KIGALI, Rwanda (PAMACC News) – Before the year 1990 most of the refrigeration and air conditioning equipments operated using some gas called chlorofluorocarbon also known as CFC. This is an organic compound that contains only carbon, chlorine, and fluorine, produced as volatile derivative of methane, ethane, and propane. Unfortunately, the CFC was found to be a lethal greenhouse gas that mainly depleted the ozone layer.
With the commitment of the world to reduce emission of greenhouse gases (compounds that are able to trap heat in the atmosphere), because they make the earth much warmer than naturally expected, leading to climate change, the world agreed to phase out CFC, and instead adopted use Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) as a safer option.
However, with more studies, it has become clear that HFCs are not as safe to the environment as earlier thought.
“HFCs were created to replace HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons), which in turn replaced CFCs, after it was discovered that the gases were putting a hole in the ozone layer. But we didn’t realise that in HFCs we had created another thing that is even more devastating than Carbon dioxide,” said Gabi Drinkwater, a Senior Policy expert working for Christian Aid.
And now, scientists are in the process of replacing the HFCs with a new gas formula known as hydrocarbons (HC).
The HC is an elementary compound of hydrogen and carbon which occurs naturally and is found in large concentrations in crude oil. According to experts, non-toxic hydrocarbons are an eco -friendly alternative to the CFC,HCFC and HFC fluorocarbon ozone damaging elements.
It is based on this knowledge that representatives of different states from all over the world are meeting in Kigali Rwanda, to draw a roadmap on how people are going to shift from use of HFC based refrigeration and air conditioning systems to HC based systems.
This calls for countries and companies that have invested so much in production of HFCs to freeze their production. And this has leads to a huge debate related economics of investment. The other argument is about where the existing gadgets will be dumped, and at whose cost.
By the end of the week on October 15, the negotiators will have come up with the way forward to determine when the phase-out should commence, where the funding will come from, and how the money will be invested in the process.
But so far, some countries have already started producing refrigerators that use HC. In Africa for example, Palfridge Ltd, a fridge manufacturing company in Southern Africa has already switched to production of fridges that use HC.
“Apart from being environment friendly, the HC based fridges are energy efficient, produce less heat, and the compressors do not produce much noise,” said Tumani Chidyamarambe, an engineer working for Paldridge in Swaziland.
Most African states are hopeful that developed countries will help them switch before 2025.
Africa’s Great Green Wall project designed to plant trees to stop the advancement of the Sahara Desert, now presents the tremendous potential to curb climate-induced migration, unemployment, and growing insecurity from the Boko Haram terrorist group in particular among the youths and vulnerable communities, experts have said.
The Pan-African project that began five years ago has now evolved to a practical slate of activities that is improving the livelihood of the poor, building resilience in herders and farmers’ communities as climate change continue to threaten.
"The program has moved from just forest to tackle land degradation to other sustainable development challenges like land and water management, climate change, insecurity, job creation particularly for youths with many more countries embracing the initiative,” says Elvis Paul Tangem, African Union Commissioner in charge of the project.
"The initiative now combines sustainable land and water management programs, agroforestry and tree planting, agriculture development and the fight against climate change,” Tangem said in an interview at the African Forest Forum September 30, 2016, in Lome-Togo.
“Though sustainable development activities are counted amongst the innovations fronting the successes of the program, the continental political engagement and vision in agreeing for a harmonized approach to the execution of the different country and regional actions is cardinal,” he explained.
Forest experts say the initiative is the largest environmental and development program undertaken currently in the continent, with more countries and regions embracing it after seeing the impacts and results achieved.
"Many more countries are embracing the initiative now than when it started because of the development successes registered,” says Dr. Tieguhong Julius Chupezi, forest researcher and consultant with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and African Forest Forum.
"The initiative has provided the platform and framework were countries, development partners, and practitioners, researchers and all stakeholders concerned with land degradation, desertification and drought can come together and work with a shared vision,” Tieguhong said.
"The Great Green Wall initiative is increasingly seen as having the potential to tackle migration and insecurity issues that have continued to swell in many countries in the continent,” he said.
Over 21 countries are now involved in several projects and activities in support of the initiative from which runs from the circum-Sahara area to the Horn of Africa, according to African Union officials. These include Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, and Somalia, Togo, and Ghana.
However, Senegal, Mauritania, Chad, Niger, Ethiopia, and Nigeria are blazing the trail, epitomizing great examples with the development of market gardens that grow food and fruit trees for animals in the dry season, providing job opportunities for youths and thus curbing climate induce migration, said Tangem.
Senegal has so far planted over 12 million trees stretching 150 kilometers and covering 40,000 hectares of land.
Tangem says the Senegalese government intends to extend tree planting to about 545 kilometers covering 800,000 acres in the next few years.
In Burkina Faso and Senegal, reintroducing animal feed and fruit trees for herders, vegetable market gardening, and eco-tourism is providing job opportunities for many young people and thus helping hitherto migratory population to stay in their communities.
(Insert MAP of Africa’s Great Green Wall project stretching from Mauritania to the West to Djibouti to the East. Its available on the net)
Improved farming and agricultural activities undertaken within the framework of the Great Green Wall project has resulted in job opportunities, empowerment of rural farmers and improvement of the livelihood of local communities in eleven states in the Northeast and Northwest of Nigeria. These states include Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Katsina, Adamawa and Zamfara.
The African Union also argues that the project is helping in the fight against rising insecurity with at least 5000 youths who might have probably joined the Boko Haram terrorist group, now employed as firefighting brigades and part of the Great Green Wall forest guards, eco-tourism agents and women growing and selling vegetables.
Statistics from Global Mechanism, an International NGO shows that:
Ethiopia has 15 million hectares of degraded land restored and important land tenure security improved;
Senegal has planted 11.4 million trees and 25.000 hectares of degraded land restored;
Nigeria has seen 5 million ha of degraded land restored with over 20.000 jobs created;
Sudan has restored 2.000 ha of land restored.
Climate resistant trees and of multiple economic values are the ones planted in many of these countries.
"The trees are mostly the acacia species that survive harsh climatic conditions and bring economic value since they produce gum Arabic, a product that used in food additives and products including pharmaceuticals and soft drinks, for which demand is currently outstripping supply. The trees also produce fruits, for which a new market has emerged and gained economic activity for women,” Tangem said.
Land degradation, desertification, droughts and climate change impact many many communities across the continent, experts say. Forest, these experts argue is central to the solution.
"The Great Green Wall is now becoming a real Pan African flagship program,” says Godwin Kowero Executive Secretary of the African Forest Forum.
The project intends to restore 50 million hectares of land, provide food security for over 20 million people, create thousands of jobs, and sequesters 250 million tons of carbon, according to African Union officials.
The African Union says financial support for the project is growing with most of the funding coming from national budgets. However development partners like the World Bank, EU, GEF fund, FAO, UNCCD, UNEP, GIZ, and other bilateral and multilateral Partners too are financing the project.
For the Partners, FAO and EU have been the most consistent, Global Mechanism of UNCCD, GEF, World Bank being the highest funders. Currently the World Bank is investing USD 1.1 billion within the framework of the Sahel and West Africa Programme (SAWAP/ BRICKS) in 12 Member states, African Union officials said.
Africa’s Great Green Wall project designed to plant trees to stop the advancement of the Sahara Desert, now presents the tremendous potential to curb climate-induced migration, unemployment, and growing insecurity from the Boko Haram terrorist group in particular among the youths and vulnerable communities, experts have said.
The Pan-African project that began five years ago has now evolved to a practical slate of activities that is improving the livelihood of the poor, building resilience in herders and farmers’ communities as climate change continue to threaten.
"The program has moved from just forest to tackle land degradation to other sustainable development challenges like land and water management, climate change, insecurity, job creation particularly for youths with many more countries embracing the initiative,” says Elvis Paul Tangem, African Union Commissioner in charge of the project.
"The initiative now combines sustainable land and water management programs, agroforestry and tree planting, agriculture development and the fight against climate change,” Tangem said in an interview at the African Forest Forum September 30, 2016, in Lome-Togo.
“Though sustainable development activities are counted amongst the innovations fronting the successes of the program, the continental political engagement and vision in agreeing for a harmonized approach to the execution of the different country and regional actions is cardinal,” he explained.
Forest experts say the initiative is the largest environmental and development program undertaken currently in the continent, with more countries and regions embracing it after seeing the impacts and results achieved.
"Many more countries are embracing the initiative now than when it started because of the development successes registered,” says Dr. Tieguhong Julius Chupezi, forest researcher and consultant with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and African Forest Forum.
"The initiative has provided the platform and framework were countries, development partners, and practitioners, researchers and all stakeholders concerned with land degradation, desertification and drought can come together and work with a shared vision,” Tieguhong said.
"The Great Green Wall initiative is increasingly seen as having the potential to tackle migration and insecurity issues that have continued to swell in many countries in the continent,” he said.
Over 21 countries are now involved in several projects and activities in support of the initiative from which runs from the circum-Sahara area to the Horn of Africa, according to African Union officials. These include Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, and Somalia, Togo, and Ghana.
However, Senegal, Mauritania, Chad, Niger, Ethiopia, and Nigeria are blazing the trail, epitomizing great examples with the development of market gardens that grow food and fruit trees for animals in the dry season, providing job opportunities for youths and thus curbing climate induce migration, said Tangem.
Senegal has so far planted over 12 million trees stretching 150 kilometers and covering 40,000 hectares of land.
Tangem says the Senegalese government intends to extend tree planting to about 545 kilometers covering 800,000 acres in the next few years.
In Burkina Faso and Senegal, reintroducing animal feed and fruit trees for herders, vegetable market gardening, and eco-tourism is providing job opportunities for many young people and thus helping hitherto migratory population to stay in their communities.
(Insert MAP of Africa’s Great Green Wall project stretching from Mauritania to the West to Djibouti to the East. Its available on the net)
Improved farming and agricultural activities undertaken within the framework of the Great Green Wall project has resulted in job opportunities, empowerment of rural farmers and improvement of the livelihood of local communities in eleven states in the Northeast and Northwest of Nigeria. These states include Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Katsina, Adamawa and Zamfara.
The African Union also argues that the project is helping in the fight against rising insecurity with at least 5000 youths who might have probably joined the Boko Haram terrorist group, now employed as firefighting brigades and part of the Great Green Wall forest guards, eco-tourism agents and women growing and selling vegetables.
Statistics from Global Mechanism, an International NGO shows that:
Ethiopia has 15 million hectares of degraded land restored and important land tenure security improved;
Senegal has planted 11.4 million trees and 25.000 hectares of degraded land restored;
Nigeria has seen 5 million ha of degraded land restored with over 20.000 jobs created;
Sudan has restored 2.000 ha of land restored.
Climate resistant trees and of multiple economic values are the ones planted in many of these countries.
"The trees are mostly the acacia species that survive harsh climatic conditions and bring economic value since they produce gum Arabic, a product that used in food additives and products including pharmaceuticals and soft drinks, for which demand is currently outstripping supply. The trees also produce fruits, for which a new market has emerged and gained economic activity for women,” Tangem said.
Land degradation, desertification, droughts and climate change impact many many communities across the continent, experts say. Forest, these experts argue is central to the solution.
"The Great Green Wall is now becoming a real Pan African flagship program,” says Godwin Kowero Executive Secretary of the African Forest Forum.
The project intends to restore 50 million hectares of land, provide food security for over 20 million people, create thousands of jobs, and sequesters 250 million tons of carbon, according to African Union officials.
The African Union says financial support for the project is growing with most of the funding coming from national budgets. However development partners like the World Bank, EU, GEF fund, FAO, UNCCD, UNEP, GIZ, and other bilateral and multilateral Partners too are financing the project.
For the Partners, FAO and EU have been the most consistent, Global Mechanism of UNCCD, GEF, World Bank being the highest funders. Currently the World Bank is investing USD 1.1 billion within the framework of the Sahel and West Africa Programme (SAWAP/ BRICKS) in 12 Member states, African Union officials said.
The pollutants include manmade chemicals used in fridges and air conditioners, and have an impact on depletion of the Ozone Layer.
Christian Aid, among other nongovernmental organisations have called on delegates at the ongoing 28th Meeting of Parties (MOP-28) to the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer to ambitiously set up a date when the world should stop using hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
HFCs are manmade chemical gases used mainly in refrigerators, air conditioners across the world, created to replace CFCs in 1990. However, science has found out that these gases are thousands times more lethal to the climate than Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) as a greenhouse gas and their use is increasing at 10-15% a year.
Greenhouse gases are important compounds that are able to trap heat in the atmosphere, hence, giving the earth warmth that sustains life. But overproduction of these gases has led to over warming of the earth surface, leading to serious changes in climatic conditions, a condition that is already having devastating impacts on livelihoods.
Gaby Drinkwater, a Senior Policy Officer for Christian Aid told delegates at the talks in Kigali, Rwanda that it is in everyone’s interests to phase out HFCs as soon as possible.
“HFCs were created to replace HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons), which in turn replaced CFCs, after it was discovered that the gases were putting a hole in the ozone layer. “But we didn’t realise that in HFCs we had created another thing that is even more devastating than Carbon dioxide,” said Drinkwater.
However, said Drinkwater,the good news is “we’ve already created their benign replacements, which are also more energy efficient. We now need to start using them, in conjunction with controlling the destruction of existing HFCs in a safe way,” she said.
With the growing population and the changing climatic conditions, people in developing countries seek more air conditioners and refrigerators, which has led to heavy expansion of HFCs, and could deal a significant blow to the ambition of the Paris Agreement.
The ongoing negotiations in Kigali are focusing on agreeing an ambitious and equitable HFC amendment proposal, including the date when the HFCs must be phased-out. Most of the developed countries are pushing for a date closer to 2031 while a majority of the developing countries want a much more ambitious timeline in the early 2020s.
Good news is that richer countries have already provided funds to help developing countries make the transition and leap-frog to the safer alternatives, with philanthropists adding another $53m to the pot to aid this process just a month ago.
Ms Drinkwater said countries had nothing to fear from a rapid phasedown: “By leapfrogging polluting HFCs, developing countries can cut their energy use, reduce their climate impact, ensure they deliver on their Paris Agreement pledges and benefit from financial support towards equipment upgrades.”
“The combination of removing HFCs and the energy efficiency savings of new technology could see global temperatures reduced by a full degree centigrade by the end of the century.”
She said.
Tina Birmpili, the Executive Secretary, Ozone Secretariat, stated that projected increases in demand for cooling mean that, by mid-century, more energy will be used on cooling than on heating. She underlined how this trend makes reaching an agreement on an HFC phasedown, combined with efforts to improve energy efficiency, as crucial to mitigating climate change.
