NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - This year’s World Environment Day (WED) comes when the ogre of corruption, threatening to tear apart the fabric of our society is dominating the national debate in Kenya. The World Environmental day celebrated on the 5th of June every year, seeks to raise consciousness and rally people across the world on the importance of a clean environment. Thousands of activities, including tree planting, clean-ups, workshops, conferences and rallies are held, depending on the context in various parts of the globe. The theme of this year’s WED, is “Beat plastics pollution”, and is being hosted by India. This year, we focus on the environmental challenges we face due to the piles of plastics produced and dumped on land and sea every hour, and their adverse effects on the beauty of the earth and the oceans. The global focus on this theme brings the issue of policy making and intervention to the centre-stage, with a view to “doing something” to arrest the problem. Thousands of trees will be planted during this day, while tons of plastics will be collected and piled at some safer place away from people and water. The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) will join several partners, led by the City County of Nairobi, to plant trees at Kikuyu Springs, one of the main sources of the water we drink in the city, which is threatened by encroachment by private developers, illicit tree poachers and degradation. Planting trees and collecting garbage in front of cameras, as many leaders have done during this rainy season, is one commendable thing. And tending those trees to maturity and stopping garbage gettingpile-up should be a process rather than an event. These symbolic gestures by the top leadership should be followed by a more sustainable effort to harvest this goodwill by institutions entrusted to guard our environmental with preservation and protection. But due to the runaway corruption which has passed the red line, any effort to reverse the damage visited upon the environment will likely be futile. Indeed, the report of the taskforce appointed by Environment and Forestry Cabinet Secretary KeriakoTobiko exposed the rot in the Forestry department and recommended drastic action against forest officials who have plundered this important national resource. One of the chilling revelations of the report is the fact that a whooping two billion shillings earmarked for a school forestry programme, was misappropriated. This is in addition to thousands of tons of trees which were felled by unscrupulous merchants in collusion with people who were entrusted with the responsibility to keep watch over our forests across the country. It will therefore be a pointless attempt and narrow way of seeing things if we plant trees without minding whether the land on which we are planting will be a target by marauding land grabbers and speculators. It will also be waste of resources and valuable time if we collect all that garbage just for the camera, and when we go back home, we are the…

Bénin (PAMACC News) - Fita et kokohou sont deux villages du Bénin. Le premier est de la commune de Dassa, au centre du Bénin et l’autre, est une localité de la commune de Djougou dans le Nord du Bénin. Deux hameaux dont la vie des habitants a changé depuis quelques jours avec l’arrivée de l’électricité. Il s’agit de la mise en service de deuxmini-centrales solaires photovoltaïques résilientesqui alimentent kiosques et lampadaires solaires. Une solution alternative à la lutte contre les effets du climat.« Même dans mes rêves, je n’ai jamais imaginé voir un jour de mes propres yeux l’électricité dans mon village »disait un habitant de Fita, village de la commune de Dassa, situé à 15 kilomètres du centre-ville. « Ici, on était habitué à l’obscurité. Ce qui fait que le soir venu tout le monde se terre chez lui ». Et pourtant, ce n’est plus un rêve. L’électricité est belle et bien à Fita, depuis quelques jours, même si c’est une énergie hors-réseau. C’est d’ailleurs pour ça, que l’intéressé a passé de longues minutes à remercier non seulement ceux qui ont permis l’installation de cette mini-centrale mais aussi le ciel pour lui avoir offert de son vivant ce beau cadeau. Et pourtant, le cadeau dont il parle n’est pas du tout tombé du ciel. Il a fallu le Programme des Nations-Unies pour le Développement (PNUD) et le Fonds pour l’Environnement Mondial à travers le Projet de renforcement de la résilience du secteur de l’énergie aux impacts des changements climatiques au Bénin (PANA Energie) pour que l’électricité à Fita soit une réalité.Sa majesté, le roi de FitaGbèdozanKinmafli, sous l’autorité de laquelle est placée la cérémonie officielle de mise en service de la mini-centrale, a eu des mots très aimables à l’endroit du gouvernement pour avoir pensé à sa région. « L’arrivéede l’électricité va régler un problème fondamental, a indiqué le roi. Les élèves n’auront plus à étudier sous les lampions, les lanternes et les torches, forcément, ils auront de meilleurs résultats ». Il s’agit là, a fait remarquer le maire de la commune de Dassa, Nicaise Fagnon, « de la territorialisation de l’un des projets phares du gouvernement, celui d’améliorer les conditions de vie des populations ». Mise en service des lampadaires solaires résilients C’est au Ministre de l’énergie, Dona Jean-Claude, qu’il est revenu l’honneur d’allumer le premier lampadaire résilient. « Lalumière, c’est la vie, a-t-il souligné en s’adressant à la population enthousiaste. « Ce gouvernement vous doit et va vous donner plus, pour que vous soyez heureux, a-t-il ajouté ». Contrairement aux lampadaires solaires classiques, ceux de Fita sont des lampadaires solaires à éclairage puissant, constant puis dégressif, tout intégré, conçu de façon compact. Il jouit d’une durée minimum de six heures et une autonomie de trois jours. La plupart des lampadaires sont disposés dans des endroits stratégiques de façon à offrir à tout le village un éclairagepublic. C’est donc un système beaucoup plus amélioré qui n'a besoin que d’une faible quantité de rayons solaires pour produire une grande…

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) – It is a rainy season in Kenya, and the environment in many parts of the country including dryland areas is generally green. But two months ago in Kyenire village, Mbeere Sub-county of Embu in Eastern Kenya, it was Venanzio Njiru’s two acre farm that stood out as the only green spot surrounded by environment with dry grass and shrubs with brown leaves running into the horizon. However, rainfall is for a short season in this part of the country because after it subsides towards the end of May as predicted by the Kenya Meteorological Department, residents may soon be subjected to another dry spell that may last between one and three years without the precious drops. “This is how it has always been, hence a reason why I had adopt a smart way of surviving,” said Njiru, who has now invested in Climate Smart Agriculture through permaculture.Using water piped from Thosi River some 10 kilometres away, the former street hawker in Mombasa has a mosaic of different types of crops that include cover crops, leguminous plants, fruit trees, among others intercropped with maize planted in zai-pits and even sugarcane. He also keeps cattle, indigenous chicken, goats, and despite of it being a dryland area, he keeps fish in his water storage ponds.“Using very simple techniques, Njiru is one of the very few residents in this area who have sufficient food to feed their families, and have more for the market despite the tough climatic conditions,” said Wanjiku Wanjohi of Ishiara Parish, a Catholic church in Embu County.The Parish is one of the faith based organisations on the ground, which have been interacting with residents especially smallholder farmers to identify best practices that could help in formulating a county climate change policy document that is responsive to the prevailing conditions.The first ever climate change policy drafting initiative at the county level in Kenya is driven by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) in collaboration with Trocaire, and with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) where faith based organisations have been collaborating with community based groups and individuals to identify best practices at the grass roots level.“Clearly, Njiru together with a few others have demonstrated that with access to water for irrigation, residents can easily adapt to climate change, an idea that we thought was an important factor to be included in the county climate change policy,” said Wanjohi. Development of such policies dominated the annual summit on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in Nairobi, where experts said that that was the only way of scaling up CSA, by moving from pilots to the implementation. “We already have enough ideas and innovations. What we lack in many African countries is the implementation framework,” said Dr Richard Mungang, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Africa Regional Climate Change Programme Coordinator.“We need policies to govern Climate Smart Agriculture, because without policies, there cannot be development,” he said.His sentiments were echoed by Richard Kamau the Executive Director…

 BONN, Germany, (PAMACC News) - If Paris was historic in carving a global climate deal, Katowice will define the political urgency for climate action. Negotiations at the just ended United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, focused on the Paris Agreement Work Programme, under which countries are designing the guidelines that will move the climate pact from concepts to actions. The Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group, at the concluding session, expressed concern at the lack of urgency in moving the negotiations forward. “It is time to look at the bigger picture, see the severe impacts that climate change is having across the world, and rise to the challenge,” said Group Chair, Gebru Jember Endalew. He expects steady progress be made throughout 2018 on all issues so that poor and vulnerable countries can engage effectively.“A last-minute rush at COP24 risks leaving developing countries behind,” he said.The Paris RulebookThe Rulebook spells guidelines on how to put the Paris Agreement into practice.There is a call for a fair, robust and transparent Rulebook that inspires confidence among countries to step up and commit to enhanced national climate targets by 2020.They are essential for determining whether total world emissions are declining fast enough to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. These include boosting adaptation and limiting the global temperature increase to well below 2°C, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.“I am satisfied that some progress was made here in Bonn. But many voices are underlining the urgency of advancing more rapidly on finalizing the operational guidelines. The package being negotiated is highly technical and complex. We need to put it in place so that the world can monitor progress on climate action,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change.Progress on AgricultureRecognizing the urgency of addressing interests in the agriculture sector, the Bonn conference made a significant advance on the “Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture” by adopting a road-map for the next two-and-a-half years.Farmers are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts such as prolonged droughts and shifting rainfall patterns, and agriculture is an important source of emissions. This road-map responds to the world’s farming community of more than 1 billion people and to the 800 million people who live in food-insecure circumstances, mainly in developing countries. It addresses a range of issues including the socio-economic and food-security dimensions of climate change, assessments of adaptation in agriculture, co-benefits and resilience, and livestock management.But not with Finance…Without advances in the talks over the commitment of future financial support from rich countries to developing nations, who are already facing devastating climate impacts, it became difficult for other areas of the negotiations to progress.LDC Group Chair, Gebru Jember Endalew, stated “Finance is key to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. In the face of climate change, poor and vulnerable countries are forced to address loss and damage and adapt to a changing climate, all while striving to lift their people out of poverty without repeating the mistakes of an economy built on…