Negotiators' group launches climate expert database

A database by African experts in climate change and related fields has been launched to bridge climate research gaps within the continent.

The launch by the African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES) is part of the continental efforts to avail climate change knowledge and its impacts across the continent.

The move comes after a UN body that prepares comprehensive assessment reports about knowledge on climate change worldwide raised a concern that only 11 per cent of the authors of climate-related fields come from Africa.

"One thing that strongly came out from the Sixth Assessment Report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is that participation of African authors was very low. This means that the voices of Africans and perspectives of Africa are low. This, however, does not mean we do not have research on Africa by Africans, the reality on the ground is different," Telvin Denje, a research associate at AGNES said.

The target is to collate all African expertise under one database. [iStockphoto]

The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) reveals that in some cases, the map is virtually blank on African authorship. It revealed that contributing authors were mostly from South Africa.

The high cost of publishing research, Denje said, has instead made much research inaccessible. To publish a research journal, researchers can pay as high as Sh300,000, a cost that most researchers across the continent find too high. Coupled with delays in publishing a paper, which can take up to two years, most research in Africa is left unpublished.

"In Africa, we have outstanding papers but most are regarded as grey literature, meaning they are there but are not published and IPCC cannot use them because they are not peer-reviewed and they are not published," Denje added.

The creation of a database containing a list of researchers, therefore, is to collate all African expertise from across the continent under one database and allow for easier networking and boost access to African research.

"This makes it clear for the national focal points who approve a list of researchers who will be in the next assessment reports to select experts who are doing specific things easily," he said. "We are trying to solve the problem of African representation in the IPCC and bring up many experts who remain unknown and are working in silos."

In the database, the listed experts have their research - both published and unpublished - uploaded to the database to be used in the IPCC reports.

He said while many young African researchers are working on diverse climate change topics, most remain unknown by their National focal points who can now utilize the database to pick experts on different topics and nominate them to the IPCC.

"Problem often arises because if the National Focal Points do not know specific researchers, it is hard to nominate them. With the database, this will ease the work and also give brilliant researchers opportunities," he added.

And now the experts are collating research in the database and updating the list for every country across the continent.

Part of the goal of collating all research is also to have them accessible to policymakers.

"There has been a disconnect where scientists write very good papers but they are meaningless to policymakers and this database will try to bridge that gap by summarizing the papers into policy briefs to influence policies," he added.

Cromwell Lukurito, the Vice Chair of IPCC Working Group II said that besides increasing the visibility of authors across the continent, the database will also increase the knowledge on the continent.

"We desire to grow our participation as African authors. Increased authorship with references also makes climate negotiations easier," Dr Lukurito said.

He added that to bridge the research funding gaps in Africa, there is a need for African countries to allocate funds in the sectors.

"There is a need for the National Research Fund to be enhanced to support research in the country," Lukurito said.

He says that while scientists and researchers spend much of their time doing research that should be beneficial to the country, very little inspires policies.

"Research is never meant to stay in libraries, they are meant to inspire policies and so much has to be done to bridge the gap," he added.