NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Climate advocates in Africa and across the world have expressed concerns following the appointment of Dr Sultan al-Jaber, the Chief Executive Officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to preside over the 2023 Conference of Parties (COP) on Climate Change.
“I have learned with consternation that they have nominated an oil merchant as President,” said Dr Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Secretary of the Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), which is a network of over 1000 African environment related civil society organizations.
“We need to be firm and protest against this impunity, otherwise, this is going to be a conference of polluters,” said Dr Mwenda, who has for two consecutive years been named among 100 top most influential individuals in the world by the apolitical.co.
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) offers processing, refining, marketing, and distribution of crude oil, petroleum, gas, sulfur, and petrochemical products for consumption worldwide. As of 2021, the company had an oil production capacity exceeding 4 million b/d with plans to increase to 5 million b/d by 2030
“You wouldn’t invite arm dealers to lead peace talks. So why let oil executives lead climate talks? Burning fossil fuels is the single largest cause of the climate crisis, and the single biggest threat to solving it,” said Alice Harrison, Fossil Fuels Campaign Leader at Global Witness – an international environmental non-governmental organization.
“Hosting crucial climate talks in a repressive petrostate is one thing, having a fossil fuel CEO as its President is just mad. Even at this early stage it’s difficult to see how COP28 can lead to any positive progress on the climate crisis, when run by those with a stake in the continued burning of fossil fuels,” she said in a statement.
It is on record that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which will host this year’s talks in November, registered at least 70 fossil fuel lobbyists to COP27 in Egypt, including Dr Al Jaber, who is the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Special Envoy for the Climate.
As a result, COP27 ended in disappointment for many, as fossil fuel producing nations including Saudi Arabia blocked a push by others, notably the US and EU, to include a promise to phase down all fossil fuels in the final deal.
Following his appointment, Dr Al Jaber noted that 2023 will be a critical year in a critical decade for climate action.
“The UAE is approaching COP28 with a strong sense of responsibility and the highest possible level of ambition. In cooperation with the UNFCCC and the COP27 Presidency, we will champion an inclusive agenda that ramps up action on mitigation, encourages a just energy transition that leaves no one behind, ensures substantial, affordable climate finance is directed to the most vulnerable, accelerates funding for adaptation and builds out a robust funding facility to address loss and damage,” he said in a statement.
However, climate activists still maintain that Dr Al Jaber cannot preside over a process that is tasked to address the climate crisis with such a conflict of interest.
According to Tracy Carty, Global Climate Politics expert with Greenpeace International, appointment of Dr Al Jaber sets a dangerous precedent, risking the credibility of the UAE and the trust that has been placed in them by the UN on behalf of people, current and future generations.
“COP28 needs to conclude with an uncompromised commitment to a just phase out of all fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas,” she said noting that Greenpeace is deeply alarmed at the appointment of an oil company CEO to lead the global climate negotiations.
KAKAMEGA, Kenya (PAMACC News) - In the heart of Kakamega town, Eliakim Andaye arrives at Friends Hotel along Mumias Road with a bag full of assorted African leafy vegetables. He is fulfilling his contractual agreement to supply the vegetables on a daily basis, after which he will collect his cheque by the end of the month.
“I have been a maize farmer since I was a child, but I never knew that from African leafy vegetables I could earn so much money to buy all the maize and other food items my family needs, but above all, I have been able to pay university fees for my two children, and the last one has just finished his secondary education, preparing to join college any time soon,” said the farmer.
Andaye learned about indigenous vegetables from the AGRA led Sustainable Land and Forest Ecosystem Management (SLFM) project that was implemented in collaboration with the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) among others.
The project, which was initiated by AGRA in collaboration with UNEP, GEF, KALRO and the County Governments, was aimed at enhancing productivity of smallholder farmers who live around Kakamega and Nandi Forests in order to reduce their encroachment on the forests as a way of conserving the forest biodiversity.
On his farm in Shamiloli Microcatchment area, in the outskirts of Kakamega town, Andaye has dedicated one full acre of land to growing of different types of indigenous vegetables not limited to Ethiopian kales (Kanzila), African nightshade (lisutsa/managu), spider plant (tsisaka/saga), Amaranthus (libokoi/terere), Pumpkin leaves (lisebebe), Cowpea (likhubi/kunde) among others.
The African leafy vegetables are arguably climate resilient because most of them are indigenous to places where they are being grown. But following the introduction of exotic commercial vegetables such as cabbage and kales, many farmers tended to abandon the indigenous vegetables.
However, patrons both in rural and urban areas who care about healthy diets are once again embracing the indigenous vegetables due to their nutritional and medicinal values, hence, high market demand.
“At the farm gate, I earn at least Sh1500 per week, but from the supply to hotels, I make at least Sh20,000 per month or more depending on activities at the hotels,” he said noting that whenever there are seminars in the hotels, he supplies more than normal daily quantities.
According to John Macharia, the Country Manager at AGRA, Kenyans must go back to their sustainable way of living. “We have to be environment friendly by diversifying our diets to include indigenous foods that relate well with the prevailing environmental conditions, and use methods that are friendly to nature,” he said.
Indeed, all farmers who are growing the African leafy vegetables in Western Kenya use compost and farm yard manure, which is different from farming of cabbage and kales that require synthetic fertilisers and frequent chemical spraying for pests and diseases.
In Chepketemon Village in Nandi County, Gideon Rono is another farmer who only knew cabbage as the only vegetables that could be produced from his farm apart from maize and Irish potatoes.
“In fact, when I was introduced to these indigenous vegetables, I took it as a big joke. But since many other farmers in my area were also doing it, I decided to play along,” he said.
“But today, I have become a champion. I have since increases my acreage from just a small piece to one full acre after I learned that the African leafy vegetables do not need so much input, and that the market was readily available,” he said.
According to Silas Too of the Ministry of Agriculture in Nandi County, most of the people in the area are dairy farmers, but they are slowly taking up vegetable farming to supplement their income.
According to H.E Dr Wilbur Ottichilo, the Governor for Vihiga County, it is a high time all smallholders in the county stopped planting of maize and beans to concentrate on African leafy vegetables.
“Vihiga is traditionally known for production of indigenous vegetables. The culture of growing the poor yielding maize and beans that are also vulnerable to the changing climatic conditions in this county must be reversed, and that is what we are trying to do,” said the Governor.
Nutritionists have pointed out that apart from being affordable; the African leafy vegetables are also rich in micronutrients, which are lacking in imported vegetables and simplified urban diets, and hence important for nutrition.
"Many farmers have ignored African indigenous leafy vegetables and yet they are very nutrient rich, and some of them have medicinal values," said Ruth Oniang'o, a Professor of nutrition and the founder of the Rural Outreach Africa (ROA), a local organization that champions for growing of such indigenous vegetables in schools.
PAMACC News - A research team led by UvA plant biologists Harro Bouwmeester and Lemeng Dong has identified a – North-American - maize line that is resistant to Striga, according to a new study published in the leading journal Science.
Over the next two years, Bouwmeester will test whether this new knowledge can be used to breed African maize varieties to make them resistant to witchweed.
According to the scientists, food security is a growing challenge, especially in light of climate change and increasing food needs around the world. However, a small plant with beautiful purple flowers presents yet another grave challenge to food security: Striga or witchweed. Although beautiful, this plant is called witchweed for a reason. Striga seeds lie dormant in the soil until their germination is triggered by strigolactones, specific plant hormones secreted into the soil by the roots of plants, including maize. After germination, Striga penetrates the root of the maize and drains nutrients and water, like a vampire, sometimes causing entire harvests to fail.
Discovery of resistance in maize
The research team found a new possible basis for resistance to Striga. Intriguingly, a North American corn line seems to provide the solution to the plague in Africa. In the lab, PhD student Changsheng Li analyzed the strigolactones of a whole set of different maize lines. The one North American line was found to secrete a different mixture of strigolactones into the soil than most of the other lines and was therefore less susceptible to Striga. 'Research into the mechanism behind this subsequently showed that one of the genes responsible for the biosynthesis of strigolactones in this maize line is less active,' explains Bouwmeester. ‘We now want to use that mechanism to introduce this Striga resistance into the maize that grows in Africa.’
Making African maize Striga-resistant
Over the next two years, Bouwmeester will use an ERC Proof of Concept grant to collaborate with researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). In the lab and greenhouse at the Amsterdam Science Park and in Mexico, where CIMMYT is based, the researchers will use modern biotechnology to change the strigolactone composition in African maize lines. They will then test these lines together with farmers in Kenya to assess their sensitivity to Striga.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) – The ozone layer is on track to recover within four decades, with the global phaseout of ozone-depleting chemicals already benefitting efforts to mitigate climate change.This is the conclusion of a UN-backed panel of experts, presented on January 9 at the American Meteorological Society’s 103rd annual meeting. Examining novel technologies such as geoengineering for the first time, the panel warns of unintended impacts on the ozone layer.
On track to full recovery
The UN-backed Scientific Assessment Panel to the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances quadrennial assessement report, published every four years, confirms the phase out of nearly 99% of banned ozone-depleting substances. The Montreal Protocol has thus succeeded in safeguarding the ozone layer, leading to notable recovery of the ozone layer in the upper stratosphere and decreased human exposure to harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun.
If current policies remain in place, the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 values (before the appearance of the ozone hole) by around 2066 over the Antarctic, by 2045 over the Arctic and by 2040 for the rest of the world. Variations in the size of the Antarctic ozone hole, particularly between 2019 and 2021, were driven largely by meteorological conditions. Nevertheless, the Antarctic ozone hole has been slowly improving in area and depth since the year 2000.
“That ozone recovery is on track according to the latest quadrennial report is fantastic news. The impact the Montreal Protocol has had on climate change mitigation cannot be overstressed. Over the last 35 years, the Protocol has become a true champion for the environment,” said Meg Seki, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Ozone Secretariat. “The assessments and reviews undertaken by the Scientific Assessment Panel remain a vital component of the work of the Protocol that helps inform policy and decision makers.”
Impacts on climate change
The 10th edition of the Scientific Assessment Panel reaffirms the positive impact that the treaty has already had for the climate. An additional 2016 agreement, known as the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, requires phase down of production and consumption of some hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). HFCs do not directly deplete ozone, but are powerful climate climate change gases. The Scientific Assessment Panel said this amendment is estimated to avoid 0.3–0.5°C of warming by 2100 (this does not include contributions from HFC-23 emissions).
“Ozone action sets a precedent for climate action. Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done – as a matter of urgency – to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.
The latest assessment has been made based on extensive studies, research and data compiled by a large international group of experts , including many from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Union.
Geoengineering
For the first time, the Scientific Assessment Panel examined the potential effects on ozone of the intentional addition of aerosols into the stratosphere, known as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI). SAI has been proposed as a potential method to reduce climate warming by increasing sunlight reflection. Yet the panel cautions that unintended consequences of SAI “could also affect stratospheric temperatures, circulation and ozone production and destruction rates and transport.”
