ABUJA, Nigeria (PAMACC News) - As the environmental activists seek for investment in green energy, the Federal Government of Nigeria has already announced that it will consolidate and allocate coal sites across the country to “serious minded players in the power sector” in a drive to meet the country's increasing energy deficit.
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, disclosed this during a visit to the Abuja Steel Mills Limited, Minna, North Central Nigeria.
According to Fayemi, the ministry is considering the power sector as its priority area that needs coal to address electricity deficit in the country.
“We are not saying that we will not give coal to others that need coals for the production of steel or relevant manufacturing works, but right now power sector needs coal,” he said.
He said that the management of Abuja Steel Mill had requested for coal for the production of steel, adding that the ministry would support local steel manufacturers that could solve steel deficit.
“Our work as a ministry is to facilitate companies that have taken it upon themselves to manufacture steel locally, rather than importing substandard steel with our hard earned Forex.”
He expressed appreciation to the management of the company for employing 450 Nigerians and providing healthcare facilities, adding that the company should train its local engineers to perform or take over its expatriate tasks. He also urged the company to continue to maintain its standard of production to gain adequate market and bridge steel importation gap.
Dr Fayemi said the ministry would encourage the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing to link the company to construction giants in the country to patronise their products. He promised to liaise with Nigerian Customs Service on scrap metals being exported on a daily basis, as scarcity of the material had hiked prices of steel produced locally.
However, he promised to solve some of the requests presented by the company, adding that it should also fulfill the ministry’s requirements to move the country forward.
Using coal to boost steel production
Mr Richpal Singh, Executive Director and Advisor of the company, urged the minister to make coal sites available to the company to boost steel production. Singh said availability of coal would enable the company to produce 6.8 million tonnes required for local consumption.
He said the scrap metals being sold at the rate of N50,000 per tonne now sold at N250,000, as the materials were being exported due to high exchange rate.
He said one of the company’s challenges was scarcity of scrap metals being used for the production of steel, as Nigerians were now making brisk business with some Chinese firms to package and export them.
The company produces 150,000 tonnes yearly and is currently the highest steel producer in the country. All the local steel companies in Nigeria are producing 2.5 million tonnes annually and Nigeria requires 6.8 tonnes of steel every year. The company is an Indian organisation with other seven subsidiaries in steel, chemical and energy production.
Coal and Nigeria's NDCs
In October 2015, it would be recalled that Nigeria submitted its climate pledge to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as part of its commitment to the process leading to the COP21 Paris Agreement. The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) identified measures like working towards ending gas flaring and other fossil-based energy forms by 2030, working towards Off-grid solar PV of 13GW (13,000MW), deployment of efficient gas generators, and 2% per year energy efficiency (30% by 2030).
The climate pledge reckoned that under a business-as-usual growth scenario, consistent with strong economic growth of 5% per year, Nigeria’s emissions are expected to grow to around 900 million tonnes per year in 2030, which translates to around 3.4 tonnes per person.
However with food insecurity, poor access to energy and high unemployment presently constituting principal constraints on economic development and about 40% of the population living below the poverty line of US$1.25, coupled with the recent sharp decline in world oil prices putting enormous pressure on the federal government’s budget, which continues to depend significantly on export revenues, it is increasingly becoming difficult for Nigeria to honor its climate pledge as conveyed by the NDCs.
The recent recourse to coal as a panacea to energy deficit runs contrary to the focal emphasis of Nigeria's climate plan which aspired to achieve economic and social development by growing the economy 5% per year, improving standard of living, electricity access for all under a mitigation objective of 20% unconditional reduction in emissions and a 45% conditional reduction from business as usual.
KIRINYAGA, Kenya (PAMACC News) - The agriculture sector suffers some of the worst impacts of climate change. That is a statement you hear all the time, and that Africa – being a developing region – is quite vulnerable.
In fact, the Food and Agricultre Organisation reports that droughts and floods are the biggest natural disasters that Africa faces, resulting in trillions of shillings in loss and damage. Between 2003 and 2013 for instance, droughts affected 27 countries in Sub- Saharan Africa, destabilising the lives of nearly 150 million people.
These droughts cost the region an estimated 23.6 billion dollars, which translates to about 2.2 trillion shillings. This is according to a report on the impact of natural disasters on global economies, which reveals that the agriculture sector is the most impacted.
But what you don’t hear often is that although the sector is the most vulnerable, the agriculture sector is a key contributor to climate change, accounting for 17% of total emissions directly through agricultural activities and an additional 14% through land use changes.
“Climate change is going to reduce crop production by up to 40% if global warming continues. But you see the agriculture sector is plagues with inefficiencies that lead to ecological degradation,” says Dr. Richard Munang, the head of the climate change unit at the United Nations Environment Programme.
When the Paris Agreement was adopted in November 2015, it gave countries the option to decide the steps they would take to reduce their carbon footprint. Most countries, including Kenya, provided a plan that put agriculture in the centre of emission reduction, through adoption of eco-friendly farming methods. While there have been several campaigns calling for farmers to adopt climate smart agriculture, some farmers are going a step further and seeking access to the carbon market.
“Our environment is destroyed. The soil is not fertile anymore. So we as the farmers in this village of Togonye have decided to fix that by growing more trees,” Albert Mureithi says.
Togonye in Mwea, Kirinyaga County, is one of the catchment areas for the Mwea rice farms. But years of environmental degradation have destroyed the catchment, and eucalyptus trees have replaced most indigenous trees. The trees were cut down for fuel and also make room for agricultural land. The farmers have now come together to start a project they call Kirinyaga Carbons, through which they will rehabilitate their environment to improve their yields and earn carbon credits.
“There are several components of the project and also the climate smart agriculture. For instance there is integrated pest management, soil fertility management, water management and crop rotation,” says Edward Ngare, the designer of the Kirinyaga Carbons project.
The farmers in Togonya grow mostly coffee and horticultural produce and rely heavily on irrigation - drawing their water from River Kiie. But the degradation around the catchment area and the current drought has made irrigation extremely difficult.
Water levels have run dangerously low, leading to frequent conflicts among the communities that depend on that water. The river empties into River Nyamindi, which is one of the two rivers that feed the Mwea Irrigation Scheme. But the drought has seen Nyamindi’s flow drop to just one cubic litres per second, compared to a normal flow of six cubic litres.
As part of this rehabilitation project, each farmer in the group is required to plant trees on at least 10% of the land, as well as a fodder crop that will provide some ground cover for the soil.
They work together with some scientists from the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation, who say that it will take about 4 years to fully rehabilitate the area. But once that is done, they have set their eyes on the European market for their horticultural produce, where they hope to earn carbon credits at the rate of five dollars per tonne of carbon dioxide.
“For the consumer in Europe to get the produce from here, it has to be air lifted. So in that airlifting, there is carbon that is emitted by the plane. When the consumer is preparing the food, the energy they use to cook also emits some carbon. And in total, the emissions from Europe are higher compared to here. So what we want is, instead of the airline and the consumer offsetting their emissions with other projects in other countries, why don't they offset with us instead since they bought the produce from us?” Edward says.
A carbon credit is a permit that allows a country to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gases, and then if the emissions are below the set quota, they can sell the excess to a big emitting country. Kenya is a very low carbon emitter and developed a policy on carbon trading in 2013.
In 2014, agriculture became the first sector to benefit from carbon trading in Kenya, when a project involving 60,000 farmers in Western Kenya earned the world's first carbon credits on sustainable agricultural land management. The project involved increasing organic soil matter, thereby cutting emissions by 24,788 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to emissions from 5,164 vehicles in a year. Farmers' yields also increased by 20%.
Two communities in Mombasa are also earning carbon credits by protecting Mangrove forests, which provide breeding grounds for a lot of fish species. The two communities have managed to plant at least 6,500 seedlings, cutting emissions by at least 3000 tonnes annually, earning one million shillings from the credits.
The carbon market globally is worth an estimated 144 billion dollars, but Africa only gets 3% of that market. Kenya’s carbon emissions about 21.47 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, representing just 0.06% of global emissions.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Plans to host the first ever Africa-wide Postharvest Congress to be held at the Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi on 28th to 31st March 2017are at an advanced stage with over 600 delegates signed up already.
The Congress to advocate for increased investments in postharvest management programs across Africa will be officially opened by the Deputy President, Hon. William Ruto.Diverse stakeholders in the food supply chain are expected in Nairobi for the Congresswhose theme is “Reducing Food Losses and Waste: Sustainable Solutions for Africa.
The Congress,seeks to contribute to the global agenda of reducing postharvest food loss and waste and seeks to define actionable solutions to reverse the current trend where an estimated 30 per cent or 1.3 billion metric tons of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted along the supply chains. These losses resultin at least 15% lost income for over 470 million actors across the agriculture value chain. The Congress will provide an opportunity to respond to the calls for action outlinedin United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Malabo Declaration which have set a target of halving postharvest losses by 2030 and 2025 respectively.
“We are honored to host this inaugural Congress, the first of its kind to be held in Africa. The Congress will provide a platform for delegates to learn, share information and build strategic partnerships with the overall objective of identifying effective interventions to reduce food loss waste on the continent,” says University of Nairobi Vice Chancellor, Prof. Peter Mbithi. “This historic gathering is very timely because like many other countries in Africa, Kenya continues to experience huge food loss and waste as a result of poor post-harvest management practices.”
He adds: “To reduce food waste and loss in Africa there is need for concerted efforts from all stakeholders in the food supply chain and this Congress provides a great convergence point for players in the industry including leading global champions in the food supply chain including farmers, innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, development agencies, civil society and policymakers.”
The Congress is being hosted by the University of Nairobi in partnership with a consortium of Kenyan universities, Research and Development Organizations, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries in conjunction with the World Food Preservation Center (WFPC). The lead strategicpartner in this great initiative is the Rockefeller Foundation. The initiative is also supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), African Union Commission, Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), East African Grain Council (EAGC), East Africa Trade and Investment Hub (USAID),Postharvest Education Foundation, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Horticulture Innovation Lab (USAID), Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) among others.
A key highlight of the Congress will be the inaugural “All-Africa Postharvest Technology Challenge 2017” which aims at identifying top ten scalable innovations and technologies in the continent. The competition seeks to identify technologies and innovations that can address the challenges faced by farmers and other value chain actors in postharvest management of perishable food crop, livestock, fish products and non-perishable food commodities. The competition will be judged by a panel of eminent judges from across Africa. So far over 100 people have entered their technologies in the competition.
The Chairperson of the Organizing Committee Dr. Jane Ambuko said that the competition was expected to help document hitherto unknown postharvest technologies and innovations. “Through this competition, we seek to identify the top 10 innovators in the postharvest field,” she said. “After rigorous screening by postharvest experts, we will be show-casethe winning innovations at a special pitching session of the Congress,”
“We hope that this exciting and unique competition will attract participation from everyone regardless of the sector or level of training,” Dr. Ambuko added.“We are expecting entries from a cross-section of innovators including farmers and other practitioners in the food supply chain because they have innovative ways of addressing the challenges they face at the grassroot level.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Eleven Kenyans who say they have been unceremoniously sacked by their boss at the Kenya-based UN Habitat have appealed to the visiting UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to intervene and reinstate them.
The workers appealed to Guterres who is in the country and met with President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday to rescue them from losing their jobs and pointed fingers at their boss Dr Joan Clos for their woes.
James Ohayo, the President of the UN-Habitat staff union noted that for many members of staff at the Nairobi Duty Station, integrity, professionalism, respect for diversity, accountability and transparency are clichés that ring hollow.
"When some of those who lead us routinely get away with glaring acts of impunity, blatant disregard for laid down rules and regulations, open violation of staff rights and privileges, reckless abuse of authority, and endemic corruption, nepotism, racism, and cronyism, our belief in the cherished core values ofour organization is severely tested," Ohayo said.
He said that this is happening at a time the Habitat III process, in which member states have invested huge resources and efforts to position and revamp the organisation in readiness for the New Urban Agenda.
"These initiatives may not yield much result as long as the current executive director who is feared and hated in equal measure remains. The implementation of the New urban Agenda will be shackled unless the current a top official shown the way out of this vital organization," Ohayo said.
This comes at a time when the 2017 UN Global Staff survey released yesterday has ranked UN Habitat, a UN organization based in Kenya as the worst managed among its all organisations.
The survey ranks the best "UN departments and missions in which to work, which have the best leadership and in which do staff feel the most or least empowered.
Several such questions are answered in the report of the Global Staff Satisfaction Survey 2017, in which 4,000 of staff took part last week, representing ten per cent of the UN staff.
According to the survey findings, UN-Habitat polled among the worst and by most unethical.
"The agency performed well above expectations and enjoyed donor confidence and support until 2011 when it's financial and human resources began a precipitous plunge that up till date has greatly negatively impacting its normative and operational work. The bottom line is that the executive director simply failed to mobilize resources," the report says.
The report faults the Executive Director Dr Joan Clos for on numerous occasions admitting that he is unable to raise funds (a core requirement for success of a UN agency) but refusing to admit that he has failed to lead the organization.
"Compared with seven years ago, the organization can today be described as a pale shadow of its former self as it continues to suffer from among others: huge donor confidence crisis, loss of staff, more than 50 per cent of UN Habitat staff has been lost, corrosive demotivation due to poor and nepotistic leadership and the replacement of competent staff with consultants at the expense of in-house expertise," the report says.
The report's findings also faulted current plans to further sack staff since the conclusion of Habitat III unless there is a direct intervention by member states.
"Recently, 11 staff members have received notification of contract termination on various dates around March 2017. This prompted an alarmed workforce to raise the matter with Clos on the effect of the diminishing staff levels on the implementation of the mandate of UN-Habitat which he always assures is on course despite facts to the contrary," the report said.
The report accuses Clos of mistreatment of staff members and victimization of staff, who at times hacks and reads emails of staff members, a practice contrary to UN's individual privacy rules and in direct violation of the rights of staff.
"Most staffs are unsure how safe their private thoughts are and are apprehensive of the future when such violations are carried out with impunity. So far about three senior staff members that is known have now been under the surveillance of Clos' office; a very frightening development to say the least.
The leadership of UN-Habitat rather than give comfort to its staff constantly puts them in fear," the report says.
Kenya is the only country with UN headquarters outside the industrialised West. Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and other centres are regional headquarters. If the headquarters is closed or relocated, Kenya will lose a major source of revenue big time.
The 2015 report of the Office of the Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) also cast a picture of an incompetent management which has caused the organization dwindling fortunes.
