NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Seven scientists from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia are among 21 African researchers to receive a grant of up to £100,000 ($127,000) each over the next two years to conduct different studies that will prepare the continent on how to deal with the impacts of climate change.

Through an initiative known as Climate Research for Development (CR4D), the scientists will research on different subjects with an aim of strengthening climate knowledge gaps on the continent in relation to climate sensitive socio-economic sectors such as agriculture and food security, health, disaster risk reduction, energy, and natural resources management (water, forests and others) as well as gender, migration, urbanization, infrastructure, marine and coastal zones among others.

“Understanding of African climate and use of climate information for decision-making are restricted by a number of factors,” said Dr James Murombedzi, Head of the Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) of the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

Dr Murombedzi noted that in Africa, there is inadequate research infrastructure with gaps in climate observation systems, inadequate data to assess the past and current states of the climate as well as communication gaps between climate scientists and decision-makers, vulnerable communities, and development practitioners. “Unveiling of the CR4D research grant is a step towards addressing these challenges,” he said during the launch of the grant ceremony in Nairobi.

The CR4D is an African-led initiative created through a partnership of the ACPC, the African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET), World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). The first research grant is managed by the Africa Academy of Sciences (AAS).

Dr Anderson Kabila, a Cameroonian scientist is one of the grantees who will undertake a research that seeks to bridge the gaps in science, technology and policy by providing decision makers with the information and tools they need for measuring and evaluating the rollout of policies and programmes in East Africa.

So far, Kenya was the first country in Africa to develop and adopt a National Climate Change Framework Policy whose main aim is to enhance adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change, and promote low carbon economy for the sustainable development of the country. The country is therefore one of the most likely beneficiaries of Dr Kabila’s research.

“We have true problems on the African continent and we really need our scientists to help in solving them through demand driven research,” said Dr Judy Omumbo of The Africa Academy of Sciences.

Dr George Otieno, a Kenyan grantee will use his funding to research on how seasonal forecasts can better be improved, including the introduction of climate change information to enhance early warning systems and disaster preparedness for effective response in the Greater Horn of Africa region.

Dr Stella Kabiri-Marial from Mukono Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute in Uganda will conduct a study that demonstrates a green-energy driven technology solution to support on-site fertiliser production in Africa – using a climate and environment friendly technology known as ‘Plasma assisted nitrogen fixation.’

“The fertilisers in the market at the moment consume a lot of energy during the production stage, and in the process, they emit a lot of greenhouse gases which are responsible for the global warming and climate change,” said Dr Kabiri-Marial noting that the new technology emits zero carbon.

Dr Asanterabi Lowassa, a Tanzanian researcher will provide a broad understanding on the impact of gender inequality on the climate change and mitigation measures/coping strategies used by men and women.

Dr Isaac Mugume, another grantee from East Africa (Makerere University – Uganda) will conduct a research with main focus on the implications of the 1.5 – 2.0 degree Celsius to Uganda’s climate, agriculture and water nexus. He will also investigate the probable influence of this temperature limit on crop production and water needs including the influence on rainfall, humidity, winds and cloudiness over Uganda.

It is important to note that last year, through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report, the world’s top climate experts warned that there was only a dozen years remaining for increase to global temperatures to be kept to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, failure to which, even half a degree will worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and this will have devastating impact on millions of people especially in Africa.

Other grantees from the East African region were Dr Eleni Yitbarek and Dr Mokone Adnew Degefu both from Ethiopia. Others were from the Central Africa, the West and the Southern Africa regions.

“The role of climate research is critically important in decision-making and development, as well as in climate negotiations,” noted Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Secretary for the Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) – the organisation that spearheaded the drafting of Kenya’s National Climate Change Framework Policy.

“I am hopeful that these scientists will come up with research findings that will help farmers in Africa enhance their production, while at the same time adapt to the impacts of climate change,” said Prof Nelson Torto, the Executive Director for The Africa Academy of Sciences.

ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - The little steps African countries are taking in transitioning to low emissions pathway are what will see the continent achieve climate compliance by 2030, as called for in the Paris Climate Agreement, says Dr. Richard Munang, UN Environment Africa Regional Climate Change Coordinator.

He believes countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the areas of agriculture, energy and forestry can be combined to maximize bottom line emissions reduction and amplify socioeconomic benefits of income creation and job opportunities in ancillary sectors popular with engaging the youth, especially ICT.

Dr. Munang was addressing a peer learning and closeout meeting of the EU-UNEP Africa Low Emissions Development Strategies (Africa LEDS) Project in Accra, Ghana, under the theme: “Unlocking Socioeconomic Opportunities Through Low Emissions Development Actions”.

Emphasizing that “there is no beauty but the beauty of action”, Dr. Munang said there is the need for innovative paradigms and actions to accelerate the realization of socioeconomic and climate benefits for the people of Africa.

“The sustainability and longevity of climate actions in the continent depends on how well they demonstrate socio-economic value,” he said. “This is especially so considering that while Africa is negligible emitter, it stands out as the most vulnerable to climate change, with vulnerability driven primarily by the prevailing low levels of socioeconomic development”.

The implementation of the EU-UNEP Africa LEDS project has demonstrated through ground actions and investment support tools, that strategic implementation of NDC priorities aligned to key socioeconomic sectors can maximise both climate and priority socioeconomic benefits simultaneously.

The Project is urging governments in Africa to create an enabling environment for low emissions development strategies uptake, leveraging on strategic implementation of ambitious NDC commitments.

The seven project partner countries include Cameroon, DRC, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia.

Ghana, for instance, is of the firm belief that tacking climate change would help strengthen the resilience of the economy against shocks.

The current national development plan for Ghana, therefore, recognizes climate change as one of the developmental challenges and has developed policy interventions to address it in the medium-term.

“The policies set out in the national development plan informed the adaptation and mitigation actions that Ghana put forward in the first-round of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs),” said John Pwamang, Acting Executive Director of Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency.

He observed that though Ghana’s share of global greenhouse gas emissions is low, the mitigation measures being implemented are aligned to the low emission trajectory of the EU-UNEP Africa LEDS Project.

The Project is premiering LEDS modeling as a direct enabler of socio-economic development with actions targeted at sectors that could unlock socioeconomic development opportunities alongside offsetting carbon.

Susana Martins, Programmes Officer, Infrastructure and Sustainable Development at European Union Delegation to Ghana, emphasized the commitment of the EU to finance climate change interventions in Africa.

“We are committed to the implementation of projects on climate change,” she said.

The Africa LEDS Project is a partnership between the European Commission, UNEP, the LEDS Global Partnership, Africa LEDS Partnership and seven collaborating countries. The project has enabled significant progress on low carbon transformation in Africa.

Weather forecasting has never been an easy feat. Just as experts argue, it is the science of attempting to predict something that is inherently unpredictable. But technological advances are breaking new ground in terms of gathering more accurate data. One of these is using the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) system. ALI B RAMTU, the Senior Acting Director in charge of aeronautical and meteorological services at the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) shared with PAMACC how AMDAR might change this.

What is AMDAR?

AMDAR stands for Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay. This is an observation of meteorological parameters by aircraft when they are taking off, cruising and also landing.
They measure some of the meteorological parameters and then relay the data to KMD via servers.

This helps in embedding this information to other observations for better forecasting. It is an addition of the data observation network.

As you may know, KMD is currently relying on surface data observations from various weather stations.

KMD has quite a number of weather stations across the country. AMDAR will be a plus because it will provide some of the upper air observations that we lack at KMD to enhance our services.
It is also meant to improve products that we were giving to the aviation industry, Kenya Airways being one of them.

The aviation industry has challenges like experiencing fog in the morning. When this happens, they have to divert to other alternate airports and aerodromes. For that, they incur costs.

But with the improved product they will be alerted earlier. When they delay the flight by, say, 10 minutes to allow the fog to clear, then they will not incur those diversionary costs.

It is better to delay or cancel a flight and cut costs.

The other thing is that when data comes to our archive and system it will be fed to other sectors.

How long has AMDAR been operational?

AMDAR is not really new. Currently KMD is receiving some of the observations by AMDAR but not to the level that is adequate.

This is because there are few aircraft with the specific software and capability to provide this information. There are very few aircrafts in Kenyan airspace which have this capacity.
Bu with this kind of collaboration between Kenya Airways and KMD, we want to provide the capability to more aircrafts at the national carrier to be able to do the observation.

We are doing this by procuring some of the necessary software.

How are you procuring the software?

We are trying to procure the software through outsourcing.

There are some specific technology firms with this software whom we will enlist for this project.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has provided funds to KMD to facilitate procurement of this software from designated firms or companies.

The firms will install this technology in particular aircrafts at Kenya Airways.
This collaboration is between WMO, KMD and Kenya Airways. Each party is playing a role.

How much funding has been injected into this project?

I might not be in a position to give a particular figure. The finance team can do this.
But what we know is that WMO has partnered with KMD and Kenya Airways to provide funding.

This funding is not wholesome. It comes in bits as per how the project is progressing. Different aspects of this project are funded in phases.
There is the communication phase which involves installation of the servers and communication links.

There is the phase of purchasing of software to be installed in the aircrafts.
Then there will also be funding for training some of the experts who are supposed to handle this project.

These include information communication technology personnel, data processing personnel, forecasters, and even the technicians.

All these are embedded into the expense roll of this particular project.
The communication link between aircrafts and KMD servers is also another phase that is supposed to be funded.

It will come after the installation of software and other recurrent expenditure.

When did the partnership between KMD and Kenya Airways begin?

It started since 2015 when we had the first inception workshop.

What inspired this partnership?

It is a requirement for WMO member countries to be equipped with all hydrological and meteorological services. Innovation and technological advances improve weather forecasting.

There is also the need to enhance data acquisition. This is because the method we have been using of raising balloons was becoming too expensive for these services to be undertaken.
B

ut with this collaboration we can use aircraft to get the same data in the upper air without incurring costs that go with the radio sounding equipment.

What are some of the challenges you have gone through?

As you may know, KMD is a government agency.
There were lapses in the process of procuring some of the softwareafter the project was initiated.

This is because the firms which were supposed to provide the software for installation in the aircrafts were single sourced.

This has brought some hiccups which we are trying to see how we can overcome.
The government’s procuring process is different from Kenya Airways and other private companies.

Kenya Airways has been dealing with these firms. According to the rules and conditions, a third party cannot be brought into this process.

The firms which were doing maintenance at Kenya Airways are the same ones which are supposed to provide and install the software.

Immediately we overcome this bottleneck I am sure the process will move with the required success rate.

Some trainings have been done but others are yet to take place.

What is the timeline of the project?

It was supposed to be a two year project but we requested for an extension due to the above mentioned challenges.

The extension is for 15 months. The implementation phase started in 2017 and was supposed to end in December2019.

The 15 months extension will go up to December 2020. But we are yet to be granted that request.

What is your personal take about project?

As a Kenyan I will be very glad to receive an improved weather product and weather information which I am not provided with currently.

With initiation of this kind of project, I am sure there will be quite a number of weather products which will be beneficial not only to the aviation sector but to all sectors which rely on weather information and products.

It will improve the services atKMD and will actually enhance effectiveness in terms of serving Kenyans and all the cross cutting sectors.

KMD is an institution concerned with the environment. Each and every sector talks about the environment and climate change because these are cross cutting issues.

If we can be able to improve weather forecasting services, then definitely we will have improved all sectors of our economy.

All the forecasts rely on daily observations. It is these daily observations that are run for several years to give seasonal forecasts.

Information from the AMDAR system will improve daily forecasts, weekly forecasts and even seasonal forecasts with the passage of time.

As you know, weather has no boundaries. But with AMDAR we can be able to study it as an aircraft cruises all over space and provide that information to our servers.

We shall be in a better position to do air observations all over space. We will be able to know the effects of other weather systems which might affect Kenyans at large.

What are your closing remarks?

This is a very important project. It has its challenges but we will not tire. We will strive to better our services.

We trust our financiers to make this happen.

It will be successful and we hope even the government will embrace and hopefully, fund it.
This is especially in the areas of recurrent expenditure which are expected to increase as data continues trailing into our servers.

Weather forecasting has never been an easy feat. Just as experts argue, it is the science of attempting to predict something that is inherently unpredictable. But technological advances are breaking new ground in terms of gathering more accurate data. One of these is using the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) system. ALI B RAMTU, the Senior Acting Director in charge of aeronautical and meteorological services at the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) shared with PAMACC how AMDAR might change this.

What is AMDAR?

AMDAR stands for Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay. This is an observation of meteorological parameters by aircraft when they are taking off, cruising and also landing.
They measure some of the meteorological parameters and then relay the data to KMD via servers.

This helps in embedding this information to other observations for better forecasting. It is an addition of the data observation network.

As you may know, KMD is currently relying on surface data observations from various weather stations.

KMD has quite a number of weather stations across the country. AMDAR will be a plus because it will provide some of the upper air observations that we lack at KMD to enhance our services.
It is also meant to improve products that we were giving to the aviation industry, Kenya Airways being one of them.

The aviation industry has challenges like experiencing fog in the morning. When this happens, they have to divert to other alternate airports and aerodromes. For that, they incur costs.

But with the improved product they will be alerted earlier. When they delay the flight by, say, 10 minutes to allow the fog to clear, then they will not incur those diversionary costs.

It is better to delay or cancel a flight and cut costs.

The other thing is that when data comes to our archive and system it will be fed to other sectors.

How long has AMDAR been operational?

AMDAR is not really new. Currently KMD is receiving some of the observations by AMDAR but not to the level that is adequate.

This is because there are few aircraft with the specific software and capability to provide this information. There are very few aircrafts in Kenyan airspace which have this capacity.
Bu with this kind of collaboration between Kenya Airways and KMD, we want to provide the capability to more aircrafts at the national carrier to be able to do the observation.

We are doing this by procuring some of the necessary software.

How are you procuring the software?

We are trying to procure the software through outsourcing.

There are some specific technology firms with this software whom we will enlist for this project.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has provided funds to KMD to facilitate procurement of this software from designated firms or companies.

The firms will install this technology in particular aircrafts at Kenya Airways.
This collaboration is between WMO, KMD and Kenya Airways. Each party is playing a role.

How much funding has been injected into this project?

I might not be in a position to give a particular figure. The finance team can do this.
But what we know is that WMO has partnered with KMD and Kenya Airways to provide funding.

This funding is not wholesome. It comes in bits as per how the project is progressing. Different aspects of this project are funded in phases.
There is the communication phase which involves installation of the servers and communication links.

There is the phase of purchasing of software to be installed in the aircrafts.
Then there will also be funding for training some of the experts who are supposed to handle this project.

These include information communication technology personnel, data processing personnel, forecasters, and even the technicians.

All these are embedded into the expense roll of this particular project.
The communication link between aircrafts and KMD servers is also another phase that is supposed to be funded.

It will come after the installation of software and other recurrent expenditure.

When did the partnership between KMD and Kenya Airways begin?

It started since 2015 when we had the first inception workshop.

What inspired this partnership?

It is a requirement for WMO member countries to be equipped with all hydrological and meteorological services. Innovation and technological advances improve weather forecasting.

There is also the need to enhance data acquisition. This is because the method we have been using of raising balloons was becoming too expensive for these services to be undertaken.
B

ut with this collaboration we can use aircraft to get the same data in the upper air without incurring costs that go with the radio sounding equipment.

What are some of the challenges you have gone through?

As you may know, KMD is a government agency.
There were lapses in the process of procuring some of the softwareafter the project was initiated.

This is because the firms which were supposed to provide the software for installation in the aircrafts were single sourced.

This has brought some hiccups which we are trying to see how we can overcome.
The government’s procuring process is different from Kenya Airways and other private companies.

Kenya Airways has been dealing with these firms. According to the rules and conditions, a third party cannot be brought into this process.

The firms which were doing maintenance at Kenya Airways are the same ones which are supposed to provide and install the software.

Immediately we overcome this bottleneck I am sure the process will move with the required success rate.

Some trainings have been done but others are yet to take place.

What is the timeline of the project?

It was supposed to be a two year project but we requested for an extension due to the above mentioned challenges.

The extension is for 15 months. The implementation phase started in 2017 and was supposed to end in December2019.

The 15 months extension will go up to December 2020. But we are yet to be granted that request.

What is your personal take about project?

As a Kenyan I will be very glad to receive an improved weather product and weather information which I am not provided with currently.

With initiation of this kind of project, I am sure there will be quite a number of weather products which will be beneficial not only to the aviation sector but to all sectors which rely on weather information and products.

It will improve the services atKMD and will actually enhance effectiveness in terms of serving Kenyans and all the cross cutting sectors.

KMD is an institution concerned with the environment. Each and every sector talks about the environment and climate change because these are cross cutting issues.

If we can be able to improve weather forecasting services, then definitely we will have improved all sectors of our economy.

All the forecasts rely on daily observations. It is these daily observations that are run for several years to give seasonal forecasts.

Information from the AMDAR system will improve daily forecasts, weekly forecasts and even seasonal forecasts with the passage of time.

As you know, weather has no boundaries. But with AMDAR we can be able to study it as an aircraft cruises all over space and provide that information to our servers.

We shall be in a better position to do air observations all over space. We will be able to know the effects of other weather systems which might affect Kenyans at large.

What are your closing remarks?

This is a very important project. It has its challenges but we will not tire. We will strive to better our services.

We trust our financiers to make this happen.

It will be successful and we hope even the government will embrace and hopefully, fund it.
This is especially in the areas of recurrent expenditure which are expected to increase as data continues trailing into our servers.