OPINION
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - The next few days and weeks are arguably historic in the emerging sector of climate finance. On June 23-29th, Green Environment Fund (GEF) is holding the Sixth GEF Assembly in Vietnam. The GEF was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems. Since then, GEF has provided over $17.9billion in grants and mobilized another $93.2billion in co-financing for over 450 projects in 170countries. One of the global environmental challenges in question is climate change. This meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam paves way for its 7th funding cycle, commonly called GEF-7.
During the same week, 1st to 5th July, The Green Climate Fund(GCF), the most capitalized, hence the largest international environment fund (focused on climate change), has historic events lined up. The 20thquarterly GCF Board Meeting (dubbed B.20) will be in the Korean smart city of Songdo. The Board Approves applications for funding made by both public and private entities seeking to safeguard sectors and entire economies from adverse impacts of a changing climate.
A third fund, also created under the Kyoto Protocol of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) like GCF and GEF, is the Adaptation Fund. It helps countries build resilience and adapt to climate change. It has so far committed US$477million in 76countries since 2010.
Basics
Why should we even be talking about climate finance? Why is it becoming such a central topic in today’s global economy? It is because the climate has and is actually changing. What is causing this change is often open to debate. That the climate is changing is undisputed. Farmers are devastated by either too much rain or insufficient rain. Countries are unable to feed themselves because crops and livestock are failing year in year out. New diseases are developing and old ones spreading to geographical locations they never existed.
Sabotaged Development
So, countries often called developing or least developed(all African states fall under this) need to factor in the elusive climate risks. Kenya spent anunplanned KES245.3 billion (USD 2.45 Billion)in 2017 on foodstuff imports to address a food crisis because the country faced severe drought. In 2018, the country has faced the worst floods in 60years according to the Climate Change Resource Centre. What follows is famine because crops were destroyed. The infrastructure swept away will cost fortunes to fix and/repair. These resources would have gone to other development needs but have to be diverted to tackle these climate events and impacts leaving a big gap in financing national development like universal healthcare, manufacturing or education. So, climate change directly sabotages development. This financing gap is filled by climate finance.
The GCF
The GCF is now valued at USD 13billion. Applications for financial support can be made to the Fund, to implement transformational changes in their economies. For instance, most African states depend immensely on rainfed agriculture. The 2016 Climate Change Exposure Index (CCEI) by VeriskMaplecroft, a risk analytics firm, show that relying on rainfall posed “high” or “extreme” risks- up to 85 per cent. These risks mean economic shocks. Countries may therefore miss the sustainable development goals and national aspirations unless they mobilise sufficient climate finance to safeguard the economies.
GCF and Africa
To date, the GCF has 76 projects under implementation valued at USD1.4 billion. That is an average project size of USD 18.4million. Of these 76, only 28 (36.8%) are in Africa. Some African states have several projects funded. They include Egypt, Namibia, Morocco, Senegal, and Zambia with more than 10projects among themselves. Which leaves just 18 projects for the other over 45countries of Africa.
Since GCF is fairly new, the understanding and capacity in Africa to interact with the Fund remains acutely limited. The traditional methodologies of relying on external international entities such as UN Agencies and International Development Banks will not sufficiently deliver the urgent changes required to protect these fragile African economies from devastation. And GCF recognizes this. That is why they have a strong emphasis on Direct Access Entities, which are local institutions being accredited to help the country to directly access GCF resources. There is just a handful in Africa so far. Overall, the pace is wanting.
Current Players
There are organisations in Africa playing a crucial role of offering support to both countries and to accredited entities to access GCF and other climate finance. Dr.Aliou Diouf, head of Climate Finance at Africa Sustainability Centre (ASCENT) says, “GCF recognizes the work we do;currently supporting over a dozen countries in Africa to understand and access GCF funds. We also support Direct Access Entities and others like UNEP and IFAD to better support countries.
Zeph Kivungi is a Senior Programme Officer at the Africa Sustainability Centre (ASCENT).
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Cameroon journalists have been enjoined to take interest in reporting climate information data and services, cardinal instruments in development planning for policymakers and other stakeholders.
The call was made by officials of the African Climate Policy Center (ACPC) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Advanced School of Mass Communication, ASMAC Yaounde , at a two day workshop, June 25-26,2018 to enhance the reporting skills of communicators on the use of climate information services in development planning.
“The media has an important role to play in informing policymakers and end users on the use of climate services and data to better address environmental challenges,” says Professor Nana Nzepa, head of the Information technology department, ASMAC.
The overarching goal of enhancing the uptake of Climate Information Services (CIS) is geared at providing people and organizations with reliable, timely, user-friendly information tailored to reduce climate risks related losses as well as in capitalizing on emerging opportunities for development noted ACPC.
“Hence, factoring CIS into policy, planning and practices are crucial for Africa to achieve its development aspirations for enhanced trade competitiveness, reduced poverty and sustainable economic growth,” Journalists were told.
According to Charles Muraya, Information Management Officer ACPC, the uptake and use of climate info of CIS in Africa is influenced by the lack of reliable historical observations, coarse scale of future climate projections, weak coordinated CIS delivery, among others. On the side of the users, the main obstacles for poor uptake and utilization of CIS include limited awareness about the existence of specific climate information, poor data accessibility, and lack of capacity to use climate information in decision making processes.
“The media has not been very proactive in providing the correct information and in time for decision making. Engaging media in climate information dissemination is therefore an important step in ensuring that climate information is packaged in a form that can easily be understood and that it is also received in a timely manner,” he said.
It is against this backdrop that the training of over 30 journalists in Cameroon was organised under the theme" the use of the e-learning platform on climate information and services mainstreaming in the planning and economic development processes".
Participants were empowered using teaching tools and skills in the dissemination of climate information and services and the need to mainstream climate information in their different media content and programmes to better inform policymakers and end users.
“We expect you communicators to better advocate and sensitize legislators, decision-makers, the private sector, investors and other stakeholders on the issue and role of Climate Information Services (CIS) in development planning processes,” says Professor Nana Nzepa.
“But to do this you must first of all understand the basic notion of climate information services and data,” he said.
The different participants from community radio, national and private newspapers, radio and television appreciated the training, acknowledging its importance amidst growing climate threats.
“ It is time for the voices of Journalists to be heard in the fight against climate change, thanks to the two days training I now know the importance of climate information services,” notes Jean Didier Ayisi, journalist and workshop participant.
Cameroon just like many African countries today suffer from the effects of climate change with many economic and social sectors increasingly vulnerable to floods, droughts, heavy winds among other calamities.
Environment experts say the dissemination of climate information services by the media for the benefit of specific users remains essential to support Africa's response to climate change.
“The fight against climate change can only be effective if decision makers and especially the population have ample climate related information,” says Augustine Njamnshi of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, PACJA Cameroon.
Development actors say innovative ways of delivering CIS initiatives that provide science-informed solutions is vital for the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Africa.
Thus investment in the deployment of robust climate information and services delivery system for the effective implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and associated mechanisms established through the global climate governance processes is crucial according to ACPC.
The Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) was designed by the UK Department for International Development (DfiD) in 2015 to facilitate the uptake of climate information by policymakers and vulnerable groups especially young people and women. Its pan-African component is led by the African Center for Climate Policy (ACPC), which is a hub for demand led knowledge on climate change in Africa.
Heat waves and droughts in the tropics would make life unbearable for people living near felled forests in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa; Climate agreements only tackle half the climate threat to forests
OSLO, Norway (PAMACC News) — An emerging body of research on the non-carbon impacts of deforestation reveals that destroying tropical forests significantly alters the Earth’s delicate energy balance, rainfall, and wind systems, leading to warmer and drier conditions near cleared forests and out-of-whack weather patterns across the globe, according to a new report by leading forest experts to be released at a major global forest gathering on June 27, 2018.
The research suggests these “new” impacts of deforestation, rooted in the flow of solar energy through forests across the upper atmosphere, disruptions to the atmosphere’s chemical cocktail, and dramatic declines in water cycling are just as damaging to the climate as the carbon released into the atmosphere when trees are cut down.
“We’ve known for a long time that chopping down tropical forests spews dangerous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere,” said Nancy Harris, Research Manager of the Forests program at the World Resources Institute and working paper co-author.. “Now we are learning that removing trees from the earth’s surface also throws off the energy, water and chemical balances that make it possible for us to grow food and live our lives in predictable and productive ways. If we continue to cut down trees, we’ll have to rewrite what we know about the weather—and we can forget about global goals to keep temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
The working paper, “Tropical Forests and Climate Change: The Latest Science,” is one of nine studies released today at the opening of the two-day Oslo Tropical Forest Forum, an event hosted by the Norwegian government to celebrate results and identify remaining challenges 10 years after reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) was included in the climate change negotiations, and to advance strategies for mobilizing forests to help achieve the ambitions of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The working paper synthesizes findings from a slew of recent studies that, when they come together, conclude that large-scale forest loss in any of the three major tropical forest zones— Latin America, Southeast Asia and Central Africa—would lead to a rise in local temperatures, and disruptions to the water cycle locally and half a world away. These studies use sophisticated modeling to determine the physical, chemical and reflective impacts of removing forests from the surface of the earth en masse, and satellites to measure the changes that have already happened. “When you add up these impacts of forest loss, one thing is clear: people living closest to deforested areas face a hotter, drier reality,” said Harris. “These changes won’t hit Brazilians, Indonesians, or Congolese sometime in the future—they are hitting them now, and they’ll only get worse as more forests disappear.”
Areas in the tropics that experienced deforestation in the last decade have seen significant and long-lasting increases in local air surface temperatures. “Observed local temperature impacts of deforestation are in one direction: hotter,” said Michael Wolosin, Forest Climate Analytics’ President and working paper co-author. “Daily average temperatures went up by a degree, and maximum temperatures by 2 degrees C, in just a decade. Over the same period, the global carbon and GHG impact was less than one fifth as much – 0.2 degrees C. Deforestation is wreaking havoc on local climates across the tropics.”
The Amazon region of South America, home of the world’s largest rainforest, would feel the most heat and drought from forest loss. Complete deforestation would lead to regional warming of about two degrees Celsius and a roughly 15 percent drop in annual rainfall. Researchers have already linked the 2015 drought that hit Brazil, impacting people, crops and industry, to forest loss in the Amazon.
“In its focus on ending greenhouse gas emissions, the Paris Agreement only takes the first step in addressing the drastic consequences of deforestation on the climate,” saidWolosin. “If global and national policymakers fail to come up with an action plan for staving off the immediate and debilitating impact of deforestation on local and global weather patterns, they could put the lives of millions in peril. The question is, what’s more important – the short-term income generated from fields after fields of soy or palm oil, or a stable, predictable weather patterns for generations to come?”
Tropical forests drive the global movement of air, water, and heat in diverse ways, leading to profound impacts on the climate. Through the process of evapotranspiration, trees pump water from their roots through their leaves as water vapor, humidifying the air and causing surface cooling. Because forests have more leaf surface area and deeper roots than grasslands or croplands, they cycle more water. The water pumped through a single tree can cause local surface cooling equivalent to 70 kWh for every 100 liters, enough energy to power two household central air-conditioners per day. Removing these trees can lead to local flooding, soil erosion and droughts.
Impacts from these tropical forest cover changes on water and heat cycling extend well beyond the tropical regions themselves through “teleconnections”, associated with the mass movement of air and conditions in the upper atmosphere. An increase in temperature in the tropics due to deforestation generates large upward-moving air masses. When these hit the upper atmosphere they cause ripples, or teleconnections, that flow outward in various directions, similar to the way an underwater earthquake can create a tsunami.
According to one landmark study about this phenomenon, complete deforestation could put the climate in some of the world’s most important agriculture regions off kilter. These variations in rainfall and spikes in temperature could occur across the world. For example, complete deforestation of the Amazon Basin would likely reduce rainfall in the US Midwest, Northwest and parts of the south during the agricultural season. The complete deforestation of Central Africa would likely cause declines in rainfall in the Gulf of Mexico and parts of the US Midwest and Northwest and increase it on the Arabian Peninsula. There could also be precipitation declines in Ukraine and Southern Europe.
“Halting deforestation, allowing damaged forests to grow back, and keeping undisturbed forests intact, are necessary to ensure the stability of the climate” said Frances Seymour, Program Chair of the Oslo Tropical Forests Forum and lead author of Why Forests? Why Now?. “Fortunately, we know a lot about ways to stop deforestation, but developing countries can’t do this alone. Donor countries should ramp up funding of efforts by tropical forest nations to halt deforestation, and address the global consumption, trade and investment patterns that drive forest loss.”
ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Hundreds of illegally imported mattresses confiscated by Ghana’s customs authority were recently burnt openly at a landfill site.
The destruction of the impounded goods is in line with laws prohibiting the entry of used mattresses into the country.
It is common place to see thousands of cartons of cigarette, canned food, drugs, wax prints and other restricted or unwholesome goods burnt openly.
Environmental concerns have however been raised about the practice of burning such materials, due to the gases emitted into the atmosphere.
Kwaku Abeeku, who manages Green Energy and Logistics Consults, says Ghana as a signatory to various international agreements on climate change, including the Paris Agreement, must reconsider alternatives to the burning of impounded goods as soon as possible.
“In the case of these open burns, aside the issue of Carbon Monoxide, these imported mattresses are mainly synthetic foams containing petroleum based chemicals and sometimes even fire retardants,” he observed. “Aside emissions, people living in the immediate environments of these burn sites and the country at large are put in a rather bad situation as we commit to global moves in combating climate change”.
Ghana, in its international obligations as a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is guided by its own commitments in the nationally determined contribution (NDC) to climate change mitigation.
As an obligation at the multilateral level, Ghana reaffirms its resolve to support global efforts to define a common future that seeks to safeguard the collective interest of all nations by supporting the 2015 Paris global agreement on climate change.
The implementation of climate actions is expected to help attain low carbon climate resilience through effective adaptation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction.
In 2017, Ghana at the UN Conference of Parties (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, pledged the country’s commitment to help combat climate change and adapt to its effects.
The destruction of contraband mattresses, clothing, food and pharmaceutical products through open burning is therefore regarded as negating the country’s commitment to climate mitigation.
Kwaku Abeeku has challenged the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and other institutions responsible for best environmental practices to help halt the open burning of materials.
“I believe the time to make climate and environmental concern a culture and environmental responsiveness a mandatorily measured policy is now,” he said.
ASHANTI, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Timeabu, a farming community in the Ashanti region of Ghana, has in the past experienced levels of devastation of cocoa trees as a result of bad weather and poor rainfall with adverse impact on production.
To protect dying cocoa trees and the local ecology, the Centre for Climate Change and Food Security (CCCFS), a Ghanaian-based non-governmental organization, has adopted the community to pilot a tree planting program.
Since December 2017, the Centre has planted 200 trees on cocoa farms and other areas of the community, in addition to sensitization on best farming practices.
A beneficiary, Nana Dasebere Boama Darko, says the farmers are excited the trees will relieve them of severe weather condition and help provide the needed shade to nourish their crops.
The Centre plans to extend the exercise to other communities across the country.
“Protecting the ecology is very important. We are likely to live a shameful life if trees continue to die everyday,” said Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen, Executive Director of CCCFS. “Planting of the trees is also to sequester carbon, and help remove carbon dioxide from the air, which cools the earth.”
Despite their importance to life, humans have cut down half of the world's trees.
“Every year we cut down over 50,000 square miles of forest worldwide for paper, agriculture, building materials and fuel,” observed Mohammed-Nurudeen.
Several research have proven that carbon release from deforestation accounts for 25 to 30 percent of the four to five billion tons of carbon accumulating every year in the atmosphere from human activities.
Ghana Bureau Chief of ClimateReporters, Kofi Adu Domfeh, who is among lead supporters of the tree planting exercise, emphasized the need to put the trees back “any way we can, as fast as we can”.
“What you may not know is that trees also build soil and offer energy-saving shade that reduces global warming,” he said. “We want to create habitat for thousands of different species and also help to reduce ozone levels.”
The initiative is also supported by the Economy for the Common Good and senior officers of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Fuad Mohammed and Asante Abednago, who have committed to the community outreach to help rural farmers contribute to the government's target of producing one million tonnes of cocoa.
The CCCFS aims to provide enabling environment for all species, make issues of food security relevant and tackle climate change head-on to make Ghana a better place to live.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - In the face of multiple urban climate challenges with rising temperatures ,persistent floods , drought and other climate threats that are menacing Cameroon’s major cities , the government is multiplying efforts for a green city drive as the country prepares to host the 2019 African Nations Cup.
Authorities say they have pledged to steer deforested cities from edge of climate disasters with a multi-facet urban city greening project.
"It is our responsibility to give our cities the much needed environmental facelift and make them safe now and in the future," says the minister of forestry and wildlife , Jules Doret Ndongo , at the launching of the 2018 tree planting season in Bertoua in the East region, May 4th.
The Minister of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development in collaboration with WWF and partners, on May 28 2018, on his part mounted the first ever giant biodiversity poster in the 2 international airports in Cameroon to walk the green city talk.
The event accordingly marked the end of 2018 biodiversity day celebrations and beginning of World Environment Day celebrations in Cameroon.
Environment experts say Cameroon has multiplied investment efforts in recent years in line with the government’s drive towards economic emergence by 2035 ,triggering rapid disappearance of its forested areas with expanding urbanization and population surge in most cities.
"Cameroon is on the move with multiple investments as the country pushes towards economic emergence. Unfortunate this also means sacrificing huge forested areas where these projects are located," says Zachee Nzoh Ngandembou,CEO of the Centre for Environment and Rural Transformation,CERUT, an NGO that promotes rural development in Cameroon.
A report by Global Forest Watch shows forest loss in Cameroon of 777,000 hectares between 2001 and 2015.
Experts say the deforestation has since 2016 aggravated with heavy investment projects in cities following Cameroon’s preparation to host the 2019 African Cup of Nations Games. Many of these infrastructures in roads, stadia and other sports training grounds,hotels ,urban housing scheme etc have seen large portions of hitherto forest lands sacrificed exposing many cities to scorching heat and high temperatures and other climate extremes.
"Forest losses not only hurt ecosystems and drive climate change but put the livelihood of millions of city dwellers in danger," says Paul Donfack, a consultant with the African Forest Forum.
The environmental impact of forest loss is really immeasurable with extreme weather like rising city temperatures, heavy floods, droughts and water shortages thus putting the lives of vulnerable population at risk, he says.
But the government is hoping the new urban greening forests project will help cities catch up with the loses.
"The new urban reforestation project will help boost the tree planting schemes launched by the government in 2017," says Bruno Mfou’ou Mfou’ou, director of forestry in the ministry of forestry and wildlife.
The government in 2017 launched a project to restore 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of deforested land to redress the challenges of dwindling forests and help mitigate the effects of climate change, he said.
"The urban city greening scheme is an addition to boost what the government started in 2017," Bruno said.
The sum of over 600million FCFA annual support to the selected city councils has been earmarked, he disclosed.
The project will assist councils deal with deforestation, climate extreme problems from flooding,drought and increasing temperatures, to water shortages as most city population and urbanization continue to swell.
« The city greening project will involve tree planting principlally targeting flood-prone areas, multiple recreational spots as well as the drought stricken Cameroon’s northern regions, » Minister Jules Doret Ndongo said.
The government accordingly has not been left alone in the city greening excercise experts say.
Earlier on March 21, during activities to celebrate International Forest Day forest stakeholders in Yaounde led by Green Peace and international NGO , launched a pilot green space project at the Baptist High School- Awai.
The forest experts called on the government to put in place national policies that will support sensitisation efforts about the importance of trees in urban cities.
" We call on the Cameroon government to institute a national policy that will ensure sustainable tree in cities," said Greenpeace Africa’s Environmental Ambassador, Biakolo Onana Alain.
Greenpeace Africa Forest Campaigner, Sylvie Djacbou emphasised on the need to protect the Congo Basin Forest. “By its sheer size, the Congo Basin Forest serves as a large carbon reservoir of global significance for regulating greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide. Greenpeace stands with local and indigenous communities to protect the forest against illegal industrial agriculture and land grabbing,” concluded Djacbou.
According to the government project plan,the multi-faceted scheme that will also boost the forest in the Congo Basin region,involve not only the planting of some 600.000 trees anually for the next five years but also supporting some water supply projects like rain water harvesting, boreholds as well as draining schemes and sewage disposal began by some city councils like Douala and Yaounde.
Council authorities say multiplying tree-replete recreational spots in cities will help inhabitants find safe havens against rising city temperatures and set refforestation examples that could be replicated in other coutries in the Congo Basin region.
Environment experts have saluted the scheme to engage city councils on a genuine green economy path that offers solutions for both climate and agriculture challenges.
« It is economically advanatageous if projects like these are owned and run by local councils.This is attractive for green private sector investments more generally, » says Augustine Njamnshi ,CEO of Bio-Resource Centre an NGO on environment in Yaounde.
Many cities in Cameroon like Doaual and Yaounde have recently suffered from water shortages, floods and other climate challenges attributed to disappearing forest.
In 2017 several roads and buildings in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala were submerged following days of heavy rains, trapping several residents in their homes for days.
Experts say this has been a common phenomenon across Africa.
According to a 2017 report by Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings Institute,Africa contains 7 out of the 10 countries that are considered the most threatened by climate change globally.
Extreme weather events are taking a toll on African cities which are growing rapidly and threatening the livelihoods of millions of people across the continent, the report says
The goverment local councils are however hopeful the green city project will help these cities find ways to combat these climate triggered challenges.
According to the government delegate to the Limbe Urban Council, the Green City project will in the long term make the touristic coastal town even more attractive to tourists and other visitors who love greeneries.
« Limbe is a town of friendhip and we are hopefull the creation of new green spaces will come to swell our visitors especially those who love greeneries, » says Andrew Motanga, government delegate to the Yaounde city council.
