AS Parliament resumed sitting early this year, lawmakers turned their attention to one of the country’s most significant environmental policy proposals — the Climate Change Management Bill, (H.B.5 2025).
The Bill, now in its second reading stage in the National Assembly, seeks to establish Zimbabwe’s first comprehensive legal framework dedicated specifically to climate change governance and is poised to ignite debate over how Zimbabwe confronts the growing threat of climate change.
Zimbabwe is increasingly experiencing more frequent droughts, erratic rainfall, and rising temperatures — conditions that place pressure on agriculture, water resources, and livelihoods. Against this backdrop, the proposed legislation is being framed as a long-overdue intervention to strengthen the country’s climate governance.
At its core, the proposed law aims to strengthen Zimbabwe’s response to climate change by coordinating both mitigation and adaptation efforts across all sectors of the economy.
If passed, the legislation will establish a national framework for climate governance, mainstreaming climate action into key sectors such as agriculture, energy and mining.
The legislation will also align Zimbabwe’s domestic laws with international climate commitments and promote low-carbon development and climate resilience.
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Washington Zhakata, chief director for the department of climate change management in the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, told a workshop of lawmakers in Harare that the Bill would empower a dedicated climate change management department to oversee implementation and enforcement of climate policies.
“The department shall be responsible for the administration, implementation, and coordination of national climate change policies, plans, strategies, and actions,” he said.
The proposed law also complements recent national efforts, including the introduction of carbon trading regulations and updated climate commitments under international agreements.
Funding for the facility is expected to come from a mix of sources, including carbon trading revenues and other climate-related financing mechanisms.
Civil society organisations, environment and climate activists, and other stakeholders, while describing the Bill as progressive, have proposed some changes that they feel will help improve the country’s climate mitigation efforts.
Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Organisation legal associate, Michel Chitando, said the promulgation of a climate change law would help to define responsibilities for different stakeholders and also provide the basis for creating institutions and defining their roles and mandates in the fight against climate change through adaptation and mitigation.
“A climate change law will help to guide Zimbabwe’s mitigation and adaptation measures and coordination efforts. It will also help to guide national and subnational responses to climate change complementing existing laws, policies, and strategies,” she said.
Chitando said clause 38 of the Bill, which incentivises promotion of climate change initiatives, was a welcome development where the minister would, in accordance with the appropriate law, and in consultation with the minister responsible for Finance, grant such incentives as may be necessary for the advancement of climate change adaptation and mitigation action.
She, however, bemoaned the lack of a definition of the just transition in the definition section of the justice transition objectives.
“The Bill offers an opportunity to define what the just transition means for Zimbabwe and what steps the country can take that are context and economy-specific,” Chitando said.
She also proposed stronger measures to ensure robust funding mechanisms for the National Climate Fund.
“There is a need to consider fees for carbon markets to ensure ease of doing business and promote more investments in the sector,” she said.
However, national coordinator for Climate Action, Wellington Madumira, described the Bill as a watershed moment that could either be a framework for genuine transformation, or a bureaucratic layer that fails the people.
He said in their debate on the Bill, legislators should focus on coordination, community and justice.
“The Climate Change Management Bill, if passed, has the potential to transform how we coordinate climate action across sectors. Currently, climate interventions in many African countries are fragmented—environmental agencies work in silos, agriculture ministries pursue parallel adaptation agendas, and local communities are often left out of decision-making,” he said.
The legislation, Madumira noted, if well framed, could mandate the establishment of a centralised coordinating authority, such as a National Climate Change Fund or directorate, that would bring together line ministries, sub-national governments, and civil society.
“It offers the chance to harmonise reporting under international frameworks like the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, ensuring that national climate commitments are not just documents, but legally enforceable obligations with clear institutional homes,” he said.
Madumira said the Bill must address the critical nexus between climate action and community livelihoods, adding that Parliament must interrogate whether the Bill sufficiently protects and empowers the most vulnerable — smallholder farmers, women, youth, and rural communities.
“A progressive Climate Change Management Bill should embed principles of climate justice, ensuring that adaptation resources reach the grassroots and that communities have a voice in how funds are allocated. It must also recognise and protect traditional knowledge systems as valid contributions to climate resilience,” he said.
He noted that if the Bill focused only on high-level policy and international reporting, without mandating local-level consultation and benefit-sharing, it risked becoming another top-down instrument that looks good in Geneva but fails in the village.
Farai Maguwu, director of the Centre for Natural Resources Governance, said that because climate change posed an existential threat to humanity, legislating the national response was a bold statement of intent.
“The issue of loss and damage, captured in the Bill, is important, especially given the rising cost of climate-induced disasters, which hit the marginalised poor,” he said.
Maguwu, however, expressed concern over the issue of carbon credits, which he said had been flagged as false solutions to
climate change.
“The positive impacts of carbon credits are often exaggerated, as was the case with South Pole’s Kariba Redd +. We must guard against creating a climate cartel that will pocket millions out of the climate disaster at the expense of those hardest hit by climate change — the marginalised poor,”he said.
He said loss and damage must also aim at helping real people, like cyclone victims, and also prioritise emergency repair of public infrastructure damaged by extreme weather conditions.
The Business Council for Sustainable Development Zimbabwe (BCSDZ) also added its voice, saying they were fully behind the enactment of the Bill, emphasising, however, that implementation should be scientific, inclusive, and promote business viability.
BCSDZ executive director, Dingane Sithole, said fragmented policies left Zimbabwe vulnerable to climate shocks such as droughts and cyclones, which he said cost the country’s Gross Domestic Product and jobs.
“The Bill is a strategic blueprint for Zimbabwe's sustainable development as it equips Zimbabweans with the essential tools for inclusive sustainable industrialisation while transforming a fragmented policy approach into a coordinated, well-funded, and legally enforceable framework,” he said.
Sithole noted that once signed into law, the legislation would unlock international finance, stimulate private investment, and build a resilient future for all Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe’s move places it among a small but growing number of African countries adopting stand-alone climate legislation, reflecting a broader shift toward formalising climate governance on the continent.