ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Human migration from one place to another due to different reasons has been linked to destruction of ecosystems as the migrants struggle to settle in the new areas, thus impacting on the prevailing climatic conditions.Addressing the sixth Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-VI), Prof Araya Asfaw of the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre in Ethiopia observed that migrants end up clearing forest cover to create space for settlement, destroy wetlands and in some cases destroy natural habitats for wildlife.“When people move, they deforest, and they destroy wetlands,” said Prof Asfaw, noting that most of the migration activities happen in the Horn of Africa region.Trees are generally known to sequester carbon dioxide, which is the main driver for global warming. And when tree cover is cleared to create space for human settlement, experts say that it directly impacts on the climate.There is evidence that forced migration is a serious, protracted, and in some areas, an expanding problem across Africa, particularly south of the Sahara.According to the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA), conflicts and insecurity are major causes or drivers of forced migration in Africa. Across the continent, in Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, OSAA notes that including violent conflict and insecurity have resulted in forced displacement, both within and across borders, with dire consequences for vulnerable populations, including women, children, the aged and disabled.A detailed study titled ‘Global Trends’, which tracks forced displacement worldwide based on data from governments, partner agencies and UNHCR’s own reporting, found a total 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015, compared to 59.5 million just 12 months earlier.This, according to experts, has highly contributed to distortion of the ecosystem, hence, impacting on climate change. This trend is expected to continue as conflicts continue to sour in many parts of the world.The experts therefore called for integrated policies that can help address such issues.Apart from forced migration, Prof Asfaw also pointed out that due to the increasing population and search for better livelihoods, there has been increased rural urban migration in the recent past, a trend that is also expected to increase in the near future.So far, noted Prof Asfew, Ethiopia’s is an example whose population has been increasing steadily, and it has grown four folds in the past decade, putting more pressure on urban centres. A study by Jukka Heinonen of Aalto University School of Engineering points out that the per capita emissions related to city Sustainability lifestyle are substantially higher than those related to rural and semi-urban lifestyles in the Finnish context.Other people argue that urban dwellers often use vehicles for commuting shorter distances compared to rural dwellers, hence emitting more carbon into the atmosphere. Urban dwellers as well use coolers such as refrigerators, which emit hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).HFCs, also known as "super greenhouse gases," are known to be the most potent greenhouse gases because the combined effect of…

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - The Sixth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA–VI) has kicked off in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, with climate experts, government representatives and civil society organisations examining how implementation of the Paris Agreement will impact the continent. The agreement is an accord within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), seeking for reduction of emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, adaptation and mitigation of the impact of climate change, and financing of those activities. “The Paris Agreement heralds bold steps towards de-carbonizing the global economy and reducing dependency on fossil fuels,” said James Murombedzi, the Officer in Charge at the Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC). However, added Murombedzi, “There are contentious nuances of the agreement that must be unpacked in the context of Africa’s development priorities, particularly in regard to the means of implementation which were binding provisions of the Kyoto Protocol and currently only non-binding decisions in the Paris Agreement.” The Paris Agreement on climate change is set to come into effect before the end of the year, with over 80 countries already having ratified the pact, which aims at limiting the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue more ambitious efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in this century.For one week, the participants in the Addis Ababa conference will be reviewing the accord so as to provide a contextual analysis of what was at stake for Africa and what the Agreement offers, prior to COP22 in Marrakesh, Morocco 7-18 November 2016, thereby contributing to strategic orientation for African countries in moving forward with the implementation of the Agreement.The basis of the Paris Agreement is the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) submitted by all parties in the lead up to COP21as their national contributions to limiting global greenhouse gas emissions. INDCs became Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) subsequent to COP21 in Paris.The main theme of CCDA–VI, organized under the auspices of the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) programme, is “The Paris Agreement on climate change: What next for Africa?”The experts observed that mplementation of the agreement has significant implications for Africa as the continent that will be most severely impacted by the adverse impacts of weather variability and climate change. It was further observed that the continent is already experiencing climate-induced impacts, such as frequent and prolonged droughts and floods, as well as environmental degradation that make livelihoods difficult for rural and urban communities. Increasing migration on the continent is therefore both triggered and amplified by climate change.

The African Development Bank, (AfDB) has unveiled a new action plan for 2016-2020 in pursuant to its ambitious vision to accelerate the continent’s economic transformation and the fight against climate change.“We need to build technical skills so that African economies can realize their full potential for adaptation in high-technology sectors,” said Kapil Kapoor, acting vice president, sector operation at the African Development Bank, during the official opening of the 6th Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa, CCDA-VI, October 18,2016 in Addis Ababa- Ethiopia.Under the new plan the African Development Bank will nearly triple its annual climate financing to reach 5 billion a year by 2020. The Bank, said the vice president, has taken some initiatives geared at pursuing and driving growth in agriculture, which will complement investment actions and commitments of African countries as expressed in their National Determined Contributions, NDCs.Citing some of the investment support initiatives, AfDB officials pointed at climate and disaster resilience programmes in many drought stricken African countries. For example the drought resilience projects in Djibouti, Ethopia and Kenya and the horn of Africa that received some 125 million US dollars. A similar project worth 231 million dollars was supported in the Sahel to control drought.Only recently the Bank approved over 500 million US dollars to support the fight against the effects of El-Nino that hit many parts of Eastern and Southern Africa.Officials believe the supported projects are already yielding encouraging results.“Through many projects now financed by the Bank, environmental protection and climate mitigation and adaptation activities are mainstreaming into national development plans,” said Kapil.The Bank also revealed it was working through partnerships with other Banks and insurance providers across Africa to bring greater access to insurance and risk financing in order to leverage lending for agriculture to the tune of I billion US dollars.Experts however say Africa needs the right climate infrastructure to win the confidence of insurance service providers“We understand that this cannot happen unless insurance and finance providers have access to reliable and quality climate and weather information that allows them to calibrate their risk models and design appropriate insurance package for agriculture,” Kabil Kapoor said.Development experts called on African countries to review and revise the INDCs with a view of addressing the different challenges including that of infrastructure.“There is urgent need for African countries to review and revise their NDC’s to meet the challenges of the Paris agreement,” said Dr Abdalla Hamdoc, deputy executive secretary and chief economist of UNECA.According to officials on the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, increasing levels of ambitions where appropriate will not be easy for many African countries given the complexities of ensuring adequate and reliable data, mainstreaming climate change into national development imperatives, ensuring coherence between climate change goals and the various sectoral goals and ensuring adequate funds for the process.The sixth CCDA accordingly has been convened under the theme “The Paris Agreement on climate change, what next for Africa?”The conference officials say, is built on the fifth conference on climate change…

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - African governments have been urged to ratify and implement the Paris Agreement on climate change to help manage effects of climate change. Speaking at the sixth conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA V1) at the UN Complex in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during the high level session, experts and ministers said the pact is good for the continent.They called on Africa to unite and speak with one voice to be able to reap maximum benefits by fully implementing the agreement."The Paris Agreement will benefit Africa as it has commitments on finance, green technology and capacity transfer. If successfully implemented, it will be the key to our development," said Yasmine Fouad, Egypt's Assistant Minister of Environment.Reflecting the urgency and critical significance of climate change for the continent's economic growth and sustainable development, the conference, convened under the theme 'Paris Agreement on climate change: What next for Africa', seeks to address seven key areas.The conference offers governments to deepen their understanding of the Conference of Parties (COP21) where the pact was signed and identify strategies for implementing the agreement through Pan-African initiatives, public-private partnerships and state and non-state actors.The forum also seeks to provide a solution space for innovation, facilitate, networking between climate and development partners, raise awareness of the importance of climate information services and explore new and evolving challenges related to climate change.Dr Abdalla Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary for UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) urged African countries to ratify the agreement."Out of the 81 out of 197 countries that have ratified the agreement, only 15 African countries have done so. This is a challenge," Hamdock said.Kenya is among 15 African countries that have ratified the agreement. The country now stands to benefit from the $100 billion pledged by developed countries to developing ones and that even larger sums be leveraged from investors, banks and the private sector that can build towards the $7 trillion needed to support a world-wide transformation on climate change.Hamdock noted the significance of Paris Agreement coming into force lies in Intended nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) which are the foundation of the agreement become legally binding as Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs).He observed that there are challenges with the INDC submissions of African countries due their vagueness in their mitigation ambitions and adaptation aspirations.Other challenges include lack of cost estimates for achieving their adaptation and mitigation goals, absence of clarity on sources of funding and up to date national greenhouse gas emission records to inform the pledged emission reduction commitments.Others are mitigation commitments that exceed current level of emissions and lack of coherence of the INDCs and national development goals."There is an urgent need for Africa to review and revise their INDCs to address the above issues," Hamdok said.James Murombedzi, officer in charge of Africa Climate Policy Centre said the agreement which aims to come into effect before the end of the year aims to limit the increase in the global average temperature to below 1.5 degrees centigrade above…