African Climes

T oday’s blog post is about a carbon budget. What’s a carbon budget you ask? Well, it’s roughly based on the idea of an actual budget in a way, something we will get to shortly. For purposes of clarity, let me explain what a global carbon budget is. A global carbon budget is the processes of removal and absorption in the carbon cycle affected by mankind, that is, the quantities of carbon emissions released by human activities into the atmosphere as well as the amounts that are removed and absorbed into the oceans, land and plants. So these are specifically human led processes that emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere such as burning fossils, cutting forests, agriculture. T hen there are those processes that absorb carbon like when it dissolves into the ocean, is absorbed by plants and stored in their trunks and later in the soil. So a global carbon budget measures the emissions released into the air as well as how much of it is subsequently removed /absorbed and stored.   So

Water is life.  W e have often heard the saying, water is life or in Kiswahili Maji ni uhai . In many, very many ways water is life itself. Let’s start with the human body which is about 60% water. All life on Earth needs water for survival starting from the earthworm deriving its share from soil moisture to the animals that live in water, to water used for drinking and in growing crops and keeping livestock. 70% of Earth is covered by water. See the importance now? W e all need water to survive. C limate change refers to the associated effects on climate caused by the rise in global atmospheric temperatures occasioned by the greenhouse effect. This rise in global temperatures is known as global warming. In terms of water, climate change will and has already started affecting water supply and thus demand especially surface and groundwater recharge. It also impacts the availability, duration, timing and amount of rainfall, snow melt as well as the quality of water.   R isin

T oday’s blog post is about climate finance which is a very important aspect of the fight against climate change. Climate finance has been given due attention in both the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement. But what is climate finance? Climate finance basically refers to the flow of finance from public, private, national and international entities to go towards the efforts to combat climate change. T his money goes towards efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions, to fund transition to a low carbon pathway, aid in climate resilient development, aid in adaptation to the effects of climate change, and in recouping from loss and damage, that is, regrouping. While still growing and developing, climate finance is a very wide and diverse field but basically encompasses all money that is used in climate action. C limate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions, the majority of which are from developed countries. But the most vulnerable and affected by climate chan