NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Experts use many numbers when talking about climate change. However, rising temparatures, the resulting crop failure, and the consequent loss of livelihoods and destitution of millions of households are this year’s most important and urgent developments for millions of smallholder farmers across the vastness of the African agro-ecological landscapes.
To illustrate the unfolding crisis, let us consider the case of Malawi, one of the few countries to have achieved a fair deal of agricultural success but is now facing the worst drought in over three decades. As is the case with many countries in southern Africa, Malawi has experienced widespread crop failures due to a devastatingly strong El Niño. The country witnessed late on-set of rains, erratic rainfall, floods and prolonged dry spells.
As a result, the production of maize - the country’s main staple crop - is estimated at just over 2.5 million tonnes in 2016. This is 16 percent lower than the reduced harvest in 2015 and 34 percent below the previous five year average and has left 39 percent of the population dependant on national and international food aid to survive - a 129 percent increase over last year’s vulnerable population. In the hardest hit areas, harvest reduced by 70 percent while farmers in some areas simply couldn’t plant as the rains never came.
Dealing with this challenge in the future will require both efforts to reduce climate change and, most importantly, strategies to enable farmers to adapt to its effects. All eyes are now on the meeting taking place in Marrakesh of the world’s climate change experts and policy makers, which is seeking to set the world on track to reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Last year, the same experts met in Paris and reached a welcome agreement that seeks to limit the rise in global temperatures above pre-industrial levels by 2℃. However, the emissions of greenhouse gases are not yet falling and the effects of climate change are worsening. Much more still needs to be done to address this challenge proactively.
Nowhere else is the imperative to act more urgent than in Africa, where 70 percent of the population is dependent on rain-fed, smallholder agriculture. As the case of Malawi demonstrates, rising temperatures in Africa often signal drought and other extreme weather events that put the lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers at greater risk, increasing their vulnerability to famine and diseases. This reality is here with us today, and far beyond Malawi and southern Africa, with large swathes of the continent currently under the grip of a historical drought.
For this reason, those of us from the African continent hope that such a backdrop will give the first post-Paris meeting a greater sense of urgency. Inaction will be catastrophic. Although Africa emits less than 3 percent of the climate change inducing greenhouse gases, it will suffer its effectsdisproportinately. Mean temperatures will rise faster than the global average, exceed 2°C and may reach as high as 3°C to 6°C by 2100. For every year our global leaders fail to make progress against their commitments, it is Africa’s families that will pay the greatest price.
This is not to leave everything in the hands of globalleaders, as the prosperity of Africa and its farmers will also depend on how well farmers, especially smallholders, are able to adapt to the changing climate. This is much more within our control. Indeed, the work of AGRA and our partners has shown that African farmers are not powerless in the face of climate change. There are many ways in which they can survive and even thrive despite the dramatic shifts in growing conditions they are likely to endure.
For instance, farmers in some parts of Malawi, who are planting more drought-tolerant crops—cassava, sweet potato and pigeon pea—and using better agricultural practices are not only surviving the drought, they are expecting to generate a good income on this year's harvest.
The insurance and finance sectors have also stepped up to the plate by designing innovative products that are minimizing the effects of climate shocks to farmers. Still in Malawi, tens of thousands of farmers in the worst hit areas south of the country will now have access to credit from a microfinance institution that has protected these loans with a yield insurance that covers the crops against the impact of floods and drought.
Overall, to achieve food security under climate change, the resilience of communities and individual farmers needs to be strengthened through pro-active and longer-term adaptation actions. Although a lot more is yet to be accomplished, the continent has invested in the development and adoption of manynew agriculture innovations and technologies which should be scaled up.
We cannot put off further action on mitigating and adapting to climate change without expecting even greater pain for smallholder farmers and others around the world. From Marrakesh to all countries’capitals and decision making tables around the world, I hope world leaders will seize the moment to take action and continue to put us on a path toward a better future. A future where African smallholder farmers can fully exploit their potential to deliver food security, contribute to poverty reduction and achieve inclusive economic growth and development.
Dr. Agnes Kalibata is the President, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - new report released alongside the climate summit in Marrakech Morocco shows that Africa’s ‘Growth miracle’ in the 21st century has reversed a long standing narrative of pessimism about the region, giving experts hopes that the continent can easily industrialise without necessarily using fossil fuels and other forms of dirty energy.
“There are pessimisms, given the complex trade regimes, poor infrastructure, skills mix that is not adjacent to the market needs and poor access to finance, but at the same time, there are opportunities in the great potential of renewable energy sources in Africa, large labour force, appropriate skills mix among others,” said Carlos Lopez, Commissioner, Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.
However, for the green economy to work, said Lopez, there must be industry policies that cut across all the sectors, there must be enough ambition, and there must be sophistication to give countries the potential to do it sustainably.
H. E Rhoda Peace Tumisiime referred to Noor 1, Morocco’s solar power plant at the town of Ouarzazate, which now provides 160 megawatts (MW) of the ultimate 580MW capacity, helping the country to save hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions per year.
“This beautiful solar project is evidence of the determination of African leaders’ commitment to development using green energy,” said Tumisiime, the Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union Commission (AUC).
Many other countries have similar potentials not only in solar, but also in the geothermal and hydroelectric sectors. Kenya’s Rift Valley region for example, has a potential of producing 10,000 megawatts of geothermal energy, with the country tapping only 10 percent of it.
“There are many opportunities for Africa,” said Lopez at the launch of the report spearheaded by Pan African Institutions which include the African Union, the African Development Bank, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
The report, titled ‘Africa’s New Climate Economy,’ and launched on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 22nd Conference of Parties (COP 22) is the first to bring economic transformation together with development and climate change in one comprehensive assessment.
“The choices that African leaders make in the next few years will have major implications for economic growth, human well-being and climate resilience in the decades ahead,” said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance minister of Nigeria and a member of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. “It’s encouraging to see these three priorities brought together.”
The report points out that some 620 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity. But according to experts, countries have an opportunity to “leapfrog” to modern, energy efficient technologies, since the region has a rich portfolio of clean energy assets, including about 1,100 gigawatts of solar capacity, more than enough to meet total energy demand in the region.
“Across multiple sectors, economic, social and environmental transformations can reinforce each other and create numerous virtuous circles,” said Milan Brahmbhatt, lead author of the report. “Many of the policy and institutional reforms needed to boost growth and reduce poverty over the next 15 years will also contribute to better management of climate risk.”
MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - new report released alongside the climate summit in Marrakech Morocco shows that Africa’s ‘Growth miracle’ in the 21st century has reversed a long standing narrative of pessimism about the region, giving experts hopes that the continent can easily industrialise without necessarily using fossil fuels and other forms of dirty energy.
“There are pessimisms, given the complex trade regimes, poor infrastructure, skills mix that is not adjacent to the market needs and poor access to finance, but at the same time, there are opportunities in the great potential of renewable energy sources in Africa, large labour force, appropriate skills mix among others,” said Carlos Lopez, Commissioner, Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.
However, for the green economy to work, said Lopez, there must be industry policies that cut across all the sectors, there must be enough ambition, and there must be sophistication to give countries the potential to do it sustainably.
H. E Rhoda Peace Tumisiime referred to Noor 1, Morocco’s solar power plant at the town of Ouarzazate, which now provides 160 megawatts (MW) of the ultimate 580MW capacity, helping the country to save hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions per year.
“This beautiful solar project is evidence of the determination of African leaders’ commitment to development using green energy,” said Tumisiime, the Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union Commission (AUC).
Many other countries have similar potentials not only in solar, but also in the geothermal and hydroelectric sectors. Kenya’s Rift Valley region for example, has a potential of producing 10,000 megawatts of geothermal energy, with the country tapping only 10 percent of it.
“There are many opportunities for Africa,” said Lopez at the launch of the report spearheaded by Pan African Institutions which include the African Union, the African Development Bank, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
The report, titled ‘Africa’s New Climate Economy,’ and launched on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 22nd Conference of Parties (COP 22) is the first to bring economic transformation together with development and climate change in one comprehensive assessment.
“The choices that African leaders make in the next few years will have major implications for economic growth, human well-being and climate resilience in the decades ahead,” said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance minister of Nigeria and a member of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. “It’s encouraging to see these three priorities brought together.”
The report points out that some 620 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity. But according to experts, countries have an opportunity to “leapfrog” to modern, energy efficient technologies, since the region has a rich portfolio of clean energy assets, including about 1,100 gigawatts of solar capacity, more than enough to meet total energy demand in the region.
“Across multiple sectors, economic, social and environmental transformations can reinforce each other and create numerous virtuous circles,” said Milan Brahmbhatt, lead author of the report. “Many of the policy and institutional reforms needed to boost growth and reduce poverty over the next 15 years will also contribute to better management of climate risk.”
MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Thousands of people on Sunday 13th took to the streets of Marrakech, Morroco, and trekked for three kilometres from El Harti Gardens to Place Bab Doukkal, singing and chanting slogans demanding climate justice, and the need for an ambitious outcome from the ongoing climate negotiations summit in the country.
Among the over 10,000 protesters were representatives from different civil society organisations particularly from the developing world, among them climate scholars, indigenous people most of them who live in forests, and many other interested groups.
“We demand for climate justice now. And if we fail to act now, we risk being judged harshly by the future generations,” said Dr. Muawia Shaddad, of the University of Khartoum, and the President for the Sudanese Environment Conservation Society based in Sudan.
Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General for the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) pointed out that the outcome from the Marrakech negotiations should be ambitious enough to protect the rights of poor and vulnerable on the continent who are the most impacted by climate change, and provide adequate climate finance to address the impacts.
“We are also in solidarity with the American people, who are protesting against the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States,” said Mwenda.
Trump, during his presidency campaign came under heavy criticisms especially from his opponent Hillary Clinton, for his remarks on twitter that; "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."
“He is not a believer in climate change, and we are afraid that he might derail the process, thus undoing all the progress that has been made through painful struggles over several years,” said Mwenda.
Robert Chimambo of Zambia Climate change Network said that during the Marrakech negotiations, there is need for the developed country Parties to include and provide clarity on their contributions on all the elements including provision of money for adaptation for developing countries, and particularly Africa.
“This should be done in respect of the Paris set of negotiations, where we demanded for equity, fair deal and a legally binding agreement that is now the Paris Agreement,” said Chimambo.
The 22nd session of climate negotiations is taking place in Marrakech from November 7 to 18 2016.
