to enhance the capacity of practitioners, government and donors to scale up and support community-based adaptation I therefore challenge the district delegates to come up with practical solutions on climate change adaptation that can be embraced and adopted by the vulnerable communities who live in rural areas in Uganda and the least developed countries Ladies and gentlemen Uganda has in the past decades witnessed numerous extreme climate events different parts of Uganda have experienced record-breaking occurrence of floods prolonged drought and erratic rainfall patterns the worst impacts are on those who the least resilience and adaptive capacity Uganda's capacity to help the affected especially the local communities to cope is very limited this is compounded by the fact that Uganda's economy is heavily dependent on natural sources attainment of the country's economic development goals are spilt out in the Uganda vision 2040 and the national development plan are therefore being attained the mountain ecosystems like mount range ranges mount elegant region and the Moabura are open national importers with respect to biodiversity and tourism the glaciers on Mount Renzori have been melting at an alarming rate affecting water availability and the country's tourist potential the warming of the mountain areas have drastically affected wildlife species for instance the mountain gorillas in southwestern Uganda are una-threat as are the Wenzori Rampak and the Wenzori Red Breaker since the user live at altitudes of above 3,000 meters unique species of chameleon found on mountains are also under threat including the three-owned chameleon would range this shifting upwards as a result of rising temperatures the dwindling of wildlife will affect tourism a leading foreign exchange and for Uganda the landslides and the floods which occur in Wenzori mountains have led to loss of fertile soil due to erosion and an increase in the displacement of people as was the case in Kasese in 2013 and 2014 related events are also having significant short and long-term effects on the lakes wetlands, rivers and other types of ecosystems which in turn are impacting on the construction of biodiversity for instance in the dry land areas such as Nakasongora where some of you went on a field trip flooding due to climate-related events has impacted negatively on the lecture by the university including the wetlands and has shrunk the fish breeding grounds the agriculture sector is a fundamental economic employing about 66% of the working population and contributing about 23.1% to GDP the vulnerability assessment of the aquire sector in Uganda reveals that agriculture is highly vulnerable to climate change and the national food supply relies on adaptation that is successful the lower level of income high poverty levels and high population is affecting the built-up almost household to adapt to climate change ladies and gentlemen climate change is all in capacity threat it is a threat to our security a threat to our health and our sources of fresh water and food and the challenges very own survival and existence and above all in a country like Uganda and other least developed countries the impacts of climate change are felt mostly by the vulnerable communities who live in the rural areas and constitute the majority of the population and here they are also the backbone of the economy in spite of the above challenges Uganda and other developing countries has taken strikes both at policy and strategic levels to come up with responses to promote from interpret adaptation to climate change some of these actions which have been taken include one in response to agent and immediate requirement for the country to address climate change Uganda developed the national adaptation program of actions in 2007 with nine priority interventions focused on two broader aspects of its traditional strength and of community based adaptation the ministry of both and the environment spearheaded the development of the national climate change policy and at its cost implementation strategy which were adopted by government in 2015 the policy at its cost implementation strategy serve as the guiding framework for handling climate change in the country across all sectors the policy recognizes the importance of promoting community and ecosystem resilience to adverse impacts of climate change Uganda also developed and submitted its intended national determined contribution to the UNFCCC which was Uganda's contribution to the Paris climate change agreement which Uganda has whatified Uganda has now turned its intended national determined contributions into a national determined contribution and is said to implement it Uganda's NTCs recognizes ecosystem based adaptation and the community based adaptation has an important pillars in building resilience Uganda has also developed a green growth development strategy which aims at promoting a green economy with the building climate resilience promoting raw carbon development and environmental sustainability sustainability as important pillars is Uganda's journey to sustainable development by doing so in its commitment to achieve global sustainable development goals furthermore the government of Uganda with financial support from the climate investment funds have finalized and secured a global Uganda's strategic program for climate resilience by the CIF pilot program for climate decisions the eight year program is focused on community adaptation and resilience building through five identified investment areas such as climate resilience aquaculture community resilience urban resilience and infrastructure hydrological services and strengthening institutional capacity for climate change good nation the next step in this process is the collaboration of five investment areas into bankable projects for CIF funding green climate change fund adaptation fund global environment facility and other bilateral and marginal dollar funding currently the country in the process of drafting drafting the national climate change bill following the recent approval of the principles of the bill by the cabinet of Uganda this will help to strengthen the implementation of national climate change policy and a strategy and I am not only designed for promoting community based adaptation resilience but also for enhancing medication efforts to meet international goals and the national edit and meet contributions finally let me once again take this opportunity to thank the organizers of this conference and a more specifically Macarena University and the nine only medicinal water and the environment who have contributed both financially and in terms of human resources to ensure that this conference takes place I would also like to thank the development partners CIFA Society and of all the organizations that have sponsored delegates to participate in this conference it is now my singular honor to officially open the death and international conference only for the best adaptation and to wish you fruitful and productive deliberations in Uganda we normally say for gold and my country but I think I will borrow a statement from Macron let us make our planet greater here thank you very much