On this International Mother Earth Day, all eyes are on the COVID-19 pandemic – the biggest test the world has faced since the Second World War.
 
We must work together to save lives, ease suffering and lessen the shattering economic and social consequences.
 
The impact of the coronavirus is both immediate and dreadful.
 
But there is another deep emergency -- the planet’s unfolding environmental crisis.
 
Biodiversity is in steep decline.   
 
Climate disruption is approaching a point of no return.
 
We must act decisively to protect our planet from both the coronavirus and the existential threat of climate disruption.
 
The current crisis is an unprecedented wake-up call.
 
We need to turn the recovery into a real opportunity to do things right for the future.
 
I am therefore proposing six climate-related actions to shape the recovery and the work ahead.
 
First: as we spend huge amounts of money to recover from the coronavirus, we must deliver new jobs and businesses through a clean, green transition.
 
Second: where taxpayers’ money is used to rescue businesses, it needs to  be tied to achieving green jobs and sustainable growth.
 
Third: fiscal firepower must drive a shift from the grey to green economy, and make societies and people more resilient
 
Fourth: public funds should be used to invest in the future, not the past, and flow to sustainable sectors and projects that help the environment and the climate.  
 
Fossil fuel subsidies must end, and polluters must start paying for their pollution
 
Fifth: climate risks and opportunities must be incorporated into the financial system as well as all aspects of public policy making and infrastructure.
 
Sixth: we need to work together as an international community.  
 
These six principles constitute an important guide to recovering better together.
 
Greenhouse gases, just like viruses, do not respect national boundaries.
 
On this Earth Day, please join me in demanding a healthy and resilient future for people and planet alike.

KAMPALA, Uganda (PAMACC News) - As climatic conditions continue to disrupt normal rainfall patterns, drying up rivers and streams, the African Ministers’ Council on Water is now seeking to understand groundwater, following numerous studies that have shown that it is key to building resilience.

“The volume of groundwater in Africa is estimated at 0.66 million km3, which is more than 100 times the annual renewable freshwater resources, but since it is hidden underground, it remains under-valued and underutilized,” said Dr Paul Orengoh, the Director of Programs at African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW).

This comes after a recent study led by scientists from University College London (UCL) and published in the Nature Journal suggested that groundwater in the Sub Saharan Africa region was resilient to extreme climate conditions, making it a key resource for climate change adaptation.

To examine how groundwater is replenished, Prof Richard Taylor of UCL together with several other scientists from different institutions abroad and in collaboration with their counterparts in Africa examined how different aquifers behaved with different rainfall patterns.

"Our results suggest that the intense rainfall brought about by global warming strongly favours the renewal of groundwater resources,” said Prof Taylor noting that over half the world's population is predicted to live in the tropics by 2050, and therefore dependence on groundwater as a resource will continue to rise.

And now, AMCOW has formed an initiative that will help member states understand their water resources, manage it sustainable, and use it for poverty alleviation in their respective countries.

“The AMCOW Pan-African Groundwater Programme shortened as APAGroP seeks to improve the policy and practice of groundwater in Africa for better lives and livelihoods in all the 55 member countries,” said Orengoh.

Studies have shown that at least 320 million people in Africa lack access to safe water supplies, and therefore developing groundwater resources sustainably, according to experts, is a realistic way of meeting this need across Africa.

APAGroP therefore comes in to bridge the knowledge deficits gap around groundwater on the continent.

Through the initiative, AMCOW seeks to support Member States to develop, manage, and utilize water resources to assure water, food and energy security in Africa. “WASH has historically attracted prime attention. Strategy is raising the priority given to water for food, energy and industrial production,” said Orengoh.

Speaking at the recently concluded African Water Association (AfWA) forum in Kampala Uganda, Dr Callist Tindimugaya, the Commissioner for Water Resources Planning and Regulation Ministry of Water and Environment in Uganda said that there is need to to support and implement APAGrop- from transboundary to local scale.

“APAGrop should have a strong link with all Regional Economic Communities, River Basin Organisations and member states for easy implementation,” he said. “These regional organisations and member states can contribute through actual implementation on the ground, capacity building, resource mobilization, and advocacy,” noted Dr Tindimugaya.

Apart from regional platforms and member states, AMCOW seeks to work in close collaboration with consumptive sectors, which include agriculture, water supply, industry, among others through appropriate platforms.
Others are research-to-use organizations and associations such as the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH), Civil Society Organisations, the private sector and international bodies and organiosations.

“By the end of the day, we expect to have increased knowledge base on groundwater resources, strengthened groundwater networks, strengthened capacity for groundwater development and management across all member states, and strengthened multi-purpose and sustainable use of groundwater to enhance water and food security and climate resilience,” said Dr Orengoh.

MADRID, Spain (PAMACC News) – On the eve of a critical year for environmental decision-making, Colombia, Germany and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) today announced that Colombia will host World Environment Day 2020 in partnership with Germany and that it will focus on biodiversity.

World Environment Day takes place every year on 5 June. It is the United Nations’ flagship day for promoting worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Over the years, it has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental public outreach and is celebrated by millions of people in more than 100 countries.

Making the announcement on the margins of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid, Spain, Ricardo Lozano, Colombia’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Jochen Flasbarth, Germany’s State Secretary for Environment, and Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, stressed that with one million plant and animal species facing extinction, there has never been a more important time to focus on the issue of biodiversity.

“2020 is a year for urgency, ambition and action to address the crisis facing nature; it is also an opportunity to more fully incorporate nature-based solutions into global climate action,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UNEP. “Each year, World Environment Day is a powerful platform to accelerate, amplify and engage people, communities and governments around the world to take action on critical environmental challenges facing the planet. We are grateful to Colombia and Germany for demonstrating leadership in this effort.”

2020 is a critical year for nations’ commitments to preserving and restoring biodiversity, with China hosting the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming. Next year also provides an opportunity to ramp up to the start of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), intended to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystems to fight the climate crisis and enhance food security, water supply and biodiversity.

“In Colombia we will face an important challenge in 2020, and it is to host the 3rd and last OEWG [open-ended working group] meeting of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework before the COP in China. In Colombia, we are willing to work together to reach an agreement that allows us to move forward positively towards ambitious results in the COP that will meet us in China; we welcome Germany’s gesture of support in this global effort and look forward to a successful collaboration," said Ricardo Lozano, Colombia’s Environment Minister.

Listed as one of the world’s “megadiverse” countries and sustaining close to 10 per cent of the planet’s biodiversity, Colombia ranks first in bird and orchid species diversity and second in plants, butterflies, freshwater fish and amphibians. The country has several areas of high biological diversity in Andean ecosystems, with a significant variety of endemic species. It also has part of the Amazon rainforest and the humid ecosystems of the Chocó biogeographical area.

“There is no better time to come together for the planet than now,” said Jochen Flasbarth, Germany’s State Secretary for the Environment. “Climate action and biodiversity conservation are two sides of the same coin. We need to develop policies that stop the extinction of plant and animal species. Germany is pleased to support Colombia and other member states in making 2020 a year that kicks off action for biodiversity.”

According to a landmark report this year by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), current negative trends in biodiversity and ecosystems are projected to undermine progress towards 80 per cent of the assessed targets of the Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty, hunger, health, sustainable consumption and production, water, cities, climate, oceans and land.

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - A new dawn is here. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD) has been renamed the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD).

The rationale behind the establishment of the African Union Development Agency is to ensure that it acts as a vehicle for the better execution of the African Union Agenda 2063, a 50 year common continental strategic framework to promote inclusive growth and support sustainable development by the year 2063.

“The transformation from NEPAD Agency to AUDA-NEPAD will be showcased from the start, in the difference we will be making through our new mandate…We embrace this transformation and I have full confidence that we are all ready for the task at hand,” says Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, AUDA-NEPAD Agency CEO.

With a renewed mandate to coordinate and execute priority regional and continental projects to promote regional integration towards the accelerated realisation of Agenda 2063,the Agency is not losing sight of the importance of sustainable environmental management and optimum utilisation of natural resources as a central pillar for Africa’s economic transformation.

“Since its creation, we have constantly integrated into each of our programmes, the sustainability and protection of our biodiversity. Since October 2001, with the launch of the Environment Initiative, mechanisms have been put in place to combat global warming, such as combating land degradation, wetland conservation, the sustainable conservation and use of marine and coastal resources, and the cross-border conservation and management of natural resources,” explains Dr. Mayaki.

As Dr. Mayaki puts it, the NEPAD’s founding framework and Environment Action Plan clearly recognisesa sustainable environment as a pre-requisite to achieving the continent’s overall goal of sustainable growth and development. It is worth noting therefore that this design is largely driven by the fact that African countries’ economies are agrarian in nature, heavily relying on natural resources sensitive sectors for growth.

As part of its core mandate, the AUDA-NEPAD contributes to strengthening the ability of member States and Regional Economic Communities to integrate climate change and sustainable development responses into national development processes. It has also been key in the provision of capacity building, financial and technical support in the areas of adaptation, technology development and finance; and their inter-linkages.

Concerning natural resources management, the Agency has been instrumental in promoting adaptive management, participatory decision making and sustainable financing through funds for ecosystems services management including tourism development and management.

One example of such initiatives is the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) which responds to the African Union mandate to bring 100 million hectares of degraded land into restoration by 2030, as expressed in the political declaration endorsed by the Africa Union in October 2015 for the creation of the umbrella Africa Resilient Landscapes Initiative (ARLI).

It complements the African Landscapes Action Plan (ALAP) and the broader Climate Change, Biodiversity and Land Degradation (LDBA) programme of the African Union. AFR100 contributes to the achievement of domestic restoration and sustainable development commitments, among many other targets.

The initiative directly contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Change Agreement. It builds on the experience and progress achieved through the TerrAfrica Partnership and related landscape restoration efforts.

Thus, at a recent Brand Awareness Drive in Nairboi, Kenya, the media were urged to popularize such positive milestones as NEPAD rebrands to the first ever African Union Development Agency.

This, it was highlighted should be done through not only highlighting its key focus areas but also how national governments and institutions should link themselves to the overall aspirations of ‘Agenda 2063:The Africa We Want.’

“This is the first ever African Union Development Agency,” said Mwanja Ng’anjo, AUDA-NEPAD Head of Communications. “As African media, we should be excited about this development for this is our own initiative as Africans. But most importantly, we should not leave the ordinary people behind as AUDA-NEPAD is mandated by the African Union Commission to deliver on Africa’s development aspirations. I do firmly believe that everyone has a role to play in building ‘The Africa We Want.’ We are here to learn from you as media on how we can together take forward Africa’s agenda by setting a positive development narrative for the continent.”

In outlining the key focus areas of AUDA-NEPAD, Martin Bwalya, Head of Industrialization, emphasized the importance of sustainable environmental management and natural resources governance as a central pillar for the continent’s development aspirations.

“Our key focus areas are strengthened Institutions and Human Capital, Industrialisation, Economic Integration and last but not the least, Natural Resources Governance and Environmental Sustainability,” saidMr. Bwalya. “In fact, we consider sustainable environmental governance as a foundation because we cannot talk of industrialisation without optimum utilisation of our natural resources as a continent; similarly economic growth cannot happen in vacuum without sustainable environmental management. It is not a secret that we are well endowed with plenty natural resources but key is how we manage these resources in a balancing act to keep sustaining usin our quest to achieve our aspirations as espoused in agenda 2063.”

While these efforts are aimed at providing African Union Member States with innovative development and implementation capacities for viable natural resources management, there is a caveat that desired impact would only come about through strengthened linkages with national institutions.

“Inclusive growth and sustainable development cannot be achieved in a vacuum, therefore, operating at national, regional and continental levels, the clear value is not necessarily staying in there but linking it to where it maters the most, impact oriented results for the people at national level,” noted Mr. Bwalya.

And the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA), the country’s principal regulator of the environment, agrees with the importance of linking national institutions to continental aspirations, especially on sustainable environmental management and natural resources governance.

“We believe the environmentis a shared resource and therefore its management should also be a shared responsibility,” says Irene Lungu Chipili, ZEMA Manager, Corporate Affairs. “We have so much in common as Africans and similarly, we have a lot of trans-boundary natural resources which require responsible management. Thus, linking national institutions to the larger mandate of the African Union and its development Agency broadens our perspectives and opens up opportunities for collaboration across borders to sustainably manage our natural resources and the environment.”

Amidst heightened impacts of climate change and with a focus on strengthening agriculture, fostering food and nutrition security,improving environmental governance, as well as facilitating the adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, AUDA-NEPAD CEO, Dr Mayaki believes theintegrated approach that the Agency has takenagainst global warming, is key.

“The latest United Nations Climate Summit highlighted the differences in approach between polluting countries, major industrial powers and countries suffering the consequences, particularly those in Africa. AUDA-NEPAD, in its DNA, has this environmental dimension,” says Dr. Mayaki.

“We are passionately committed to the protection of biodiversity, the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, water security and renewable energies. In concrete terms, by 2023, the proportion of land used in an eco-sustainable manner must reach at least 30% of the total. Trans-boundary natural resources will now have to be integrated as natural capital in the negotiations. Water security requires better management of rainwater and irrigation, including the promotion of the use of recycled wastewater for agricultural or industrial purposes. In addition, we will support all actions to reduce the share of fossil fuels in total energy production to minus 20% and to increase the share of renewable energies in total energy production by at least 10%.”

This illustration of the objectives to be achieved by 2023 shows the African Union’s commitment to building environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient economies and communities, as called for in Goal 7 of Agenda 2063.

AUDA-NEPAD thus requires national governments and institutional support in its efforts to advance knowledge-based advisory support, undertake the full range of resource mobilisation, and serve as the continent’s technical interface with all Africa’s development stakeholders and development partners.
The author is Principal Information and Communications Officer at ZEMA; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.