A call for action on climate change in Africa

NAIROBI, KENYA: This week the world will turn its attention to one of the largest gatherings of the Heads of State in New York - the United Nations Climate Summit.

More than 125 Heads of State are expected to be in attendance.

This offers a platform to discuss climate change. Others expected are leaders from the business, finance and civil society.

The main agenda of the summit is to mobilise political will that would result in a meaningful universal agreement ahead of the 2015 Climate Negotiations in Paris; and to enhance actions that would ultimately reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen the climate change crusade.

The event is expected to offer a great platform for different countries and organisations to share initiatives that are geared towards creating a low-carbon world.

The agreement will be legally binding and applicable to all parties.

At the 2013 Warsaw Climate Conference, it became apparent that all countries need to prepare their contributions under the 2015 Agreement that would result in reduced emissions and keep the global warming under 2?C.

It should therefore be expected that different world leaders will make major announcements and table what they have done so far in combating climate change.

They will further state their commitment to achieving low emissions and reducing the emission gap based on the eight critical action areas; Agriculture, Cities, Energy, Financing, Carbon Pricing, Forestry, Industry and Resilience. But is that enough?

Africa is undoubtedly one of the most vulnerable continents to the impacts of climate change owing to its low economic capability and adaptive capacity.

In many African countries, the effects of climate change are evident in increased climate extreme events (drought, flood, wildfire, landslides, disease outbreaks), low agricultural production and consequently, food insecurity and increased water stress.

Agriculture in Africa is heavily reliant on rains and the continued climate change is estimated to reduce yields in some African countries by as much as 50 per cent by the year 2020.

Climate change is also projected to have very serious consequences on the economies and people’s livelihoods.

The intensity and damage caused by climate-related disease outbreaks like malaria continues to be witnessed, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where an estimated half a million people mostly children die annually.

Africa’s vulnerability to climate change is extremely high, largely because of low mitigation and adaptive capacity.

The inability is exacerbated by infrastructural under-development, lack of proper institutional and legal frameworks and low political will.

Notwithstanding the African population that continues to grow at a rate that would not be sustained by the dwindling resources.

The poverty levels and lack of enough capacity to adapt to climate change are worsened by rising sea levels and temperature.

Yet Africa’s per capita contribution of greenhouse gas emissions is quite insignificant compared to major emitters like Europe and America.

Europe, for instance, emits 50-100 times more greenhouse gases per capita than Africa, while America emits 100-200 times more.

The global agreement must, therefore, reflect the interest of Africa which can only be made possible if African Heads of State will ensure that the voice of Africa is heard loudest at the summit.

The leaders ought to lead from the front in a more united way.

They should further walk the talk, but creating environments that would ensure the journey to zero emissions is smooth.

The leaders should focus on; sustainable development and green economy mechanisms and capacity development through appropriate technologies that would forecast and enhance disaster risk management.

They should also endeavour to promote energy efficiency through adopting clean and cost effective energy options.

Kenya, through its ambitious National Climate Change Action Plan, has set out priority plans for low carbon climate resilient development.

The mitigation analysis done in 2012 shows the country’s emission will rise owing to a growing economy and a rapidly growing population.

For instance, it is projected that by 2030, the Kenyan emission will increase to 102 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) compared to 59 MtCO2e in 2010.

Ms Sitati is a climate change expert [email protected]