BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - There is no agreed definition of "Loss and damage" in the international climate negotiations. However, according to Climate Promise, the term can refer to the unavoidable impacts of climate change that occur despite, or in the absence of, mitigation and adaptation. Importantly, it highlights that there are limits to what adaptation can accomplish; when tipping point thresholds are crossed, climate change impacts can become unavoidable.

Loss and damage can refer to both economic and non-economic losses. Economic loss and damage can include costs of rebuilding infrastructure that has repeatedly been damaged due to cyclones or floods or the loss of coastline land (and homes and businesses) due to sea-level rise and coastal erosion.

Non-economic loss and damage include negative impacts that are not easily assigned a monetary value. This can include trauma from experiencing a climate-related natural disaster, loss of life, the displacement of communities, loss of history and culture or loss of biodiversity.

It must be stated that such extreme climate-related events have become more frequent and intense in recent years.

A more recent example is Cyclone Freddy, which hit Southern Africa in February and March 2023 and was scientifically described as record-breaking in strength, length, and resurgence. It left over 1.5 million people displaced in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

In Malawi alone, Cyclone Freddy, which was also exceptionally one of the long-lived storms that traversed the southern Indian Ocean for more than five weeks, killed over 1000 people. Freddy is both the longest-lasting and highest-ACE-producing tropical cyclone ever recorded worldwide.

In support of vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters, a landmark decision on loss and damage funding was agreed at the 27^th session of the Conference of Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“This outcome moves us forward,” said Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary at the COP27 closing plenary. “We have determined a way forward on a decades-long conversation on funding for loss and damage – deliberating over how we address the impacts on communities whose lives and livelihoods have been ruined by the very worst impacts of climate change.”

Governments took the ground-breaking decision to establish new funding arrangements, as well as a dedicated fund, to assist developing countries in responding to loss and damage. Parties also agreed to establish a ‘Transitional Committee’ to make recommendations on operationalising both the new funding arrangements and the fund at COP28, later this year.

The said Transitional Committee on the operationalisation of the new funding arrangements and the fund was established, to make recommendations for consideration and adoption at COP 28.

At the Bonn Climate Conference of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB58) currently taking place, Parties are deliberating on critical issues for this vital agenda item, and the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) has made its stance clear.

“The Africa Group underlines the significance of the outcome of the Glasgow Dialogue for informing the recommendations of the Transitional Committee to the COP on the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund,” said Ephraim Mwepya Shitima, Chair of the AGN. “In this regard, the Group looks forward to engaging in a fruitful discussion with Parties in the Dialogue during this session.”

In view of another equally important agenda item for Africa, the Global Stocktake (GST), Shitima emphasised the need for the GST to dedicate sufficient time to consider loss and damage, separate from the adaptation discussion. “The Group underlines that the outcome of the Global Stocktake should provide clear guidance for bridging gaps and addressing challenges related to averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage in developing countries,” he said.

The global stocktake is a Party-driven process conducted transparently and with the participation of non-Party stakeholders, that enables countries and other stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement – and where they’re not.

With a growing list and frequency of climate-related disasters, the UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, believes loss and damage funding is a lifeline for billions of people, especially across the developing world.

In his remarks at the opening of the 2nd Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage, Stiell highlighted the importance of loss and damage.

Simon Stiell said: “This year will be decisive for climate action. The global stocktake at COP28 will assess our implementation of the commitments we have made since the adoption of the Paris Agreement and give us a view of how to course-correct to meet them. We are already facing serious impacts. Floods are washing away entire villages, wildfires are devastating communities, and droughts are fueling famines in some of the world’s most vulnerable nations. The agreement in Sharm El Sheikh to set up new funding arrangements and a fund for loss and damage was only the first step. We are talking about funding, yes. But these arrangements can translate into real, life-saving change for billions of people. The loss and damage funding arrangements are a lifeline for vulnerable people and places.”

BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - There is no agreed definition of "Loss and damage" in the international climate negotiations. However, according to Climate Promise, the term can refer to the unavoidable impacts of climate change that occur despite, or in the absence of, mitigation and adaptation. Importantly, it highlights that there are limits to what adaptation can accomplish; when tipping point thresholds are crossed, climate change impacts can become unavoidable.

Loss and damage can refer to both economic and non-economic losses. Economic loss and damage can include costs of rebuilding infrastructure that has repeatedly been damaged due to cyclones or floods or the loss of coastline land (and homes and businesses) due to sea-level rise and coastal erosion.

Non-economic loss and damage include negative impacts that are not easily assigned a monetary value. This can include trauma from experiencing a climate-related natural disaster, loss of life, the displacement of communities, loss of history and culture or loss of biodiversity.

It must be stated that such extreme climate-related events have become more frequent and intense in recent years.

A more recent example is Cyclone Freddy, which hit Southern Africa in February and March 2023 and was scientifically described as record-breaking in strength, length, and resurgence. It left over 1.5 million people displaced in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

In Malawi alone, Cyclone Freddy, which was also exceptionally one of the long-lived storms that traversed the southern Indian Ocean for more than five weeks, killed over 1000 people. Freddy is both the longest-lasting and highest-ACE-producing tropical cyclone ever recorded worldwide.

In support of vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters, a landmark decision on loss and damage funding was agreed at the 27^th session of the Conference of Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“This outcome moves us forward,” said Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary at the COP27 closing plenary. “We have determined a way forward on a decades-long conversation on funding for loss and damage – deliberating over how we address the impacts on communities whose lives and livelihoods have been ruined by the very worst impacts of climate change.”

Governments took the ground-breaking decision to establish new funding arrangements, as well as a dedicated fund, to assist developing countries in responding to loss and damage. Parties also agreed to establish a ‘Transitional Committee’ to make recommendations on operationalising both the new funding arrangements and the fund at COP28, later this year.

The said Transitional Committee on the operationalisation of the new funding arrangements and the fund was established, to make recommendations for consideration and adoption at COP 28.

At the Bonn Climate Conference of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB58) currently taking place, Parties are deliberating on critical issues for this vital agenda item, and the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) has made its stance clear.

“The Africa Group underlines the significance of the outcome of the Glasgow Dialogue for informing the recommendations of the Transitional Committee to the COP on the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund,” said Ephraim Mwepya Shitima, Chair of the AGN. “In this regard, the Group looks forward to engaging in a fruitful discussion with Parties in the Dialogue during this session.”

In view of another equally important agenda item for Africa, the Global Stocktake (GST), Shitima emphasised the need for the GST to dedicate sufficient time to consider loss and damage, separate from the adaptation discussion. “The Group underlines that the outcome of the Global Stocktake should provide clear guidance for bridging gaps and addressing challenges related to averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage in developing countries,” he said.

The global stocktake is a Party-driven process conducted transparently and with the participation of non-Party stakeholders, that enables countries and other stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement – and where they’re not.

With a growing list and frequency of climate-related disasters, the UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, believes loss and damage funding is a lifeline for billions of people, especially across the developing world.

In his remarks at the opening of the 2nd Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage, Stiell highlighted the importance of loss and damage.

Simon Stiell said: “This year will be decisive for climate action. The global stocktake at COP28 will assess our implementation of the commitments we have made since the adoption of the Paris Agreement and give us a view of how to course-correct to meet them. We are already facing serious impacts. Floods are washing away entire villages, wildfires are devastating communities, and droughts are fueling famines in some of the world’s most vulnerable nations. The agreement in Sharm El Sheikh to set up new funding arrangements and a fund for loss and damage was only the first step. We are talking about funding, yes. But these arrangements can translate into real, life-saving change for billions of people. The loss and damage funding arrangements are a lifeline for vulnerable people and places.”

EMBU, Kenya, BONN Germany (PAMACC News) - Over 4000 smallholder farmers who practice Regenerative Agriculture in Embu County have enrolled to a project that will see them start earning annual income just for having particular trees on their farms.

This comes as Africa Group of Negotiators at the ongoing climate talks in Bonn, Germany strive to come up with rules that ensure fairness in the carbon markets particularly for smallholders in less developed countries.                                                                                                  

Through an initiative by the Dutch based Rabobank to trade Carbon Removal Units (CRUs), dubbed Agroforestry CRUs for the Organic Restoration of Nature (ACORN), 4,096 farmers from the county will soon start earning not less than 20 Euros (Sh3000) per ton of carbon stored in trees on their farms when their carbon credits get monetized.

“ACORN will remotely measure the sequestered carbon and sell the CRUs in the voluntary carbon market,” said Patrick Nyaga of Farm Africa, which is implementing the project in collaboration with the County Government of Embu.

He pointed out that a farmer with180 mix of agroforestry trees such as Glericidia, Calliandra, Sesbania, Leucaena, Acacia, fruit and nut trees on one hectare of land will stand a chance to earn at least 120 Euros (Sh18,000) per year per hectare depending on the size and type of the trees on the farm.

In this scheme, farmers will receive up to 80 percent of the sales of the CRUs where each CRU represents one ton of carbon dioxide that has been removed from the atmosphere and stored into tree biomass. The payment will be partly in cash and partly in-kind (form of seedlings or beehives).

Recent transactions in the carbon market were between 20 Euros (Sh3,000) to 31 Euros (Sh4,650) per CRU. Based on the prevailing prices, an average farmer in Embu County can sequester between zero and six CRUs per year, which translates to a maximum of Sh27,900, and a minimum or Sh18,000 for the best performing farmers.

“However, given the unique circumstances of every farmer and plot of land, no specific numbers can be given at the moment,” said Nyaga.

Carbon markets, according to the United Nations (UN) are trading systems in which carbon credits are sold and bought. A carbon credit is therefore a reduction or removal of emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere.

However, some African civil society activists have observed that the carbon credits are underpriced, and therefore a false solution for African smallholders. “This is a situation where these smallholders are actually being paid by someone else to carry their responsibility for polluting the environment consequently causing climate change,” Charles Mwangi, the Head of Programs and Research at the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) told PAMACC at the SB Climate Conference in Bonn.

“Here at PACJA, we have our reservations because if this is supposed to be a business, we believe smallholders are investing so much in terms of manpower, the cost of maintaining the trees, and most important, the foregone investments on the land were the trees are planted for the sake of carbon sequestration, yet they end up earning so little for every ton of carbon that is absorbed by the trees,” he told the Climate Action Magazine at the ongoing UN Conference on Climate Change in Bonn, Germany.

However, he noted that the only advantage is that the schemes, which also include the REDD+ are giving the African smallholders an opportunity to sustainably manage the forest ecosystems and biodiversity, but “we cannot afford to do that solely because of carbon credits,” said Mwangi.

So far, the UN reports that the current supply of voluntary carbon credits comes mostly from private entities that develop carbon projects, or governments that develop programs certified by carbon standards that generate emission reductions and/or removals.

And the demand for those carbon credits comes from corporate entities especially in the developed world who are emitting volumes of carbon, but would like to compensate for their carbon footprints. It also included corporations with corporate sustainability targets, and other actors aiming to trade credits at a higher price to make a profit.

Generally, carbon is captured from the atmosphere and stored in trees, and can only be released back to the atmosphere when the trees are burned in form of firewood or charcoal. Fruit trees can therefore store carbon for a very long time because the primary objective is to harvest fruits and nuts, and not to cut down the trees for fuel.

“In our project here in Embu, the minimum approved piece of land is 0.1 hectares, and the maximum is 10 hectares,” said Njagi.

One of the eligibility criteria is that farmers must have new agroforestry and/or existing agroforestry trees planted within the past five years, as a way of motivating farmers to plant as many trees as possible so as to increase the volume of carbon to be captured, which will be translated into cash.

To succeed in mobilising the farmers, Farm Africa engaged the services of Village Based Advisors (VBAs) – who are trained but commercially motivated private agricultural extension service providers, to do ecological zoning and to collect data from eligible participants.

“All farmer information was captured through a mobile phone App, which then relayed the data to ACORN data bank in the real-time, thereby linking the farm to remote sensing tools,” said Moses Mbogo, one of the VBAs in Embu County.

According to Muthoni Nyaga, another VBA from the area, women are currently the most proactive farmers in the project. “Most of the farmers we registered are women, and this went down well for us because ownership of the land title deed was not a must as long as the farmer can formally or informally prove that they are owners of the piece of land,” she said.

Steve Njagi, an Agricultural Officer in Embu County observed that the motivation for farmers to plant more agroforestry trees for carbon credit is a good mitigation measure for the climate emergency.

“This is in line with the government’s agenda to plant 5 billion trees as a way of combating climate change,” said Njagi.

A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has pointed out that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – which includes carbon dioxide are still rising across all major sectors globally, and this is going to have devastating impact especially on the African continent in the near future.

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EMBU, Kenya, BONN Germany (PAMACC News) - Over 4000 smallholder farmers who practice Regenerative Agriculture in Embu County have enrolled to a project that will see them start earning annual income just for having particular trees on their farms.

This comes as Africa Group of Negotiators at the ongoing climate talks in Bonn, Germany strive to come up with rules that ensure fairness in the carbon markets particularly for smallholders in less developed countries.                                                                                                  

Through an initiative by the Dutch based Rabobank to trade Carbon Removal Units (CRUs), dubbed Agroforestry CRUs for the Organic Restoration of Nature (ACORN), 4,096 farmers from the county will soon start earning not less than 20 Euros (Sh3000) per ton of carbon stored in trees on their farms when their carbon credits get monetized.

“ACORN will remotely measure the sequestered carbon and sell the CRUs in the voluntary carbon market,” said Patrick Nyaga of Farm Africa, which is implementing the project in collaboration with the County Government of Embu.

He pointed out that a farmer with180 mix of agroforestry trees such as Glericidia, Calliandra, Sesbania, Leucaena, Acacia, fruit and nut trees on one hectare of land will stand a chance to earn at least 120 Euros (Sh18,000) per year per hectare depending on the size and type of the trees on the farm.

In this scheme, farmers will receive up to 80 percent of the sales of the CRUs where each CRU represents one ton of carbon dioxide that has been removed from the atmosphere and stored into tree biomass. The payment will be partly in cash and partly in-kind (form of seedlings or beehives).

Recent transactions in the carbon market were between 20 Euros (Sh3,000) to 31 Euros (Sh4,650) per CRU. Based on the prevailing prices, an average farmer in Embu County can sequester between zero and six CRUs per year, which translates to a maximum of Sh27,900, and a minimum or Sh18,000 for the best performing farmers.

“However, given the unique circumstances of every farmer and plot of land, no specific numbers can be given at the moment,” said Nyaga.

Carbon markets, according to the United Nations (UN) are trading systems in which carbon credits are sold and bought. A carbon credit is therefore a reduction or removal of emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere.

However, some African civil society activists have observed that the carbon credits are underpriced, and therefore a false solution for African smallholders. “This is a situation where these smallholders are actually being paid by someone else to carry their responsibility for polluting the environment consequently causing climate change,” Charles Mwangi, the Head of Programs and Research at the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) told PAMACC at the SB Climate Conference in Bonn.

“Here at PACJA, we have our reservations because if this is supposed to be a business, we believe smallholders are investing so much in terms of manpower, the cost of maintaining the trees, and most important, the foregone investments on the land were the trees are planted for the sake of carbon sequestration, yet they end up earning so little for every ton of carbon that is absorbed by the trees,” he told the Climate Action Magazine at the ongoing UN Conference on Climate Change in Bonn, Germany.

However, he noted that the only advantage is that the schemes, which also include the REDD+ are giving the African smallholders an opportunity to sustainably manage the forest ecosystems and biodiversity, but “we cannot afford to do that solely because of carbon credits,” said Mwangi.

So far, the UN reports that the current supply of voluntary carbon credits comes mostly from private entities that develop carbon projects, or governments that develop programs certified by carbon standards that generate emission reductions and/or removals.

And the demand for those carbon credits comes from corporate entities especially in the developed world who are emitting volumes of carbon, but would like to compensate for their carbon footprints. It also included corporations with corporate sustainability targets, and other actors aiming to trade credits at a higher price to make a profit.

Generally, carbon is captured from the atmosphere and stored in trees, and can only be released back to the atmosphere when the trees are burned in form of firewood or charcoal. Fruit trees can therefore store carbon for a very long time because the primary objective is to harvest fruits and nuts, and not to cut down the trees for fuel.

“In our project here in Embu, the minimum approved piece of land is 0.1 hectares, and the maximum is 10 hectares,” said Njagi.

One of the eligibility criteria is that farmers must have new agroforestry and/or existing agroforestry trees planted within the past five years, as a way of motivating farmers to plant as many trees as possible so as to increase the volume of carbon to be captured, which will be translated into cash.

To succeed in mobilising the farmers, Farm Africa engaged the services of Village Based Advisors (VBAs) – who are trained but commercially motivated private agricultural extension service providers, to do ecological zoning and to collect data from eligible participants.

“All farmer information was captured through a mobile phone App, which then relayed the data to ACORN data bank in the real-time, thereby linking the farm to remote sensing tools,” said Moses Mbogo, one of the VBAs in Embu County.

According to Muthoni Nyaga, another VBA from the area, women are currently the most proactive farmers in the project. “Most of the farmers we registered are women, and this went down well for us because ownership of the land title deed was not a must as long as the farmer can formally or informally prove that they are owners of the piece of land,” she said.

Steve Njagi, an Agricultural Officer in Embu County observed that the motivation for farmers to plant more agroforestry trees for carbon credit is a good mitigation measure for the climate emergency.

“This is in line with the government’s agenda to plant 5 billion trees as a way of combating climate change,” said Njagi.

A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has pointed out that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – which includes carbon dioxide are still rising across all major sectors globally, and this is going to have devastating impact especially on the African continent in the near future.

____________________________