Experiences from Africa Climate Week, the road to COP 27
By Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil, SF Global Co-Director and NDC Coordinator, Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Contracted through UNDP
Over 2,300 people came to Libreville, Gabon Africa’s last Eden, where 80% of the country is covered with forests which absorb 100 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. Gabon has one of the most ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the world, which commits to remain carbon neutral to 2050. Throughout the week, participants could enjoy through videos and photographs displayed in the many rooms at the conference venue, the spectacular rain forests, amazing wildlife and fascinating art and culture of Gabon. The venue of the conference was overlooking the Atlantic ocean, with spectacularly clean beaches, evidence that the country takes environmental management seriously. I was part of the group of NDC Coordinators from Africa who were funded by NDC Partnership to attend ACW to share experiences and learn from the regional exchange sessions. New funding initiatives were launched during the week and panel discussions held on a variety of topics. There were some interesting side events and several opportunities for networking and exploring collaboration at the ACW. It was my first time to attend an ACW and here I share my experiences from the week here.
Climate change and development go hand in hand
Development is measured through the world’s achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while climate action is measured through achievement of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). There is growing recognition that countries, particularly in Africa, need to advance the Agenda 2030 and Paris Agreement jointly to have both developmental benefits and climate resilience. Aligning the two can have a multiplier effect, reduce duplication and increase efficiency- maximizing resources, technical capacity, information, and expertise sharing. There were several sessions at Africa Climate Week where linkages between NDCs and SDGs were discussed.
The Kingdom of Eswatini delegation comprising of Duduzile Nhlengethwa-Masina (Director of Dept. of Meteorology), Simelane Bafana (Instrumentation Engineer at Dept. of Meteorology), Deepa Pullanikkatil (NDC Coordinator).
There is need for long term vision
The Long Term Low Emissions Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) is an instrument that illustrates how countries can decarbonize their economies in the long run, up to 2050 and beyond, against which shorter-term targets can be set through NDCs and National Adaptation Plans. It is a crucial policy tool and can help to explore the consequences of policy choices in terms of integrated socio-economic objectives. LT-LEDS should be country-owned, tailor-made, and forward-looking to allow countries to follow a low carbon and climate resilient pathway after toll that COVID-19 recovery has taken on many developing nations’ economy. The NDCs and LT-LEDS are connected because aligning short-term climate action with long-term strategies can substantially shape countries’ short- and mid-term priorities, policies and investment pipelines, leading to significant cost reductions in the long-term. Linking NDCs to long-term mitigation strategies will be key in ensuring efficient use of resources, particularly crucial for responding to climate change amidst and following the COVID-19 crisis.
Just Transition
The buzz words at ACW were “Just Transition”. The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group defines the Just Transition concept as a framework for facilitating equitable access to the benefits and sharing of the costs of sustainable development such that livelihoods of all people, including the most vulnerable, are supported and enhanced as societies make the transition to low carbon and resilient economies. A Just Transition affirms Africa’s right to development and industrialization based on the Paris Agreement-negotiated language of equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances. The consensus seems to be that, in Africa, the priority is to lift its people out of poverty foremost, while supporting environmental sustainability and inclusive economic growth. AfDB launched a Just Transition Initiative with funding from Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and this will develop a network of relevant stakeholders, partners and experts to discuss a just transition in Africa with an objective to create consensus and a way forward on the continent.
Financing is urgently needed for climate action
At ACW, climate finance was widely discussed and mentioned in almost every session. “It is not realistic to have climate action without considering the full context of the sustainable development agenda, poverty, hunger, employment and women empowerment. Mobilization of climate finance in Africa is crucial to create real progress in Africa.”, said COP 27 Climate Champion, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin. It is estimated that Africa will need $2.8trillion to implement NDCs between 2020 and 2030. African governments have committed USD 264 billion of domestic public resources, about 10% of the total cost. USD 2.5 trillion must come from international public sources and the domestic and international private sectors. This external financial support, required beyond domestic public sources, is defined as “climate finance need”. We hope COP 27 will help mobilize additional climate finance beyond the $100billion promise.
Road to COP27: Action & Implementation
One of the outcomes of CoP26 was the finalisation of the “Paris Rulebook”. As a result, the main theme of CoP27 is the implementation of the Paris Agreement. COP 27 must live up to its expectation because we have no time to lose, as evident by the recent drought in Somalia, heatwaves in Europe and flooding in Pakistan, climate change continues to wreak havoc around the world. We have a lot to do, and I left Gabon with the message that Africa will move forward with ambition, determination and hope towards a climate resilient future and will continue the discussions at COP 27 to ensure that we foster ambitious action on climate change adaptation and mitigation.
High Cost of Electricity Is A Major Cause of Climate Change
By Vanessa Duclos, Network Manager
SFA member and PhD student, Anthony Kadoma, has had his first piece of writing published in Uganda national newspaper ‘New Vision’. The article is titled ‘High Cost of Electricity Is A Major Cause of Climate Change’.
It is surprising that despite all our water bodies in form of lakes and rivers, including the River Nile, which is the longest river in Africa, the percentage of Ugandans with access to electricity is the lowest in eastern Africa save for Burundi and South Sudan. The percentage of the citizens that have access to power in the East African region as reported by the World Bank in 2018 was: Burundi (11.02%), South Sudan (22.03%), Uganda (26%), Rwanda (34.72), Tanzania (35.56%) and Kenya (75%). When it comes to the availability of water from where most of the power is generated, Uganda leads all the countries with almost 15% of her land covered by freshwater lakes and swamps. Kenya only has 1.93%, Rwanda 3% and Tanzania 6.49% of its total landmass covered by water and swamps. This clearly shows that Uganda has an advantage over its neighbours. Then the question is why do few Ugandans have access to electricity? One of the reasons is that the cost of accessing and using power is costly for most Ugandans.
There are connection costs, wiring costs, monthly bills to pay, repair costs as well as the cost resulting from the malfunctioning of power, which has been reported to cause huge losses. Another hidden cost is that of load shedding if intended or just the power disappearing without one being alerted. This has spoilt the user’s electricity gadgets with no one to compensate them.
The second reason is that the settlement patterns in Uganda make it so expensive and difficult to have many of the citizens connected to the national grid. Almost all the parts of Uganda are habitable resulting in the scattering of homesteads all over the country, making it hard for them to be connected to the national grid.
Thirdly, there has been mismanagement of some of the government efforts to increase connections to the national grid. Programmes like rural electrification, connecting all-district and sub-county headquarters as well as health facilities are all commendable, but inadequate and do not directly target individual households.
With a handful of Ugandans having electricity in their homes even though they use it for lighting other than cooking, there is a big challenge. Almost all Ugandans whether in urban or rural areas cook using charcoal. This charcoal that is derived from cutting down trees has contributed to a great loss in terms of their acreage.
To make matters worse, the water supplied by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation cannot be consumed unless boiled first because of line leakages. This means that more trees must be cut down for homes to have clean water to drink, adding to our already burdened environment. When the forests are cleared rainfall becomes unreliable, seasons unpredictable, dry seasons are prolonged, crop yields are low, and ultimately limited household incomes.
Mbabane Flash Floods; a Time to Ponder and Act
By Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil, SFA Co-Director, Eswatini and Malawi Hub
On 6th of February 2020, Mbabane residents in the Kingdom of Eswatini experienced unprecedented flash floods which wreaked havoc in the city, flooding the Plaza, The New Mall and the Industrial Area. It was a storm accompanied by lightning, thunder, hail, strong winds and heavy rainfall in a short period of a few hours. Some say that a similar incident occurred in 2005, others say they never saw anything like this in their lives. Was the incident on 6th February a cloud burst? The Cambridge Dictionary describes a “cloud burst” as a heavy fall of rain that begins and ends suddenly, often accompanied by thunder and lightning. Whether it was a cloud burst or not may need verification from the Department of Meteorology. However, no verification is needed to state that the rainfall/storm/cloudburst brought the city of Mbabane to a halt.
The New Mall car park, which experienced flash flooding on 6 February 2020 – Mbabane, Eswatini
Streams overflowed, leading to roads, car parks and shops being flooded (in some areas up to knee height). Several cars were affected, possibly damaged beyond repair. A lot of water runoff from the highway also went into the streams in Mbabane city, further contributing to the overflows and flooding. Supermarkets and shops incurred losses when their merchandise got wet/soaked. It is not clear how much the damage from these flash floods cost or how many shops were insured. In addition to businesses getting flooded, the electricity supply in the city was affected. Trees fell and several electric poles snapped or fell, requiring the Eswatini Electricity Company to work all night to restore power to the affected residents of Mbabane.
Such events make one ponder the big global challenge of our times, Climate Change. With Climate change, such heavy downpours are expected to increase in frequency. According to scientists, southern Africa may experience a mean annual temperature rise. Although mean annual rainfall in the region as a whole will decline, an increase in the intensity of high-rainfall events is projected to occur. Rising air and sea surface temperatures have the potential to lead to more frequent and intense tropical storms in the southern Indian Ocean, and can contribute to more frequent droughts. These trends are going to affect almost all sectors, including public infrastructure and the private sector.
The heavy downpour of 6th February brings to light how infrastructure planning and the construction of commercial buildings can increase vulnerability to flooding. It is time to ask some important questions. Are the highways and roads which divert storm water to streams into the city actually contributing to flash flooding? Are shops and buildings built on low lying areas, including wetlands, a factor contributing to the increasing risk of flooding? Perhaps this is an opportune time to plan interventions to reduce the risk of such climate and weather shocks. We need to consider issues such as climate proofing infrastructure, disaster risk financing, and insurance to minimize vulnerability.
Coincidentally, during the week of the heavy rainfall event, the National Disaster Management Agency was holding a multi-stakeholder workshop at Mbabane. The purpose of the workshop was to provide training in disaster risk financing and how to create a drought risk monitor and management plan, learning from the 2015/16 El Niño induced drought. This is a welcome initiative given that disaster risk reduction and increasing preparedness and mitigation capacity is urgently needed, particularly in the context of rapid urbanization and the accompanying high hazards to which urban populations and their assets are exposed. The nation is also undertaking a National Adaptation Process, where risk reduction for such flash floods may need to be prioritized.
Short Video of the flash flooding on 6 February 2020 – Mbabane, Eswatini
Mbabane city was able to bounce back after this heavy rainfall event. Shops were cleaned up and opened the very next day. Fallen trees were removed and electricity restored to residents within hours. But the question remains: how many flooding events can we afford in a year? With climate change, we know that the severity and intensity of droughts and floods are expected to increase in future. This calls for greater engagement with the private sector to ensure their participation in climate change adaptation efforts and Disaster Risk Reduction. Additionally, this incident has brought to light the need to integrate green (ecological), grey (built-environment) and blue (water) infrastructure. There is a compelling business case for the private sector to invest in these measures, because the alternative of bearing the costs of the recurring adverse impacts of floods and droughts may be too high for their business operations. There is no time to lose. We do not want future disasters to affect us, and to watch our future slip through our fingers, just like water.
Living in an era of ecological bankruptcy
By Anthony Kadoma- PhD Student, Environmental Sustainability, University of Glasgow
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 85% of the world countries are ecologically bankrupt. Ecological bankruptcy is defined as a situation where a country’s natural resources are used at a faster rate than the same resources can regenerate. This bankruptcy is more pronounced in developed countries compared to middle-income countries and very few of the developing countries. Thus, many of the countries in Europe, Asia, and North America are perceived to be ecologically bankrupt. In the same way, developing countries that are not already there are not resting, they are also racing and are on a terrific speed to catch up with the developed nations. Global programs such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim at improving living standards across the globe mainly through poverty eradication. Although we all agree with the endeavour to eradicate poverty, by transitioning to improved standards of living, it is essential that this improvement is done cautiously and in awareness of the environmental costs that come with development.
Several examples can indicate ecological bankruptcy. This can manifests through the negative effects of climate change such as prolonged droughts, uncontrolled wildfires, hail storms, hurricanes, flooding, landslides, ever-changing seasons, excessive carbon-dioxide, loss of biodiversity, presence of many crops and animal pests and diseases, invasion of locusts, and unprecedented human destruction on environment. It is surprising to note that in Uganda, lakes that are traditionally known for not exceeding their usual levels have done so in the recent past – a phenomenon that had not been seen in decades.
Whereas it is difficult to pinpoint the actual causes of the above disasters, many of them may be linked to human activities and natural change processes. The global population currently stands at 7.8 billion with a 2.3 fertility rate (World Population Data Sheet-2020), living in an inelastic planet. Matters are made worse with the presence of non-ecological human behaviour and actions towards mother earth such as inappropriate disposal of plastic materials and general waste management. The ever-increasing human population also let to a significant encroachment on world wetlands driving them to disappear three times faster than forests (UN Climate Change Report- 2018).
Below I suggest what I consider the ten points or actions that can be taken to mitigate ecological bankruptcy in any given community. This list is not exhaustive and can be amended if more research is conducted to address specific issues.
- Increase awareness about the problem of ecological bankruptcy so that it is clearly understood by all.
- Enlist the participation of all stakeholders in whatever capacity they can support.
- Identify and promote locally based solutions grounded in indigenous knowledge.
- Study and share good practices globally, regionally, nationally and at the community level.
- Advocate for and influence human behavioural changes to adopt better waste management practices of reducing, recycling, and reusing. Conserve and use wisely the remaining ecosystems and make practical efforts to restore those destroyed.
- Identify and support alternative sources of livelihood for the majority of poor subsistence farmers. With improved living standards, they will be able to shift their practices towards more sustainable ones
- Establish and implement punitive measures for those who use their economic power and political connections to destroy the environment on a large scale. This can be achieved if politics is removed from the management of the environment.
- Make improvements in the quality of services offered to the citizens, especially in areas of health, education, and agriculture. It should be remembered that modern agriculture relies heavily on the use of hydrocarbons, pesticides, and fertilisers. These need to be used in moderation and where applicable be replaced with organic farming.
- Encourage everyone to take individual responsibility regarding how we live our lives. Planet-friendly actions need to be adopted. These among others may include free distribution and planting of several trees in areas where massive vegetation cover has been cleared, reforestation where forest lands have been decimated, and stopping the encroachment on wetlands and riverbanks as well as lakeshores.
- Finally, for most Sub-Saharan African countries, particularly Uganda, increase access to electricity and make it affordable to the citizens. At present (2020) only about 60% of the urban residents and 18% of the rural residents are connected to the national grid. Given the fact that over 75% of the population lives in rural areas (World Bank Report 2019), this paints a very grim situation. It implies that most of the people still rely on wood as their source of energy for cooking and lighting.
In conclusion, all individuals, communities and governments in both developed and developing nations need to be unequivocally aware of the fact that we are living in a natural resource-constrained planet. Our ecological overdraft gets larger day by day and year by year. Therefore, we need to be careful about how we harvest and use the scarce available resources as their scarcity is going to intensify as the world population increases, more disasters befall us, wrong political decisions are taken, and finally the presence of our uncontrolled greed.
COVID-19: Green Recovery through Tree Planting
By Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil*, SFA Co-Director and Founder of Abundance
Multiple benefits of Tree Planting
Recently, a senior policymaker in Eswatini shared with me a video of mass tree planting in Pakistan as a COVID-19 recovery and climate action project. Construction workers and others who lost jobs due to COVID-19 were given $3 per day to raise seedlings and plant trees while following safety measures of wearing masks and maintaining safe distancing. Pakistan’s tree planting project is inspiring; and is part of the country’s 10 Billion Tree Tsunami programme. The origin of the project was before the pandemic, when in 2018, Prime Minister Imran Khan launched this ambitious 5 year project to counter the impacts of climate change; rising temperatures, flooding, droughts and other extreme weather. Their ambitious goal is to plant 10 billion trees across the country in 5 years.
In Africa, a similar ambitious tree planting project was implemented by Ethiopia. The highlight was a single day in July 2019, on which people across the country turned out to help with planting 350 million tree seedlings. Recently, in the UK, the Committee on Climate Change wrote a letter to their Prime Minister urging for increased tree planting to be at the heart of the green recovery. As part of COVID-19 recovery, there is need to create thousands of jobs in a short time, which does not require specialist skills and can provide income to the most poor and vulnerable, while at the same time allowing for social distancing. Tree planting ticks all the boxes and additionally, offer the best returns for government spending while moving closer to reaching net-zero emissions. Furthermore, a greener country attracts more tourists and tourism recovery plans are part of post COVID-19 strategies.
Zoonotic diseases and Deforestation
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light that zoonotic diseases that spread from animals to humans and is a sign of how interconnected health of humans and health of ecosystems are. There is a direct correlation of pandemics to deforestation and the health of our ecosystems. For example, the Ebola virus disease; in which bats were the carriers of the virus, spread to non-forest human inhabited areas due to forest fragmentation (which reduced habitats for bats). Deforestation is likely to increase frequent contact between infected wild animals and humans, increasing the threat of pandemics in the future. Hence, it is essential that we protect our existing forests and not encroach into them for expanding our agricultural farms and human settlements.
Forests and Climate Change
Globally, we lose trees at a rate of 50 soccer fields per minute. The forests in our world are some of the most valuable resources we have; besides providing oxygen, cleaning our air, providing a source of food, construction material, and habitats for biodiversity to thrive, most importantly, they are important line of defence against climate change. The United Nations have stated that we have about ten years to prevent irreversible damage from climate change. Tree planting is the easiest, cheapest and most effective climate solution.
However, we need to be careful and not look at tree planting as a panacea for everything. Planting trees in the wrong ecosystems could have adverse impacts for biodiversity and human well-being. Trees emit complex chemicals, some of which warm the planet and the dark leaves of trees can also raise temperatures by absorbing sunlight. Hence, before embarking on tree planting projects, a thorough, detailed, ecological understanding is critical for conservation and reforestation efforts to succeed.
Tree planting and post COVID recovery
Trees are a symbol of life and as we move towards a post-COVID-19 world, tree planting is likely to be part of the mix of projects that countries will implement. The attraction towards tree planting cannot be denied as they support green recovery pathways while providing multiple wins of job creation and resilience building for climate change. However, we need to look at recovery plans holistically, be informed by science and ensure that when we do tree planting, it is the right tree, at the right place for the right purpose.
* Dr Pullanikkatil is chairperson of the National Committee (Tourism and Economic Recovery Committee; Unlocking Climate Finance) set up by the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs in the Kingdom of Eswatini that supports post COVID-19 recovery. The ideas in this article were inspired from discussions with committee members.
The University of Eswatini will host the new SFA Eswatini hub
By Dr Sizwe Mabaso, Hub Director of the Eswatini hub
The Department of Geography, Environmental Science and Planning (GEP), that is hosting the SFA Eswatini hub is under the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Eswatini (Formerly the University of Swaziland). The University consist of three campuses, namely; Kwaluseni Campus (Faculties of Education, Humanities, Science and Engineering, and Social Sciences), Luyengo Campus (Faculties of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences) and Mbabane Campus (Faculty of Health Sciences).
The GEP Department strives to be a centre of academic excellence in both theory and application pertaining to in economic, urban and development geography, geo-information science, environmental social science, natural resource management, geomorphology and climate change. Its mission is to build a sound foundation for geography teaching in schools and to provide expertise, practical solutions and insight in the areas of land-use, spatial planning and the management of environmental resources through the spectrum of effective teaching, research, consultancy and community outreach.
Research in the department is founded on applying sound interdisciplinary principles and methodologically diverse scientific approaches relevant to both the natural and social sciences, in order to address key geographical and environmental questions. Much of our research has an applied and policy relevant focus applicable to a developing country context. With regards to the areas of focus, specific departmental research focus areas of the hugely diverse team include (but not exhaustive): urbanization and settlement patterns, agricultural geography, sustainability and food security, human and social geography, socio-economic analysis and surveys, climate science/modelling, climate change (adaptation and mitigation), land use and land cover change, environmental and spatial modelling, natural hazards and disasters, pure and applied wetland geomorphology (rehabilitation and management), soil erosion and land degradation (and appropriate rehabilitation), soil/land and water resources management, drainage basin studies, waste management.