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…

Experts meet to share latest climate research on African climate The African Climate Risks Conference (ACRC) will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 7 to 9 October 2019. It is an open platform for sharing latest climate research on African climate among researchers, and with policy makers, practitioners and development partners. First International Africa-China Forest governance WorkshopFirst China-Africa dialogue workshop on forest governance jointly organized by the African Forest Policies and Politics (AFORPOLIS) and the Global Environmental Institute (GEI) in partnership with the University of Göttingen in Germany, the University of Dschang in Cameroon, the IUFRO, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the CBFP, the CIFOR, and the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife. (MINFOF) - Cameroon. UN Climate Summit; African Heads of state to reinforce preservation of Congo Basin Forest. African Heads of State at UN Climate conference in New York present measures to preserve or expand forests in the Congo Basin. DRC, Gabon, Ethiopia or Congo-Brazzaville, for instance presented short or medium term plans to phase out diesel or coal-fueled power plants and fast-track the transition towards clean energy in the next ten or twenty years just like Djibouti, the Seychelles and Nigeria. Civil Society gears up to observe special day, 18 Dec. 2019 Civil society organisations are gearing up to observe special forest conservation day come 18th November, 2019. The overall aim is to provide a framework for the members of the said College to take ownership of emerging themes relating to conservation, sustainable forest management, the fight against climate change and better livelihoods for forest communities. This accordingly will permit develop in a participatory manner, standards and indicators for a monitoring and evaluation system to enable each country and the sub-region to assess the impact of the projects and investments implemented to foster conservation, and for the benefit of the GDF, the fight against climate change and IPCLs. CNN-Gabon receives $150 million to preserve its rainforest In an effort to fight climate change, the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) has announced that Gabon will be paid $150 million in international funds to preserve its rainforest. Through the initiative, Norway will support Gabon with the funds to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and battle deforestation. The announcement was made at the Climate Action Summit in New York, where world leaders gathered to discuss how to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions

NEW YORK, USA (PAMACC News) - A meeting of ministers and high-level representatives of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) on September 22 agreed to accelerate efforts to significantly reduce short-lived climate pollutants by the end of the next decade in order to put the world on a "pathway that rapidly reduces warming in the near term and maximizes development, health, environmental, and food security benefits". These efforts, they noted, must be complementary to aggressive carbon dioxide mitigation and a transition to a zero-carbon economy by mid-century.Meeting a day before the United Nations Secretary-General's Climate Action Summit, the Coalition's High-Level Assembly put forward a 2030 Vision Statement that aims to ensure the earth's atmosphere continues to enable people and the planet to thrive by limiting warming to 1.5˚ Celsius and drastically reducing air pollution.In a message to the Assembly, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö reiterated the urgency required: "Climate change impacts the Arctic faster than any other region in the world. Reducing black carbon emissions is the most immediate way to limit further damage. As a partner of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition Finland is committed to this work on a global scale. Because this is not just a regional emergency. If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe."Short-lived climate pollutants like methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – also known as super pollutants – are many times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the planet but because they are short-lived in the atmosphere, preventing emissions can rapidly reduce the rate of warming. Many are also dangerous air pollutants and reductions will benefit human health and ecosystems.Miguel Arias Cañete, the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, reminded delegates that mitigation efforts must be urgently stepped up across the entire global energy sector, and called on countries to work with the Coalition to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas production. "We need a swift transition to a low-carbon and a more resource efficient economy to meet these goals. This also requires more action on short-lived climate pollutants," he said. "Given the scale of the challenge, the European Commission is exploring further ways to better measure and report methane emissions across all hydrocarbon industries and reduce methane emissions from energy production and use. There is still a significant potential to reduce emissions with low costs."The Coalition's goal is to reduce short-lived climate pollutants beyond the recommendations made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its special report Global Warming of 1.5˚C. According to the report, there need to be considerable cuts in emissions of black carbon (35 per cent by 2030), methane (37 per cent by 2030) and HFCs (70 per cent to 80 per cent by 2050) if we are to keep warming below 1.5˚C. The control measures that the CCAC is working on can deliver all recommended methane mitigation, and substantially more with new research for agricultural methane, as well as a 60 per cent reduction in black carbon emissions by 2030 –…

NEWYORK, USA (PAMACC News) - Millions of people have taken to the streets today Friday September 20,2019 demanding their governments take greater climate action, in what has been described as the largest climate protest in history.On the eve of the UN climate Summit , record numbers of youth climate campaigners joined by parents, workers, trade unions, businesses and organisations in a global strike ramping up pressure on political leaders to respond to the climate crisis.Rights groups including participants of the People' s Summit on Climate and human Survival organised by Amnesty International joined the youth protest today Friday September 20th.The protest rights groups say is also going on World wide, with picket lines and marches simultaneously going on from Russia to Johannesburg and Turkey to New Delhi.One of the largest demonstrations took place in New York, where UN secretary general António Guterres has convened world leaders to, as he put it, “put climate action into higher gear” over one the most important climate Summit starting on Saturday September 21,2019.What is the UN Summit AllAbout?According to the UN secretariat the summit has been billed as a critical moment for political leaders to show their willingness to increase their climate plans, in a bid to bridge the ambition gap to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C – the tougher goal of the Paris Agreement demanded by vulnerable countries and backed by Guterres.From Monday September 23, climate campaigners in Washington are expected to stage a protest against the lack of action of Donald Trump’s administration. The strike is modelled on Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s own weekly protests, demanding her government take action commensurate to the findings of the science and a landmark report on 1.5C.The ‘Fridays For Future’ movement she inspired has dramatically increased public pressure on governments to listen to people’s demands for more ambitious climate action.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Guterres said the leadership and initiative showed by youth around the world was “remarkable”.“The youth has been showing an enormous leadership, and I hope that that leadership will have a very strong impact on the societies as a whole, on their families and, based on that, on their governments of their countries,” he said.Young people are due to play a key role throughout the high-level meeting, starting with a youth summit on Saturday.Of governments that were not taking action, Alexandria Villaseñor, co-founder of US Youth Climate Strike and founder of Earth Uprising, said on Thursday: “They can listen to us now, or they can listen to us later… because our voice is going to continue getting louder as the climate crisis gets more urgent.”“The audacity of simply asking for leaders to lead is extraordinary and we are indebted to young people the world over for pushing us to this place,” Guterres’ special representative for sustainable energy Rachel Kyte told journalists on Thursday.The strike has also been supported by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which boasts 200 million members globally.“Your standing up to governments, demanding action around climate has in fact…