African Climes

2022 has been quite the eventful year in climate. There have been new developments in terms of policies and laws, several steps forward, but climate impacts continue throughout the whole world and emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest ever, and have yet to peak so as to start falling. Let’s begin with January which came hot on the heels of the Glasgow Pact, birthed at COP26 in the same city. A UN agency raised concern about drought in the Horn of Africa as Somalia in particular, which is one of the countries hard hit by climate change; this also worsens conflict in the area. Extreme weather connected to climate change continues as Tropical storm Ana hits the Southern African nations of Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in January causing untold damage, forcing displacements and taking 171 valuable African lives. The Amazon faces a bad run of deforestation losing about 360 kilometers of forest. Australia faces high extremes of temperature. The Global Risks Report fin...

Energy efficiency refers to the excellent, total and complete utilization of lesser amounts of energy to perform a particular task. In simple terms, it’s wholly using less energy to do more. Energy efficiency is one of the solutions used in climate change mitigation, alongside nature based solutions, carbon capture and storage and renewable energy. First, energy efficiency ensures that lesser amounts of energy are used and therefore lesser amounts of energy are generated. Given that fossil fuels contribute to slightly more than three quarters of energy used in the world, being energy efficient would reduce the amount of carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. This is effectively climate action. Using energy efficiently can be applied everywhere but the main focus is industries, household use, transport and buildings In households, a lot of the energy consumed is by appliances. Using newer and more modern versions of appliances reduces the amount ...

Energy is connected to water as water is connected to energy while both are influenced by climate change, further altering the dynamics of this relationship. A growing world population means more energy and water will be needed. Energy is used in withdrawal, transport, processing and cleaning of water. Water withdrawal refers to removal/collection of water from source. Energy is used to pump water from surface water (lakes, springs, rivers and even oceans) and transport it to processing plants. Here, the water is cleaned and purified according to its various purposes. Large scale distillation and chlorination, done to make water potable (drinkable) all require quite the amount of energy. Energy is then used to transport and distribute this water to households. The Kaptis Hydropower plant (image: Africa Energy Portal) Industries and farms require a different quality of water but energy is also used in water treatment and transport/ distribution especially over long distances. The ...

 The Paris Agreement is a climate change treaty that was signed in Le Bourget, Paris, France by 197 countries on 12th December 2015. It is one of the most widely subscribed to international agreements having near universal acceptance. It succeeds the Kyoto Protocol and is to ‘govern’ from 2020 onwards. The Agreement is based on the parent treaty of the UN Climate Change Convention, which is the basis for all international laws about climate change. The fact that climate change is a global challenge is what informs international cooperation on the issue because emissions anywhere affects life everywhere. Therefore, for action taken to be successful, all parties must be involved and everybody’s voice heard. This agreement, which tries to be holistic, looks at all aspects of climate change and involves all stakeholders. It is different from the previous one because it involves the participation of both developed and developing countries in mitigation (cutting emissions) and is ‘bo...

COP 27 refers to the annual climate summit attended by all members of the UN Climate Change treaty. In 2022, this is taking place in the resort city of Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt as from November 6 th to 18 th . The summit comes hot on the heels of COP26, the pivotal meet that took place last year in Glasgow. It takes place in quite a crucial year, 2022, because of events in the international space. There are tensions around global energy supply and the effect on energy security which underpins economic development and stability for many countries.   Also there are shocks in food supply chains and disruptions in the manufacture of products such as fertilizers. Significantly, climate related events have grabbed world headlines in negative ways this year. COP27 comes on the backdrop of intense floods that covered well over 30% of Pakistan and caused massive damage, the floods in Nigeria, and the scorching heat waves in Europe of which this year’s summer was the hottest in half a m...

Transparency refers to the clarity and visibility of the work done in climate action. It is clearness in the processes and efforts in the climate fight. Because the nature of climate change is that it is a global challenge, it needs a concerted worldwide effort to deal with it. This necessitates all hands on deck, and internationally the governing body, the UNFCCC, follows the principle of common but different responsibilities and the cutting of emissions according to respective capabilities. That is, everyone should carry out mitigation, but as according to their levels of emissions. Therefore big emitters should cut more and so on. Consequently all efforts to implement the purposes of the UN convention on climate change should be transparent and clear. Transparency is an important part of the climate fight, being involved in practically every aspect of climate action. In emissions reduction, it is necessary for every concerned party to openly see that polluting entities are clear...