Climate Change: The challenges of Botswana
Climate Change: The challenges of Botswana By Meekaeel Siphambili Gaborone-Botswana Ninety percent of the inhabitants of African countries rely on firewood or coal for cooking or domestic use. Most of the countries in Africa rely on coal fired power stations with many of the countries having no laws or regulations on engine emissions as most of the cars used do not meet the standards. The long term goal of the Paris Agreement is to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. To materialize this, Africa has to make an effort to diversify its energy mix, and to create an enabling environment for the exploitation of renewable energy. The sunny days give room for the countries to tap or use mostly the solar generated power which can be installed anywhere. Several decisions relating to climate change were taken at the 23rd Conference of Parties held in Bonn, Germany; and these motivated countries to negotiate the finer details of how the Paris Agreement will work from 2020 onwards. COP24 also carried the same resolutions on climate change. The year 2020 of the implementation of the Paris Accord is not far and the effects of climate change continue to show face across the continent. Climate Disasters According to the records, in the last decade, climate change has led to about US$2.5 trillion in disaster losses in developing countries. The number of people affected by natural disasters doubled from 102 million in 2015 to 204 million in 2016. Almost one third of the land is no longer fertile enough to grow food. More than 1.3 billion people live on this deteriorating agricultural land, putting them at risk of climate driven water shortages and depleted harvests. Droughts alone have affected more than 1 billion people in the last decade. Since 2001, droughts have wiped out enough produce to feed 81 million people every day for a year. In the SADC Region alone, the number of food insecure population is at 27 million. Between 2014 and 2016, the Region suffered the worst drought in 35 years, caused by the El Nino phenomenon, which left an estimated 41.4 Million of the population in need of food aid. Botswana has not been spared in this natural disaster. There has been an estimated 500,000 livestock deaths, and over 30,000 people (4 percent of the population) left vulnerable to the impacts of the drought. “Botswana’s scaled up implementation will require additional resources. As such, there is a need for coordinated effort in innovative domestic resource mobilisation, whilst also strategically tapping into internationally available climate finance,” said Thato Raphaka, the Botswana permanent secretary of environment, natural resources conservation and tourism. And he...
The One Planet Summit will be held in Nairobi
The One Planet Summit will be held in Nairobi The third edition of the One Planet Summit will be held in Nairobi ( Kenya) on the 14th of March. This event will start before the opening of the high-level segment of UNEA-A, the General Assembly of UN Environment. For the organizers of the One Planet Summit, this event will therefore highlight the challenges and opportunities of Africa in the fight against climate change . Explanations. By ERA ENVIRONNEMENT The commitments During the last edition of the One Planet Summit held in Washington on September 2018, Spain, Canada, the UK announced that they will join the Carbon Neutrality Coalition by 2050. This Carbon Neutrality Coalition gathers 19 countries in the world willing to commit long term strategies in order to achieve the Paris Agreement’s collective’s goal by linking economy and ecology interests. This coalition will act on sectors such as transportation, energy, agriculture and land use. But it will also promote technological innovations towards emission-reduction projects. The Former Mayor of New york and CEO of Bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg announced that he will help convene a Wall Street Network on Sustainable Finance to encourage more climate-friendly and sustainable finance innovation across the U.S. capital markets. The Wall Street Network is the latest addition to a growing roster of ‘Financial Centers for Sustainability,’ including the City of London’s Green Finance Initiative, the Paris-based Finance for Tomorrow Initiative, and over fifteen other related initiatives from China to Germany to Morocco and beyond. The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, the largest international alliance of city leaders and their networks committed to raising the global ambition for climate action with a partnership with Google and Blomberg Philanthropies. This partnership will help cities with critical information about their environmental data and it will give new tools that will empower them in transports, construction, air quality. 10 000 cities will therefore have access to online data to help them to implement ambitious action plans. The Global Convenant of Mayors will establish a program of research and innovation known as “Innovate4Cities”. This program wants to integrate cities’ implementation priorities into national, academic and private sector research, innovation and development portfolios and accelerates their abilities to meet their climate commitments. The World Bank Group committed to invest $1 billion to accelerate the deployment of battery storage in developing countries. The initiative is expected to leverage another $4 billion in concessional funding and private sector investments, and result in 17.5 gigawatt-hours of new battery storage capacity by 2025 – more than triple the 4-5 GWh currently installed in all developing countries. The goal is to catalyze new markets for battery...
Nairobi : Première conférence internationale sur l’Economie Bleue
Nairobi : Première conférence internationale sur l’Economie Bleue Le Kenya, le Canada et le Japon accueille à Nairobi, capitale du Kenya, la première conférence internationale sur l’Economie Bleue durable. Objectif : Exploiter le potentiel des océans, des mers, lacs et rivières pour améliorer les vies des femmes et des jeunes, et des autochtones vivant notamment dans les pays en voie de développement. Autre ambitions : Mettre en avant les dernières innovations scientifiques, et meilleures pratiques de conservation des eaux pour le bien être des générations futures et s’engager à agir concrètement avec des actions pratiques permettant une transition mondiale vers une économie bleue durable. Pas facile. Le concept d’économie bleue regroupe des activités commerciales liées à la mer, aux océans, aux lacs, aux rivières. Avec un risque : les changements climatiques et la destruction de l’environnement par les hommes. Comment obtenir une économie bleue durable ? Le comté de Homa Bay, situé dans la province de Nyanza, l’une des sept provinces du Kenya est connu pour son Port de Pêche. Pour Hamilton Orata, Vice-gouverneur , présent avant l’ouverture de la conférence, Homa Bay a un énorme potentiel de développement, mais doit faire face aux conséquences des changements climatiques, prendre en considération ses voisins et sensibiliser la population. Le Comté détient 60% du Lac Victoria et partage ses eaux avec avec l’Ouganda et la Tanzanie. Entretien. Comment votre population, notamment les femmes comprennent l’économie Bleue ? Ma population vit de l’Economie Bleue depuis toujours et c’est très important pour nous. Même si elle ne comprend pas tout ce qui implique l’économie bleue. Les hommes pêche et les femmes s’occupent de la vente. Elles ne vont jamais pêcher, par contre. Elles se chargent uniquement du commerce. Nous avons une population de 1,2 millions de personnes et la plupart d’entre elle, vivant autour du Lac, dépend de ses ressources. Qu’attendez-vous de cette conférence? Nous voulons que la pêche soit perçue comme une valeur ajoutée au développement économique de notre comté. Nous sommes une autorité locale, mais nous dépendons largement de l’Etat Central. Nous voulons utiliser nos ressources en profondeur en tenant compte des changements climatiques. Avec les changements climatiques, nos pratiques traditionnelles sont remises en cause: la météo traditionnelle n’est plus fiable et ne permet plus de gérer les cultures vivrières . Le rythme de pluies est différent. Il y a aussi de nombreux déchets dans le lac et c’est un réel défi auquel nous devons prêter attention. L’érosion est de plus en plus importante. Ce que nous vivons est grave et les trois pays doivent travailler ensemble pour obtenir une économie bleue durable. Nous n’avons pas utilisé le lac Victoria à son niveau optimal....
Africities-Monrovia City Mayor: “I am an inspiration for young people”
Africities-Monrovia City Mayor: “I am an inspiration for young people” Jefferson Koijee, City Mayor of Monrovia ( Liberia) is in Marrakech for Africities Summit. Mayor of Monrovia since February 2018, he was selected recently by a program of the European Union as an ambassador of the fight against climate change. His town was selected as one the 13 towns which will be supported financialy by the European Union for projects related to Energy. As a former activist and a young political leader, he is also helping the youth in his town to understand the food security challenges and solutions. Listen to the interview. By Houmi Ahamed-Mikidache JeffersonKoijee...
PRE COP 24 – A key preparatory meeting before COP24
PRE COP 24 – A key preparatory meeting before COP24 By Houmi Ahamed-Mikidache Following the calls for strong action by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the International Energy Agency’s latest report on rising emissions from the energy sector, a key preparatory meeting for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) took place during two days in Krakow Poland. During this Pre-COP, Ministers from 35 countries met to prepare a successful outcome at COP24 according to the UNFCCC Communication department . Taking place in Katowice, Poland in December, COP24 is critical as countries are set to adopt a full and balanced set of guidelines that will tell the world how to implement the Paris Agreement transparently and fairly for all, warns the UNFCCC communication department. In addition to the implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement, COP24 will also see the high-level political phase of the Fiji-led Talanoa Dialogue, which aims to assess progress towards the temperature goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement. Ministers had open and frank discussions at the Pre-COP, emphasizing the sense of urgency and underlining the need for a solid outcome at COP24, recalled the UNFCCC Communication department. Ministers discussed the key issues of the implementation guidelines, which include transparent action with respect to o adaptation to climate change impacts o ambitious emission reductions, o with strong means of implementation to support developing countries, in the form of technology cooperation, capacity building, and, especially financial support. But for the Least Developed countries’s chairman, Gebru Gembers, it is not a simple process. “The IPCC report has made even clearer the need for the Paris Rulebook to properly reflect the breadth of action required by all countries to achieve the Agreement’s 1.5°C goal”, he said earlier when the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its report. And he added: “Countries must deliver a robust Rulebook that will ensure adequate action to cut emissions, adapt to climate change and address loss and damage, and that support is provided to enable poorer countries to do the same.” For Gebru Gember, who is from Ethiopia, the IPCC report confirms that loss and damage resulting from climate change will only worsen with further warming with much greater losses at 2°C than at 1.5°C. And it urgent to find concrete solutions. “It is particularly vulnerable countries like the least developed countries that are worst affected by the devastating impacts of climate change and bear the greatest cost from the damage it causes, despite contributing the least to the problem. This injustice must be addressed by the international community through the provision of support for dealing with loss and damage,” he said. During the...