BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - Farmers are among the first victims of climate change as they rely on the weather and the environment in its entirety for their production and livelihoods.
But until the last climate meeting in Bonn in November 2017, agriculture had been missing from the decisions of the Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The COP23 decision on agriculture, also known as the Koronivia Decision on Agriculture, which took five years of discussions to reach, is a turning point for small-holder farmers.
It indeed provides hope for farmers and processors in developing economies as it will deliver meaningful action on adaptation to adverse effects of climate change on agriculture.
“Agriculture is now being looked at as a sustainable development issue,” said Mithika Mwenda of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). “We look at climate change not just as a scientific issue but it is an agricultural issue; it affects livelihoods of the people, it’s a human rights issue”.
Climate vulnerabilities across value-chain commodities affect farmers. The financial and technological needs of farmers to adapt are therefore as critical as the mitigation technics to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of the agricultural sector.
However, Parties and observers to the climate talks now have two years to work on bold actions needed in agriculture before more specific ones are agreed upon in 2020.
African civil society and partners believe it is now time to evaluate how the UNFCCC can provide ways for farmers and agro-processors to adapt to climate change, increase their resilience with technology transfer, information dissemination, leverage finance and capacity building.
At the ongoing Bonn Climate Talks, CUTS International and PACJA jointly convened a group of agriculture and climate experts, working across Africa, to reflect on the challenging road towards advancing decisions on the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture.
During the event, the panelists brought greater focus on integrating African agriculture sector challenges into the joint work. The panel included Mithika, Martial Bernoux of the Food & Agriculture Organization, Catherine Mungai from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security as well as George Wamukoya, Expert & Consultant on Climate Change and Agriculture.
They explored how developing countries can take the process forward to effectively deal with the impacts of climate change on their agriculture.
Mithika observed the need to inspire a bottom-up approach in the discus to get local communities and farmer groups engaged in the process.
“In the next couple of months, we’ll like to mobilize communities at the local level because we want to make this very practical,” he said.
As an observer, CUTS International has submitted proposals to the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, which explore the socio-economic and food security dimensions of climate change in developing countries’ agricultural sector.
According to the non-profit NGO, the concerns and needed related to agriculture and food security “must be heeded by all Partners by agreeing to bold actions that support developing countries and LDCs in order to enhance their agriculture resilience in facing climate adverse effects and ensuring an agricultural development that is conscious of not only its environmental, but also social and economic impacts”.
BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - The fossil fuel industry has been active in lobbying for delays in global climate action as they stand to make enormous amounts of money when the process is stalled.
If the targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change to reduce emissions are to be met, the fossil fuel industry will be losing money.
A study on “Revolving doors and the fossil fuels industry”, presented by the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament at the Bonn Climate Talks in Bonn this week, is calling for the adoption of a strong conflict of interest policy that would avoid the disproportionate influence of the fossil fuel actors on the international climate change negotiations.
The report gathers studies of revolving doors between the fossil fuel industry and high level politicians, Ministers, regulators and advisors, and questions whether the EU and European governments’ lack appetite to deal with this issue is a result of the cozy relationships built up with the fossil fuel sector over the years.
According to Max Andersson, Swedish Greens Member of the European Parliament, the revolving door between politics and the fossil lobby is a serious cause for alarm.
“If we are to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and keep global warming down to as close to 1.5 degrees as possible, we need to clamp down on conflicts of interest to stop coal, gas and oil from leaving their dirty fingerprints over our climate policy,” he said.
The demand to tackle conflicts of interest within the UNFCCC has been raised by governments representing over 70% of the world’s population and civil society organizations from across the globe and is supported by the European Parliament.
However, progress has been slow, notably, because the European Commission had been siding with Canada and the USA to block discussions on conflict of interest from appearing on the UNFCCC agenda.
The Africa Group of negotiators has stated that there needs to be restrictions on business participations in the negotiations because engagement by vested interest “threatens the integrity and legitimacy of the UNFCCC process” and the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Augustine Njamnshi, Chair of Political and Technical Affairs at the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), says there is no basis to delay climate action.
“It is in our interest to ensure that those who come here; those who come to the discussion table are there for real business to solve this climate crisis because the more we delay, the more endangering the continent of Africa and other developing countries,” he said.
The report by the Greens/FFA Group concludes that there is a need to adopt conflicts of interest policies at the UN, EU and national levels to safeguard public interest policy-making from the disproportionate influence of vested interest, which is particularly urgent when it comes to climate negotiations.
“European governments need to support the call for a common sense conflict of interest policy so that the next COP can deliver outcome that will put the world on the road towards a climate in balance,” said Max.
BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - The fossil fuel industry has been active in lobbying for delays in global climate action as they stand to make enormous amounts of money when the process is stalled.
If the targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change to reduce emissions are to be met, the fossil fuel industry will be losing money.
A study on “Revolving doors and the fossil fuels industry”, presented by the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament at the Bonn Climate Talks in Bonn this week, is calling for the adoption of a strong conflict of interest policy that would avoid the disproportionate influence of the fossil fuel actors on the international climate change negotiations.
The report gathers studies of revolving doors between the fossil fuel industry and high level politicians, Ministers, regulators and advisors, and questions whether the EU and European governments’ lack appetite to deal with this issue is a result of the cozy relationships built up with the fossil fuel sector over the years.
According to Max Andersson, Swedish Greens Member of the European Parliament, the revolving door between politics and the fossil lobby is a serious cause for alarm.
“If we are to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and keep global warming down to as close to 1.5 degrees as possible, we need to clamp down on conflicts of interest to stop coal, gas and oil from leaving their dirty fingerprints over our climate policy,” he said.
The demand to tackle conflicts of interest within the UNFCCC has been raised by governments representing over 70% of the world’s population and civil society organizations from across the globe and is supported by the European Parliament.
However, progress has been slow, notably, because the European Commission had been siding with Canada and the USA to block discussions on conflict of interest from appearing on the UNFCCC agenda.
The Africa Group of negotiators has stated that there needs to be restrictions on business participations in the negotiations because engagement by vested interest “threatens the integrity and legitimacy of the UNFCCC process” and the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Augustine Njamnshi, Chair of Political and Technical Affairs at the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), says there is no basis to delay climate action.
“It is in our interest to ensure that those who come here; those who come to the discussion table are there for real business to solve this climate crisis because the more we delay, the more endangering the continent of Africa and other developing countries,” he said.
The report by the Greens/FFA Group concludes that there is a need to adopt conflicts of interest policies at the UN, EU and national levels to safeguard public interest policy-making from the disproportionate influence of vested interest, which is particularly urgent when it comes to climate negotiations.
“European governments need to support the call for a common sense conflict of interest policy so that the next COP can deliver outcome that will put the world on the road towards a climate in balance,” said Max.
MAFETENG, Lesotho (PAMACC News) - A group of women in Thabaneng, Mafeteng, about 75 kilometers south-west of Maseru, are unhappy with the sidelining of women’s development needs despite the fact that they often bear the brunt of climate change. But the women are taking an uncharted path to change the situation.
The women—all members of a small-scale farmers group that seeks to highlight the debilitating effects of climate change on poor rural communities, say there is need for a complete change in efforts to halt the phenomenon.
The farmers’ group is unhappy that rural women’s plight is given little priority on the climate change agenda, arguing that emphasis should be directed at community-based approaches to address gender and climate change.
One of the women, Mapheko Phera, sayst her area was one of the worst affected by El Nino which caused the driest weather phenomenon that hit many parts of Southern Africa in 2015. This was when she decided to join hands with other women to form the Small-Scale Farmers Forum of Lesotho.
Phera, a mother of three, said life began to change for her when she joined the piggery project, a major component of the forum.
She now sells piglets, pork and livestock foods to supplement her meagre earnings from subsistence farming.
“It was in this rural women assembly where I acquired knowledge and skills on farming,” she said.
However, persistent drought meant that Phera’s livestock business was also in danger of collapsing as water had become scarce. This led to her abandoning the piggery project.
“There was no water and food for the pigs and I began losing some of them. I couldn’t stand watching them die without rescuing them. Selling them was the only option left for me,” Phera said while bemoaning the worst drought in living memory that has now crippled her livelihood.
The UN Women supports the essential idea of ensuring that women like Phera are empowered as critical actors in addressing the impact of climate change.
The agency says this is critical in ensuring that women and girls enjoy their rights and are able to make better decisions to better respond to disasters.
The UN Women clearly states that in many parts of the Southern Africa, women and girls from rural areas in particular, are disproportionally affected by the negative impact of climate change.
One of the founders of the Forum, ‘Mamalefetsane Phakoe, said some of the skills members of the assembly acquire include sewing, crop production, animal and poultry farming.
“Our assembly molds women into small scale farmers with the ability of establishing income generating projects with the purpose of adapting to climate change,” Phakoe said.
“We promote the use of indigenous seeds in our cropping activities knowing fully that known climatic patterns have changed. We share amongst others, while on the other hand we also encourage women to practice agrology agriculture and other efforts of being adaptive to this global concern,” explained Phakoe.
The Paris Agreement calls for action to respect, promote and consider respective obligations on gender equality and the empowerment of women in addressing climate change. It also gives mandates for gender-responsive adaptation and capacity building activities.
On the other hand in light of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world leaders in 2015, there has to be an opportunity for renewed work on gender and climate.
The UN Women believes that to advance this agenda and contribution to the achievement of SDGs, it is critical to focus on gender sensitive climate change responses and approaches.
The SDGSs agenda adopted by the world leaders in 2015 acknowledges women as beneficiaries and enablers of climate action and as agents of climate change while African Union Agenda 2063 provides a strong impetus for advancing gender and climate change.
The rural assembly women, believe that with the full support from the Lesotho government especially in providing markets for their products, the programme will not just benefit them and their families but also other women from their village who are keen on joining the assembly.
Assembly members produce handicrafts such as shoes, headbands, dried vegetables among others to sustain their families during drought seasons.
In May 2016, a declaration was taken up by rural women, women smallholder farmer organizations, supporting civil societies and media in Southern Africa, in Johannesburg South Africa.
Concerns raised in it included an increasing impact of climate change on rural women smallholders, which they said needs urgent attention to prevent further hardships in their lives and that of their households as well as communities.
It also raised concern over declining access to natural resources such as marine, forestry, land, water and livelihood support systems by rural women smallholder farmers due to the negative impact of climate change.
This Declaration urged the Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairperson to champion the issue of climate change among fellow heads of states and governments.
The Declaration encourages decision makers to prevent a recurrence of the disaster of 2015/16 growing season, by listening to the voices of women in SADC, who demanded the implementation of existing commitments and policies of international and regional conventions that are pro-rural smallholders and gender equality.
Lesotho is said to have small carbon footprint, as it is committed to tackling both the causes and consequences of climate change.
The women, therefore, urges everyone to join hands in building a climate resilient nation.
