OPINION

In our beloved, land-locked nation of Zambia, the government has demonstrated encouraging foresight and pragmatism in guiding the country’s efforts to mitigate the causes of the climate crisis and, more relevant to low-emitting African states such as Zambia, adapt to the hazards it brings.

Although some of the world’s most powerful political figures are liable to deny it, we in Africa are living with the consequences of climate change every day in new ways. The impact is inescapable. Indeed, over the last several years, the 1.2 billion people living on our proud continent – the second largest population in the world – have suffered significantly the adverse effects of historic droughts, floods, storms and other severe weather events made ever more common by the warming of our planet.

The world’s climate scientists, economists, development specialists, urban planners, engineers and any number of other experts among society’s public, private and academic spheres agree that these unnatural weather patterns are, more likely than not, destined to become the norm in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

Their conclusion? Governments of the world must re-evaluate their national priorities, and allocate far greater attention and resources to adapting their respective economies to this new normal, a verdict that increasingly appears to be gaining traction.

This at least is the major takeaway from the recent 74th convening of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Here attendees focused nearly exclusively on climate change and how governments of the world can and should mobilise their political and economic resources to take action.

This, of course, is easier said than done. Sub-Saharan Africa needs leadership and international coordination on this issue, and both are in short supply.

The absence of urgency may be related to the fact that we are not the world’s worst polluters. Often discussed in recent years has been the region’s profound vulnerability to the hazards of climate change, despite being responsible for less than 5% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, and less than 2.5% of global cumulative CO2 emissions.

Yet it is we who are suffering. No one will soon forget the “Day Zero” water crisis in Cape Town that came after three years of drought. But the problems are diversifying in scope and range. Average climate change-induced temperature increases in the region are projected to be significantly higher than the global mean. And, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the same can be said for the duration, intensity and frequency of droughts and major storms, such as Cyclone Idai.

To make matters worse, while this alone is cause enough for alarm, sub-Saharan nations’ quickly growing population, insufficient infrastructure, lack of financial resources, institutional instability and over-dependence on industries highly exposed to climate change, such as agriculture and extractives, render the region ill-equipped to make the necessary adaptations.

Yet, against the odds, there are some exceptions.

In our beloved, land-locked nation of Zambia, the current government has demonstrated encouraging foresight and pragmatism in guiding the country’s efforts to mitigate the causes of climate change and, more relevant to low-emitting African states like Zambia, adapt to the hazards it brings. In an address to the legislature ahead of the UNGA earlier in September, 2019, President Edgar Lungu unveiled a sweeping plan for accelerating Zambia’s sustainable development that, among other things, is in line with the administration’s Vision 2030 development agenda, incorporates recommendations from the World Bank and other multilateral institutions, and has earned the approval of numerous civil society organisations, such as the WWF.

The timing could hardly have been more appropriate. The country’s agriculture industry, which contributes 19% of GDP and in 2017 employed 54.8% of the workforce, is facing a challenging period. Drought and weather changes have reduced harvests and strained electricity supply, and although we project a return of heavier rains in the near future, this is a situation we cannot allow to continue without determined action.

It’s understandable then why Lungu, with the support of government leaders from across the Zambian political spectrum, has made climate action one of his administration’s top priorities ahead of the next legislative session. The new climate agenda will build on government measures begun in earnest following a period of similarly adverse weather activity in 2016, particularly the 2017 National Climate Change Policy, which established a two-pronged scheme built on numerous complementary mitigation and adaptation strategies ranging from information dissemination to capacity building at every level of government.

The Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) is among the stakeholders playing a part in helping the country respond to negative impacts of climate change. As the principal environmental regulator, ZEMA looks to benefit from the political will demonstrated by Lungu to acknowledge environmental management as a critical part of all development initiatives and activities. Climate change is an environmental issue and the path Zambia has taken is the right one.

But Zambia cannot do this alone. For that reason, the Lungu administration will keep its doors open to international investment in its renewable energy sector, working with global partners like the United States, the EU, Italy and Japan to modernise agricultural, water and disaster relief management practices, and will expand other existing engagements with multilateral institutions such as the Climate Investment Fund of the World Bank.

In Zambia, we are bringing together our best and brightest minds to debate the best and most feasible solutions. We are studying improvements that can be made in small-scale farming techniques and irrigation systems. We are looking at an accelerated installation of renewable energy systems, and we are examining food security resilience programmes, among numerous other proactive efforts to guard against the threat of climate change.

It is time for greater regional leadership on the climate change issue. We need strong voices to achieve determined action. If we don’t speak up soon, who will?

The author is Director General of the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA)

OPINION

In our beloved, land-locked nation of Zambia, the government has demonstrated encouraging foresight and pragmatism in guiding the country’s efforts to mitigate the causes of the climate crisis and, more relevant to low-emitting African states such as Zambia, adapt to the hazards it brings.

Although some of the world’s most powerful political figures are liable to deny it, we in Africa are living with the consequences of climate change every day in new ways. The impact is inescapable. Indeed, over the last several years, the 1.2 billion people living on our proud continent – the second largest population in the world – have suffered significantly the adverse effects of historic droughts, floods, storms and other severe weather events made ever more common by the warming of our planet.

The world’s climate scientists, economists, development specialists, urban planners, engineers and any number of other experts among society’s public, private and academic spheres agree that these unnatural weather patterns are, more likely than not, destined to become the norm in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

Their conclusion? Governments of the world must re-evaluate their national priorities, and allocate far greater attention and resources to adapting their respective economies to this new normal, a verdict that increasingly appears to be gaining traction.

This at least is the major takeaway from the recent 74th convening of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Here attendees focused nearly exclusively on climate change and how governments of the world can and should mobilise their political and economic resources to take action.

This, of course, is easier said than done. Sub-Saharan Africa needs leadership and international coordination on this issue, and both are in short supply.

The absence of urgency may be related to the fact that we are not the world’s worst polluters. Often discussed in recent years has been the region’s profound vulnerability to the hazards of climate change, despite being responsible for less than 5% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, and less than 2.5% of global cumulative CO2 emissions.

Yet it is we who are suffering. No one will soon forget the “Day Zero” water crisis in Cape Town that came after three years of drought. But the problems are diversifying in scope and range. Average climate change-induced temperature increases in the region are projected to be significantly higher than the global mean. And, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the same can be said for the duration, intensity and frequency of droughts and major storms, such as Cyclone Idai.

To make matters worse, while this alone is cause enough for alarm, sub-Saharan nations’ quickly growing population, insufficient infrastructure, lack of financial resources, institutional instability and over-dependence on industries highly exposed to climate change, such as agriculture and extractives, render the region ill-equipped to make the necessary adaptations.

Yet, against the odds, there are some exceptions.

In our beloved, land-locked nation of Zambia, the current government has demonstrated encouraging foresight and pragmatism in guiding the country’s efforts to mitigate the causes of climate change and, more relevant to low-emitting African states like Zambia, adapt to the hazards it brings. In an address to the legislature ahead of the UNGA earlier in September, 2019, President Edgar Lungu unveiled a sweeping plan for accelerating Zambia’s sustainable development that, among other things, is in line with the administration’s Vision 2030 development agenda, incorporates recommendations from the World Bank and other multilateral institutions, and has earned the approval of numerous civil society organisations, such as the WWF.

The timing could hardly have been more appropriate. The country’s agriculture industry, which contributes 19% of GDP and in 2017 employed 54.8% of the workforce, is facing a challenging period. Drought and weather changes have reduced harvests and strained electricity supply, and although we project a return of heavier rains in the near future, this is a situation we cannot allow to continue without determined action.

It’s understandable then why Lungu, with the support of government leaders from across the Zambian political spectrum, has made climate action one of his administration’s top priorities ahead of the next legislative session. The new climate agenda will build on government measures begun in earnest following a period of similarly adverse weather activity in 2016, particularly the 2017 National Climate Change Policy, which established a two-pronged scheme built on numerous complementary mitigation and adaptation strategies ranging from information dissemination to capacity building at every level of government.

The Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) is among the stakeholders playing a part in helping the country respond to negative impacts of climate change. As the principal environmental regulator, ZEMA looks to benefit from the political will demonstrated by Lungu to acknowledge environmental management as a critical part of all development initiatives and activities. Climate change is an environmental issue and the path Zambia has taken is the right one.

But Zambia cannot do this alone. For that reason, the Lungu administration will keep its doors open to international investment in its renewable energy sector, working with global partners like the United States, the EU, Italy and Japan to modernise agricultural, water and disaster relief management practices, and will expand other existing engagements with multilateral institutions such as the Climate Investment Fund of the World Bank.

In Zambia, we are bringing together our best and brightest minds to debate the best and most feasible solutions. We are studying improvements that can be made in small-scale farming techniques and irrigation systems. We are looking at an accelerated installation of renewable energy systems, and we are examining food security resilience programmes, among numerous other proactive efforts to guard against the threat of climate change.

It is time for greater regional leadership on the climate change issue. We need strong voices to achieve determined action. If we don’t speak up soon, who will?

The author is Director General of the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Delegates at the Africa Climate Risks Conference have been informed that groundwater is more resilient to extreme climatic conditions especially in arid and semi arid areas, contrary to earlier beliefs – that the resource was vulnerable to the changing climatic conditions.

“Through a project known as Groundwater Futures in Africa, we analysed the relationship between climate change and variability and groundwater in 14 sites in Africa,” Martin Todd, a Professor of Climate Change at the University of Sussex, Department of Geography.

 “What we found is that in arid regions, there was episodic recharge, which occur mainly as a result of intense storms that happen every few years, and sometimes even in years of low total precipitation,” said

This, according to the scientist, it means that climate plays a dominant role in controlling the process by which groundwater is restocked.

Generally, it means that extreme periodic flooding is what recharges aquifers in such arid and semi arid areas, providing a lifeline and livelihoods for people who depend on groundwater in such areas.

The findings, which have since been published in the Nature scientific journal contradicts the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which states that ‘climate change over the twenty-first century is projected to reduce renewable surface water and groundwater resources significantly in most dry subtropical regions, intensifying competition for water among sectors.’

According to Prof Todd, groundwater is generally overlooked in terms of climate impact, and it is also an overlooked resource in Africa and underutilised compared to other continents.

“With the rapid population growth and quest for development, there is going to be huge demand on water resources, and therefore we expect that groundwater is a resource that will be heavily developed in the future because climate change and variability is going to place increasing threat to surface water,” he said.

The new findings from the study, which was supported by the United Kingdom research councils (Natural Environment Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), the Department for International Development (DFID) and The Royal Society also highlight the need for improvements in models of climate and hydrology.

The report indicates that climate models that can better predict the variability and intensity of precipitation events at the local scale, as well as the large scale, would allow hydrological models to better represent replenishment processes.

Given a fact that extreme floods can be predicted up to nine months in advance, the researchers say that there is a possibility of designing schemes to enhance groundwater recharge by capturing a portion of flood discharges via a process known as Managed Aquifer Recharge.

According to the British Geological survey, successful and sustainable development of groundwater resources in Africa is critical for future safe water supplies, economic growth and food security in the continent.

The findings have come at a time several cities across the continent are beginning to exploit the groundwater, which has for long been considered a hidden resource.

So far, groundwater plays a central role in sustaining water supplies and livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa due to its widespread availability, generally high quality, and intrinsic ability to buffer episodes of drought and increasing climate variability.

Given the drying rivers and streams, and unpredictable rainfall patterns, groundwater is likely going to be a golden resource in Africa’s rural communities both for domestic consumption and irrigation.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Enhanced forest protection, improved forest and agricultural management, fuel-switching and efficient cooking and heating appliances can promote more sustainable biomass use and reduce land degradation in Africa.

The experts pointed this out at the 2019 Africa Climate Risk Conference (ACRC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, while addressing a team of African journalists at an event organised on the sidelines of the conference to discuss the importance of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) reports to Africa.

The training was organised by Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN).

Dr Tony Knowles and Dr James Kairo who authored the IPCC's Special Report on Land and Climate Change and the Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate respectively, took the journalists through what the report means for the African continent.

Dr Knowles, the Lead Author of the Report on Land and Climate Change said that land was a critical resource that people rely on for food, water, health and wellbeing, yet, it is already threatened by the growing population pressure and climate change.

“The time to act is now; delayed action will increase the costs of addressing land degradation, and can lead to irreversible biophysical and human outcomes,” said Dr Knowles.

In 2016, the IPCC decided to prepare a special report after member states and observer organisations were asked to submit views on potential themes for special reports during the current Sixth Assessment Report cycle. Nine clusters were considered on different themes, including land, cities, and oceans.  

The Special Report on Climate Change and Land represents the second largest cluster and covers seven proposals from member states and observer organisations that related to land.

When it was released in August 2019, the report showed that land is critically important as a source of greenhouse gas emissions and is also a solution to many problems caused by climate change.

According to Dr Knowles, population growth and changes in consumption of food, feed, fibre, timber and energy have caused unprecedented rates of land and freshwater use.

“We, humans, affect more than 70 percent of ice-free land.  A quarter of this land is degraded. The way we produce food and what we eat contributes to the loss of natural ecosystems and declining biodiversity,” said the lead author of the land report.

He noted that whenever land is degraded, it reduces the soil’s ability to take up carbon and this exacerbates climate change. “In turn, climate change exacerbates land degradation in many different ways,” he said.

Today, 500 million people worldwide live in areas that experience desertification, and such people are increasingly negatively affected by climate change.

According to research, desertification and changing climate are projected to cause reductions in crop and livestock productivity, modify the composition of plant species and reduce biological diversity across drylands. Rising CO2 levels will favour more rapid expansion of some invasive plant species in some regions.

So far, drylands cover about 46.2 percent of global land and are home to 3 billion people. As well, food systems, which include food production and processing, transport, retail, consumption, loss and waste, is currently responsible for up to a third of the global greenhouse gas emissions

Of the land degradation processes, deforestation, increasing wildfires, degradation of peat soils, and permafrost thawing contribute most to climate change through the release of greenhouse gases and the reduction in land carbon sinks following deforestation.

Dr Kairo, the author of the Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate pointed out that the IPCC special reports are about issues that merit explicit consideration out of the main reports.

“The special reports are designed to address policy relevant issues that may require input from a wide range of disciplines,” said Dr Kairo.

He said that the world’s ocean and cryosphere have been ‘taking the heat’ from climate change for decades. “Consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe,” he said.

He noted that smaller glaciers found, for example, in Europe, eastern Africa, the tropical Andes and Indonesia are projected to lose more than 80 percent of their current ice mass by 2100 if emissions continue to increase strongly.  
“As glaciers melt and snow cover shrinks, warm-adapted plant and animal species migrate upslope. Cold- and snow-adapted species decrease and risk eventual extinction, especially without conservation,“ said the researcher, noting that the retreat of the cryosphere will continue to adversely affect recreational activites, tourism and cultural assets.

According to Mairi Dupar, the CDKN Technical Advisor and Managing Editor Overseas Development Institute (ODI) overemphasized the critical role played by journalists in disseminating of climate change relate information.  

“CDKN will continue supporting journalists to ensure that they communicate climate science information to the relevant consumers for social and political development on the continent,” said Mairi.

The African Climate Risks Conference was organised by the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) in collaboration with the UKaid, the Science of the Environment (NERC) under the theme ‘Dismantling barriers to urgent climate adaptation action.’

The conference begun today and ends on Thursday at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.