MBABANE – Prime Minister (PM) Russell Dlamini says climate change is no longer a future threat but a present-day crisis affecting livelihoods, food security and development in Eswatini.
Addressing delegates virtually during a discussion on climate change and its impacts yesterday, Dlamini said the world faced a defining moment that would determine the wellbeing of current and future generations.
“Every age confronts a moment when history demands not comfort, but courage. Today, we stand at such a crossroads,” he said.
Dlamini said climate change should not be viewed solely as an environmental issue, but as a challenge that cuts across economies, public health, food security and social justice.
“It is an economic question. It is a food security question. It is a public health question. Above all, it is a question of justice between generations,” he said.
He warned that the consequences of delayed action were becoming increasingly evident across the globe. Citing data from the World Meteorological Organisation, Dlamini said 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded, with global temperatures reaching 1.55 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“We are not approaching crisis; we are living it,” he said.
The PM noted that projections indicated global emissions could reach 75 billion tonnes annually by 2050, exposing billions of people to increasingly severe heatwaves and other climate-related disasters.
While acknowledging growing international recognition of climate-related loss and damage, he said vulnerable nations continued to face significant financing challenges.
“Recognition of loss and damage is welcome, but recognition without resources is hollow. Justice demands action,” he said.
Turning to Eswatini, Dlamini said climate change had become a lived reality for communities across the country.
“For Eswatini, climate change is not abstraction – it is daily reality,” he said.
He revealed that the country's average annual temperature had risen by more than three degrees Celsius since 1950, while rainfall patterns had become increasingly unpredictable.
“Rainy seasons grow shorter and erratic. Droughts intensify. Floods and landslides threaten lives and livelihoods,” he said.
Dlamini said the impacts were being felt across all four of Eswatini’s agro-ecological zones, with farmers and families facing growing uncertainty as familiar climate patterns disappear.
The premier attributed Eswatini’s vulnerability to the intersection of climate hazards and socio-economic challenges.
“As a small, landlocked, lower-middle-income nation, our buffer against shocks is limited,” he said.
He highlighted the country’s heavy dependence on rain-fed agriculture, noting that approximately 80 per cent of farms relied entirely on rainfall.
“When rains fail, livelihoods fail. Climate shocks in Eswatini translate directly into development shocks,” he said.
Dlamini outlined four key areas where climate change was having the greatest impact.
The first was agriculture and food security. He said repeated maize crop failures were threatening household food supplies and reversing development gains.
“Maize, our staple crop, faces repeated failure, pushing families into hunger and communities backward,” he said.
The second area was water security, where prolonged droughts were reducing water availability while floods were damaging critical infrastructure.
He said climate change was also weakening ecosystems and biodiversity, threatening forests, rivers and soils that communities depend on for resilience and economic activity.
The fourth area was human wellbeing, with the poorest households, rural communities, women and children carrying the heaviest burden of climate impacts.
“The poorest, the rural, women and children bear the heaviest burdens, compounding existing inequalities,” he said.
Dlamini warned that failure to act would impose severe costs on future generations.
“Inaction does not preserve the present. It erodes the past, burdens the future and condemns the vulnerable to bear costs they did not create,” he said.
He said Eswatini was responding through a structured climate governance framework that included the National Climate Change Policy of 2016, the Nationally Determined Contribution and the National Adaptation Plan.
“We do not come as passive observers. We come as a nation that has built the architecture of climate governance,” he said.
Dlamini stressed that effective climate governance and good national governance were closely linked and remained central to the country’s development agenda.
Despite these efforts, he said climate finance remained one of Eswatini’s biggest challenges.
“Ambition without finance is incomplete,” he said.
According to the PM, more than two-thirds of the country's climate budget depended on external funding, leaving national climate programmes vulnerable to factors beyond Eswatini’s control.
He criticised complex funding procedures, short application timelines and financing mechanisms that relied heavily on loans rather than grants.
“Complex procedures, short timelines and loans instead of grants exclude the most vulnerable. This must change,” he said.
Dlamini called on the international community to honour climate finance commitments and make funding more accessible to vulnerable nations.
He said adaptation must be treated as a development priority rather than a secondary climate objective.
“Our priorities are clear: climate-resilient agriculture, equitable water management, robust disaster risk systems, sustainable forestry, ecosystem restoration and integration of traditional knowledge,” he said.
He added that governments must move from reacting to disasters to anticipating risks and reducing long-term costs.
The Prime Minister further emphasised the need for climate decisions to be informed by both science and indigenous knowledge systems.
“Our decisions must be grounded in science, informed by traditional knowledge and guided by justice,” he said.
Dlamini also highlighted what he described as a global climate injustice.
“Africa contributes less than four per cent of global emissions yet bears disproportionate impacts. This is not only a question of risk- it is a question of fairness, of justice and of moral responsibility,” he said.
He said climate justice within Eswatini also required that the country's most vulnerable communities remain at the centre of policymaking and adaptation efforts.
Looking ahead, Dlamini urged the international community to fulfil its obligations on climate finance, accelerate the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund and elevate adaptation to the same level of importance as mitigation.
He also called on regional partners to strengthen cooperation through shared early warning systems and improved transboundary water governance.
To emaSwati, Dlamini reaffirmed government’s commitment to building resilience, reducing dependence on external financing and investing in communities and future generations.
“For Eswatini, climate action is about defending progress, strengthening resilience and securing dignity for generations to come,” he said.
“We do not seek charity. We offer partnership. But partnership requires courage, fairness and unity.”
Concluding his address, Dlamini said history would judge leaders not by their understanding of the climate crisis but by their response to it.
“Our era will be judged not by how well we understood the crisis, but by how swiftly and how fairly we responded. Understanding without action is failure dressed as wisdom,” he said.
He ended with a call for collective action.
“Let us choose with courage. Let us choose with fairness. Let us choose with unity. The future is watching. History will judge.”
Prime Minister Russell Dlamini .