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This section explores Geingob’s personal aims and motivations as the head of the state with his climate action goals. It will explore a moment of his political career where environmental policy became key for him as a climate leader, and led him to become a development-driven leader.

One of Geingob’s main motivators to achieve Namibian development is his role in early state-building of Namibia. After 1990 when Namibia gained its independence and Hage Geingob stepped in as the first Prime Minister of the state, his main goal was to recover the state from post-colonialism and the residue of apartheid in order to ensure stable development and welfare of the people, which was later even written into the national constitution.

His upbringing, still during segregation, was a guideline on how not to lead the state in the future. These painful lessons learnt during his childhood and early adulthood proved to him the importance of constant development. To achieve that, climate action was pivotal since it was an efficient source of foreign funding with potential to be invested in a variety of sectors, such as renewable energy, providing energy self-sufficiency, as well as stable revenue from export. 

Geingob’s defining moment was his role in the introduction of the 2011 climate policy. At this time he served as the Minister of Trade and Industry. Geingob initiated the policy even before he became president, which shows his commitment and dedication to the cause of climate action in Namibia. Despite his advocacy for the policy introduction, his main role was laying the foundations for 2011 Climate Change Policy. This basis consisted of the previous actions and legislation initiated and executed by him, namely, during his first tenure as the Prime Minister of Namibia (1990-2002).

The Constitution of the Republic of Namibia (1990) 

 Article 95 Promotion of the Welfare of the People

The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting, inter alia, policies aimed at the following:

[…] (l) maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes and biological diversity of Namibia and utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, .

Namibia was the first African country to employ such a measure of environmental protection at the basis of their legal framework. Article 95  highlights the importance of the Namibian natural environment and emphasises the importance of sustainable development..

Hage Geingob was the Prime Minister while the Constitution was drafted. He played a vitol role in shifting the country’s focus towards environmental preservation which cumulated the 2011 Climate Change Policy. His influence led to a significant legislation, including the 2007 Environmental Management Act. The Act prompted environmental management and sustainable growth. The 1996 Community Based Natural Resources Management  which aimed at decentralsing power and ensuring fair resource distribution. Geingobs active participation in international regulations and conferences like the UNFCC in 1992, further laid the groundwork for the 2011 Policy, which addressed climate vulnerabiulity, risk management, and leveraged international climate finance mechanisms for national development

Hage Geingob was the Prime Minister while the Constitution was drafted. He had an active role in this legislation, which ultimately shifted Namibian attention towards environmental preservation and resulted in drafting of the 2011 climate action policy.

The Community Based Natural Resource Management (1996)

This is one of the documents that Geingob initiated during his first term as Prime Minister of Namibia. It regulates resource management and the establishment of so-called communal conservancies. These measures aimed to address unfair distribution of resources by decentralising power in Namibia, giving more force to local governments and members of said conservancies, hoping to strengthen the nascent democracy. 

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on 9th May 1992

Geingob’s advocacy in international conferences and conventions and  his active involvement in the negotiations in the UNFCCC from the early 1990s also laid the foundations for the 2011 policy in the terms of actions as well as principle.

By helping in the crafting of the 2011, Geingob acknowledged the vulnerability to climate impacts on Namibia and outlined strategies for risk management and resilience building. The policy highlighted opportunities for Namibia to gain from international climate finance mechanisms, such as the Clean Development Mechanism and the Green Climate Fund. This involvement showcases that Hage Geingob perceives and uses climate policy as a tool for the state’s development. 

The 2011 document highlights  the potential adverse effects of climate change on Namibia, and outlines the subsequent consequences on the economy and development of the country.Furthermore, the document acknowledges Namibia’s many legal and policy instruments, such as the Namibian Constitution, the various National Development Plans, the National Land Policy, the National Drought Policy and Strategy, the Agriculture Policy and the Poverty Reduction Strategy and Action Plan of Namibia. 

However, most of these sector-specific policies were developed without due consideration of anthropogenic climate change because man-made global warming was not regarded as a pressing issue when these policies were drafted. Namibia’s National Climate Change Policy therefore aims to integrate climate change policy into existing policies and to enhance synergies between the various sectors. 

In addition, the policy encourages anti-global warming activities to take place in line with internationally-accepted scientific findings. In fact, the policy makes it clear that the support of international agencies for building human and institutional capacity for climate change interventions is crucial to Namibia’s efforts to mitigate climate change. 

All of these actions exemplify how Hage Geingob is a development-driven climate leader, as he perceived climate action as an opportunity for foreign funds and investments. These factors are essential in steady state-building and ensuring the well-being of Namibia’s citizens through development of the country.

IExRAIA Summer Research Program:

This article is an excerpt from a report about Hage Geingob produced as part of an RAIA research program on climate leaders. For a full picture of Geingob’s climate leadership read the full report. This project was fully financed by IE University’s IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs.

Authors: Clara Chikuse and Maja Prokopiuk

Editor: Dario Hasenstab

Project Lead: Francia Morales