OPINION
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) In line with global trends, Kenya has seen a significant temperature increase of 0.3°C to 0.6°C per decade, impacting key sectors like agriculture and water resources.
This rapid warming trend was a major focus at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit (ACS23) in Nairobi last month; which among others, highlighted the link between climate change, regional food systems and economic transformation. The ACS23 emphasized the consequences of inaction on food security and economic sovereignty, rallying an Africa's unified climate agenda ahead of the 28th UN climate change conference (COP28) in the UAE.
Concurrently, the 2023 Africa Food Systems Forum (AFS Forum 23) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, stressed the urgent need for climate-responsive solutions by African governments to address the continent’s food system challenges. Kenya's President, Dr. William Ruto, has since come through on his promise to explore more green and environmental friendly fertilizers alongside a 10-year initiative to grow 15 billion trees by 2032, raising Kenya's tree cover to 30%, enhancing carbon sequestration, restoring 5.1 million hectares of deforested areas, and benefiting households as 30% of these trees will be fruit, nut, and fodder species.
President Ruto has also banned single-use plastic bags and initiated trials for biodegradable tubing bags in line with a United Nations resolution from UNEA 5.2. Meanwhile, Kenya is at the forefront of climate change efforts in Africa, with the Climate Change Act of 2016, and recent amendments to enhance its carbon market regime, driving its responses. The government is also actively implementing the third cycle of the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP III) to promote low-carbon, climate-resilient development.
Yet even as we celebrate these great interventions, we must recognize that climate change is a complex issue that no single country can solve independently; a collaborative approach involving partnerships across national governments, the private sector and the international community is required for rapid transformation.
We are glad to report that African leaders are focusing their development strategies on sustainable solutions at both the national and continental levels. The Africa Environment Action Plan, the Africa Clean Energy Corridor, and the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative all indicate the continent’s strategic commitment to addressing the climate crisis. The actions proposed in these initiatives were restated in the Nairobi Declaration, which summed up the outcomes of the ACS23. Africa’s common position on food systems will benefit from cross-sectional collaboration to ensure resource efficiency and high-impact transformation.
The Declaration comprises 23 commitments, primarily addressing policy areas related to investment attraction, economic development (with a focus on youth empowerment), enhanced continental cooperation, increased renewable energy financing, support for small-scale farmers, and the expedited implementation of the African Union Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan (2022-2032). Notably, the Declaration emphasizes the need for global collaboration to secure adequate capital for both development and climate initiatives, echoing the principles of the Paris Pact for People and the Planet, which aims to ensure that no country must choose between its development goals, climate action and the basic human right to feed people.
The time is now for environmental, energy and food systems experts to resolutely come together to help the continent fight hunger, land degradation and ensure economic prosperity,
Hence, Africa is capitalizing on the momentum of ACS23 and AFS Forum 23 to prioritize its climate discussions and facilitate decision-making areas most critical to Africa on the global front. This was evident at the recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) where Africa's key concerns, such as transitioning to a low-carbon economy and improving living standards, building resilience to climate shocks, especially for rain-fed agricultural nations, were a common theme in speeches and discussions. Coming off the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, which exposed vulnerabilities, there is a strong focus on fast tracking climate action and development, as emphasized by Africa's delegation at UNGA.
Our countries are up against a huge task: the need to transform food systems to feed people, to rehabilitate and safeguard environment and to ensure resilient to shocks caused by the ongoing climate change. There is no doubt that African leaders are more committed than ever before to build on the lessons of the recent crisis that our continent has faced to deliver stronger resilience for people, the environment, and our economies. Certainly, not an easy undertaking which will require stronger collaboration.
AGRA has developed a suit of transferable assets in technology, system strengthening partnerships and models that can benefit women, youth, and small holder farmers in Kenya and across the continent. We are enthusiastic about collaborating with the Kenya government, like minded institutions and private sector to unlock potential here in Kenya and across the continent.
With a shared vision and united mission leveraging stronger collaboration across sectors and countries, we're confident of paving the way for growth, prosperity, and lasting change in this diverse country.
Hon. Tuya is the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, Kenya; Dr Kalibata is the President of AGRA
Speaking at the launching of the second phase of the TAAT programme in Yaounde, Cameroon, October 24, 2023, Dr Christopher Suh, head of TAAT programme in Central African region says “ there is urgent need to accelerate the transformation of African agriculture and efficiency along agrifood chains.”
He says though farmers are increasingly using innovative approaches combined with traditional knowledge, there is a need to take the shifts further to boost food production and nutrition quality and build climate resilience.
“ In the second phase of the programme, we envisage accelerating the agriculture transformation process. We have all the experts to put their knowledge at the doorsteps of farmers and policymakers,” he said.
He cited technologies like hybrid rice, maize, cassava, and fish to add value and reduce post-harvest losses.
This was corroborated by Cameroon’s Minister of Agriculture, who sees the programme as a blessing not only in the Central African sub-region but the continent as a whole.
“ The Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation is a major continental-wide initiative designed to boost agriculture productivity across the continent by rapidly delivering proven technologies to millions of farmers,” the Agric Minister, Gabrielle Mbairobe said at the opening of the launching.
Accordingly, TAAT is the brainchild of the African Development Bank (AfDB). The first phase was launched in 2018, focusing on the deployment of innovations, training and the dissemination of path-breaking initiatives and inputs for farmers and other stakeholders in the sector.
“These were achieved through government-supported projects financed by the AfDB and other donor agencies,” Dr Suh said.
It should be recalled that in July 2022, the AfDB announced it would disburse an additional $27.41 million (nearly CFA18 billion FCFA) for phase II implementation in beneficiary countries.
According to TAAT, the initiative generally is geared at increasing the productivity and income of farming households in 36 low-income African countries and giving them access to climate-resilient technologies. Specifically, the aim is to double the productivity of crops, livestock, and fisheries by making proven technologies available to more than 40 million agricultural producers by 2025.
"This will make it possible to produce an additional 120 million tons of food and lift 130 million people out of poverty," according to AfDB.
In Cameroon, the program focuses on improving the production of maize, cassava, soybeans, rice, high-iron beans, and fish.
According to Dr Suh, through TAAT phase I, Cameroon was able to produce 3.5 million tons of pre-basic seed and 105.5 million tons of basic corn seed. In addition, some farmers have been trained in fry production, and over 100,000 fries have been produced locally.
The workshop, which concluded on October 25, aimed to create a shared strategy for using available technologies to double the country's agricultural productivity.
According to TAAT, Africa is home to 60% of the world’s arable land, yet we remain importers of food and unable to reap the benefits of our labour. Millions of our people are productive in the sector, yet we remain the most food insecure in the world. About 220 million Africans suffer from chronic undernourishment with about a fifth of the continent’s population and a quarter of the global total experiencing this burden.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Investments in forest conservation for carbon removal and enhancement are key for climate change mitigation. African forest experts are pushing to better use demonstrably high-quality forest carbon credits as a crucial tool in the urgent fight against climate change.
President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Razan Al Mubarak noted that "climate change can be seen as symptom of man’s mismanagement of nature, (and therefore) nature-based solutions must be taken seriously to drive the fight against climate change."
"The importance of forest and pitland in the fight against climate change cannot be over-emphasised. We need synergy of efforts to raise awareness and ambition, push the drive for a fair carbon mechanism," she said during a side event at the Nairobi Climate Summit under the theme; ‘Forests and carbon credits, opportunities and challenges in tapping climate finance for investment in Africa."
Panelists at the discussions agreed on growing investor interest in forest-based climate mitigation, including forest carbon credits and benefits through reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) in Africa in general and the Congo Basin in particular.
But they also acknowledge the problem of financing these forest and nature based solutions to climate change.
"Countries of the Congo-Basin like the DRC are putting up strong pitland policies amidst challenges of inadequate financing for the required research. We need to work with scientists and other stakeholds to better understand the full potential of the rich pitland ecosystem. But we must have the finances to achieve this " says Jean Jacque Bambota head of pitland unit with the Ministry of Environment and sustainable development , DRC.
He challenged scientists in Africa to embark on incisive research to discover the carbon potential of the pitlands in their different ecological zones.
IUCN President noted that nature is the critical infrastructure through which the needs of Africa can be met if well invested in, harnessed and protected.
Africa according to IUCN statistics she said has 40 million hectares of pitland and 670 million hectares of forest. "These rich natural endowments come with significant return if we invest right and protect sustainably," Razan said.
Some government authorities at the panel discussions, called for faire carbon mechanism and increased public sector engagement for the interest of population, especially the local communities.
According to the Minister of Environment and nature protection of Congo Brazaville, Arlette Soudan-Nonault ,many African universities are working together to foster research of the real potentials of pitlands like the case of Congo Brazaville.
" We are working with the different scientific communities to establish real data. But we also need clear guidance on good policy implementation practices, " she said.
Reforming methodologies for constructing and measuring reference levels, such as deforestation rates, could improve integrity and credibility in REDD+ projects that, in general, can require millions of dollars in upfront investments, she noted.
Panelists argued the need for a just forest transition and consensus is carbon price fixing between the supplier and the buyer.
Standards for ‘high-integrity REDD+’ could include the evaluation of counterfactual baselines, new remote sensing capabilities, address atmospheric integrity, leakage, biodiversity impacts, and equity, the panelists agreed.
According to a concept note on the event by the African Forest Forum,AFF,the realization of the benefits of Art 5.2 of Paris Agreement are in congruent with Art 6.2 of same document that will enable Parties and other actors in the forest value chain capitalize on cooperative approaches such as Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) for carbon trading.
"This is expected to catalyze investments in developing nations towards realization of their sustainable development goals, " the note stated.
In Africa, for example, there are series of piloted forest and tree-based carbon projects that Parties and actors in the forestry sector can draw key achievements, challenges and lessons learnt to advance investment in forestry for carbon removal and enhancement.
Some of the case studies include: Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project in Western Democratic Republic of Congo; Bale Mountains Eco Region and Oromia REDD+ project in Ethiopia; Kasigau Corridor Phase I&II and Chyulu Hills REDD+projects in Kenya; Making REDD+ Work for Communities and Forest
Conservation in Tanzania; and Kariba REDD+ in northwestern Zimbabwe along southern shore of Lake Kariba among others. long-term Global Comparative Study on REDD+ (2009-2023), involving some 14 years of research across 22 countries, it revealed.
Experts called for progress both at level of evaluating carbon credits and the of non- carbon benefits.
“While we see a lot of improvement and a lot of discussion on how to advance the methodology to evaluate carbon credits, I think the progress in terms of non-carbon benefits has been much slower in comparison " says Julie Mulongo of Wetlands Uganda.
They also expressed the need for accurate and transparent measurement, reporting and verification of emissions as vital part of the forest carbon market.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Investments in forest conservation for carbon removal and enhancement are key for climate change mitigation. African forest experts are pushing to better use demonstrably high-quality forest carbon credits as a crucial tool in the urgent fight against climate change.
President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Razan Al Mubarak noted that "climate change can be seen as symptom of man’s mismanagement of nature, (and therefore) nature-based solutions must be taken seriously to drive the fight against climate change."
"The importance of forest and pitland in the fight against climate change cannot be over-emphasised. We need synergy of efforts to raise awareness and ambition, push the drive for a fair carbon mechanism," she said during a side event at the Nairobi Climate Summit under the theme; ‘Forests and carbon credits, opportunities and challenges in tapping climate finance for investment in Africa."
Panelists at the discussions agreed on growing investor interest in forest-based climate mitigation, including forest carbon credits and benefits through reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) in Africa in general and the Congo Basin in particular.
But they also acknowledge the problem of financing these forest and nature based solutions to climate change.
"Countries of the Congo-Basin like the DRC are putting up strong pitland policies amidst challenges of inadequate financing for the required research. We need to work with scientists and other stakeholds to better understand the full potential of the rich pitland ecosystem. But we must have the finances to achieve this " says Jean Jacque Bambota head of pitland unit with the Ministry of Environment and sustainable development , DRC.
He challenged scientists in Africa to embark on incisive research to discover the carbon potential of the pitlands in their different ecological zones.
IUCN President noted that nature is the critical infrastructure through which the needs of Africa can be met if well invested in, harnessed and protected.
Africa according to IUCN statistics she said has 40 million hectares of pitland and 670 million hectares of forest. "These rich natural endowments come with significant return if we invest right and protect sustainably," Razan said.
Some government authorities at the panel discussions, called for faire carbon mechanism and increased public sector engagement for the interest of population, especially the local communities.
According to the Minister of Environment and nature protection of Congo Brazaville, Arlette Soudan-Nonault ,many African universities are working together to foster research of the real potentials of pitlands like the case of Congo Brazaville.
" We are working with the different scientific communities to establish real data. But we also need clear guidance on good policy implementation practices, " she said.
Reforming methodologies for constructing and measuring reference levels, such as deforestation rates, could improve integrity and credibility in REDD+ projects that, in general, can require millions of dollars in upfront investments, she noted.
Panelists argued the need for a just forest transition and consensus is carbon price fixing between the supplier and the buyer.
Standards for ‘high-integrity REDD+’ could include the evaluation of counterfactual baselines, new remote sensing capabilities, address atmospheric integrity, leakage, biodiversity impacts, and equity, the panelists agreed.
According to a concept note on the event by the African Forest Forum,AFF,the realization of the benefits of Art 5.2 of Paris Agreement are in congruent with Art 6.2 of same document that will enable Parties and other actors in the forest value chain capitalize on cooperative approaches such as Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) for carbon trading.
"This is expected to catalyze investments in developing nations towards realization of their sustainable development goals, " the note stated.
In Africa, for example, there are series of piloted forest and tree-based carbon projects that Parties and actors in the forestry sector can draw key achievements, challenges and lessons learnt to advance investment in forestry for carbon removal and enhancement.
Some of the case studies include: Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project in Western Democratic Republic of Congo; Bale Mountains Eco Region and Oromia REDD+ project in Ethiopia; Kasigau Corridor Phase I&II and Chyulu Hills REDD+projects in Kenya; Making REDD+ Work for Communities and Forest
Conservation in Tanzania; and Kariba REDD+ in northwestern Zimbabwe along southern shore of Lake Kariba among others. long-term Global Comparative Study on REDD+ (2009-2023), involving some 14 years of research across 22 countries, it revealed.
Experts called for progress both at level of evaluating carbon credits and the of non- carbon benefits.
“While we see a lot of improvement and a lot of discussion on how to advance the methodology to evaluate carbon credits, I think the progress in terms of non-carbon benefits has been much slower in comparison " says Julie Mulongo of Wetlands Uganda.
They also expressed the need for accurate and transparent measurement, reporting and verification of emissions as vital part of the forest carbon market.
