By Tadiwa Jery
Climate change has been a topic that has been discussed by almost every nation in the world. With changes in the environment and weather, the matter has become critical. Every country now needs to participate in protecting all humankind from meteorological disasters.
According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021 publication, Zimbabwe was one of the three countries that was greatly affected with extreme weather events in 2019. One example is the Cyclone Idai which affected over 270 000 people as reported on the Oxfam International website.
In an article posted on the Aljazeera website, Zimbabwe has felt the impact of climate change more than most. Temperatures have risen by approximately 2 degrees Celsius over the past century, which has seen a significant increase in extreme weather. In the past two decades alone, the country has had to deal with 10 droughts.
Zimbabwe has played a part in contributing to the Ozone layer depletion through greenhouse gases emission. According to a 2015 article posted on Climatelinks, Zimbabwe emitted 64 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2011. The new dispensation has then committed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40% by 2030.
The government plans to achieve this through significant adoption of the use of renewable energy. The aim is to have 26.5 percent of all energy from renewable sources by 2030. This includes investment in hydro energy, solar energy and biomass.
Following the global awareness of the effect of greenhouse gases to our climate, many governments have taken many measures against this problem. Governments in developed countries have enforced laws on car manufacturers aimed to restrict the production of diesel and petrol powered vehicles. This has seen leading car manufacturers switch to manufacturing more environmentally friendly cars like electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles.
With production of EVs (Electric Vehicles) on the rise, most organisations throughout the world have taken the chance to participate in conserving the environment by owning cars that are environmentally friendly.
BYD (Build Your Dreams), a Chinese manufacturing company launched an outlet in Zimbabwe. The company is the first to set a market for EVs in Zimbabwe and they are steadily getting acceptance in Harare.
