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Kenya needs Sh1.8 trillion (USD18 Billion) to implement climate change programmes for the remaining period up to 2030, according to the Environment Ministry.In the short term, the country requires Sh495 billion for the same activities for the next five years.Environment Cabinet Secretary Prof Judi Wakhungu revealed this when she launched the Kenya Second National Communication Report to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Nairobi.Noting that climate change is the most serious environmental challenge facing the world today, the CS said the Government has taken measures to secure the country's development against the risks and impacts of climate change."Kenya is highly vulnerable to climate change ad Government is mobilising and leveraging resources to strengthen resilience and abet green house gas emissions. Government has enacted Climate Change Act, 2016 which provides a regulatory framework for enhanced response to achieve low carbon climate resilient development," Ms Wakhungu said.She added that other policy measures to achieve a green economy are the National Climate Change Action Plan 2013-2017, Climate Change Response Strategy 2010 and Environmental Management and Coordination Act CAP 387.The CS observed that Government has identified nine areas where urgent mitigation actions should be undertaken using the billions of shillings required.Among the nine are restoration of forests and degraded lands, developing an additional 2,275 megawatts of geothermal energy, restoration of degraded forests, encouraging Kenyans to use improved cookstoves and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and agroforestry.Others include bus rapid transit and light rail corridors, develop greenhouse gas inventory and improvement of emissions data, measuring, reporting on and monitoring forestry emissions and sinks and mainstreaming of low-carbon development options into planning processes.To achieve the above, Government needs to undertake a programme of work to restore forests on 960,000 hectares up to 2030 including dryland forest restoration activities, developing, testing and application of compensation and benefits-sharing mechanisms and develop an additional 2,275 MW of geothermal capacity by 2030 through a support programme aimed at encouraging private sector investment.The country also needs to undertake a programme of work to replant forests on 240,000 hectares of land that were previously forests, increase awareness of improved cooking practices, undertaking pilot initiatives which promote the use of LPG, increasing awareness of stove quality, increasing access to soft loans, building capacity of stove producers, and improving access to testing facilities. The report also recommends converting 281,000 hectares of existing arable cropland and grazing land that have medium or high agricultural potential to agroforestry and implement an extensive mass transit system for greater Nairobi, based predominantly on bus rapid transit corridors complemented by a few Light Rail Transit corridors as other mitigation measures.Others include developing a national forest inventory, forest reference scenario, and a monitoring and reporting system that allows for transparent accounting of emissions and removals in the forestry and land-use sectors. "Kenya's population projected to reach 17.64 million in 2017, resides in the rural areas and relies predominantly on an ever-degrading environment and scarce natural resources for their livelihoods. However this situation is changing with an increase in…
IDENAU, Cameroon — It’s 9 p.m. and fish trader Mammy Joan Dione, 58, is working hard with her two daughters to dry a day’s catch of fish. Business in this renowned Central African fishing port is on the uptick thanks to the recent installation of solar-powered ovens to dry the fish, preventing what used to be massive spoilage from a lack of energy for preservation. “We can now dry our fish even in the night with the use of solar ovens,” says Dione, whose business is driven by customers from big cities in Cameroon and neighbouring Nigeria and Gabon. “We now work day and night to meet the high demand and this has significantly increased our family income. We can also preserve fresh fish in refrigerators thanks to the availability of electricity,” she adds. With the aid of fans installed inside the dryer, the heat is evenly circulated, making it possible to dry over 400 kilograms of fish in about six hours — a fraction of the time used in the past for smoking. Some ten fishing groups in Idenau and nearby Batoke in this coastal region were offered two solar energy fish-drying ovens each in February 2015 by the Cameroon contingent of the African Resource Group (ARG-CAM) working in collaboration with the Limbe city council — part of a wider drive to expand renewables like solar across the country. What is happening here, legislators promise, is just the beginning.Joan Dione’s daughter Sharon Dione, 23, quickly switches on the lights in the store room where they have stocked over 25 baskets of dried fish ready for market. In the past, drying such a significant quantity of fish in a day was impossible. They instead relied on smoking the fish with wood from a nearby mangrove forest, which limited their production to less than five baskets a day. “The process of using wood energy was so difficult, emitting smoke that was dangerous to our health,” says Sharon Dione. “The arrival of solar energy and solar drying ovens here has changed everything.” The need to boost renewables in CameroonCameroon is endowed with an abundance of oil, gas and hydropower, but, in 2013, only 18 per cent of the over 22 million population had access to a reliable energy source, a rate experts said is low for Africa. Yet the country has abundant sunshine and a lot of wind in the northern and western regions, which holds great potential for solar energy and wind turbines. More than 80 per cent of the country’s electricity comes from hydropower, but the government is also encouraging the use of other renewable sources, with solar energy gaining ground. Cameroon will increasingly rely on renewable energy as it moves toward its goal of “economic emergence” by 2035, the government announced in May 2015.And the country will need the electricity. As with much of Africa (according to the International Energy Agency), a shift is well underway from a previously rural society to modern urban settlements. More people will be…
By Isaiah EsipisuDAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (PAMACC News) - Government representatives from Africa, civil society organisations and experts in the water sectors are meeting in Dar Es Salaam to draw a roadmap through which leaders will make commitments at the highest level towards achieving a universal and equitable access to water and sanitation for all.The event, dubbed Sixth Africa Water Week (AWW) and convened by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) in conjunction with the African Union Commission brings together over 1000 participants from 100 different African countries.“In order for Africa to have a universal access to water, then we need goodwill from both governments, and the people,” said H. E. Mwai Kibaki, the immediate former president for Kenya and the UNESCO Special Envoy for Water in Africa. Bai Mass Taal, the AMCOW Executive Secretary assured government representatives that his organisation was committed to improving stakeholder’s awareness of the implementable actions for achieving the set targets and actions.He said that the organisation is also committed to strengthening corporations across countries with shared water resources and building stronger partnership for the implementation of the AMCOW Work Plan and the N’gor Declaration on Water Security and Sanitation.“It is AMCOW's belief that the current funding landscape for the water sector is grossly insufficient to meet the financial deficit and, most importantly, achieve the Sustainable Development Goal number 6,” said Taal.This, he continued, calls for innovative approaches for financing water and sanitation infrastructure taking into consideration the huge challenge facing Africa in the mobilisation of financial resources to achieve the SDG 6 target of ensuring that everyone has access to potable water and sanitation.Her Excellency Rhoda P. Tumusiime, the Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission called for a consensus on a common message from the deliberations in Tanzania.“In the spirit of AMCOW’s mandate to promote cooperation, it is important that a key outcome of our deliberations in Dar es Salaam should be consensus on an a single message that will be carried by our Ministers responsible for Water Affairs in Africa to the political leadership of their individual Member States to support the wholesome integration,” she told the conference in a message read on her behalf.“This should be a minimum standard for Africa – of the targets of the Africa Water Vision 2025 and the related African political commitments for achieving water and sanitation goals in Africa into the monitoring framework for the SDGs,” added Tumusiime.
By Isaiah EsipisuDAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (PAMACC News) – Use of mobile telephone technologies and community radio services has been cited as some of the best methods of sharing and disseminating climate information for effective early warning, and adaptation.Experts attending the sixth session of the Africa Water Week (AWW) in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania have pointed out that early warning systems can be set up to avoid or reduce the impact of hazards such as floods, landslides, storms, and forest fires. However, the significance of an effective system lies in the recognition of its benefits by local people.According to Dr Abdourahman H-Gaba Maki, of the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), early warning system is a major element of disaster risk reduction, and helps in preventing loss of life and properties. “This also ensures there is a constant state of preparedness,” he told the AWW.To make the system effective and relevant to the people, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has developed a mobile telephone application (app) known as “IGAD-ASIGN”, through which mobile phone owners have an opportunity to contribute towards disaster preparedness by taking and sending photos of given geographical situation, in relation to an impending, or a particular disaster.“The IGAD-ASIGN is an important smart-phone application because it facilitates interaction and feedback from the ground,” said Maki.The photos taken by volunteers are used as field validation of IGAD and other partners’ satellite image analyses, thus contributing to accurate and efficient disaster risk reduction solutions. This has helped vulnerable countries in the Greater Horn of Africa region to make better and faster decisions.In the same vein, Maki pointed out the RANET radio networks operated by the Meteorological Department in Kenya, through which farmers and residents are able to access climate related information via community based radio stations, which usually broadcast in local languages.‘RANET’ is an international collaboration of meteorological and similar services working to improve rural and remote community access to weather, climate, and related information.Less than two years after it went on air, Nganyi RANET Community Radio in Western Kenya for example, has become a valuable asset to the community, where many people keep glued on their radio sets listening to different programs, while other access the signal via mobile phones.Through this radio station, the community served by the station can now understand when it is likely to rain, whether the rainfall will be heavy to cause floods, when the dry spell is likely to begin, hence, helping them prepare for the eventualities.It helps farmers know when to plant and the type of seeds to plant depending on the amount of rainfall expected.The Horn of Africa region has been noted to be one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change in the world (IPCC, AR5, 2014) due to the inadequacy of resources to adapt socially, technologically and financially.Use of radio and mobile phones therefore ensures that the required information reach the people on the ground, as a way of reducing the negative impact of climate change.According to…
