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Africa-wide Civil Society Climate Change Initiative for Policy Dialogues - ACCID
Africa Climate Change Digest: 23 March 2010 |
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Launch of Africa Adaptation Programme in Namibia UNDP Ondangwa: Namibia has become one of the first African countries to launch the climate change adaptation programme. Supported by the United Nations Development Programme, the Namibia Africa Adaptation Project will aim to create systems to manage climate change risks and opportunities in the long-term... Farmers need to adapt to climate change The Namibian Windhoek: Across the African continent, projects aimed at helping rural farmers adapt to the effects of climate change are springing up. One such project gives farmers early warning as to when the rain will come, how much it will be and how long it will last. This will help them to choose when to plant their crops to avoid floods or droughts... Unam plans for climate change research New Era Windhoek: The University of Namibia is considering a series of research projects to respond to priorities set to existing climate change and development policies. The policies refer to international instruments such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the National Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, Vision 2030, as well as the third National Development Plan... It's possible to reverse climate change in Africa The East African A small environmental revolution is taking place among peasant farmers and villagers in West Africa, a region once devastated by drought and systematic land degradation, and it is peasants like Yacouba Sawadogo and Sakina Mati leading it. Sawadogo, an illiterate peasant farmer in Burkina Faso, has become a celebrity in his village... Weather changes turn farming into gamble with nature Inter Press Services Dar es Salaam: Changes in weather patterns have turned agriculture into a gamble with nature for Tanzanian farmers. Prolonged droughts and floods have made the lives of small-scale farmers, who don't have access to irrigation, extremely difficult. In Tanzania, where the economy is largely driven by agriculture, the largely poor, rural population has become even more vulnerable... Green crops can reform Mid East agriculture TradeArabia Alternative technologies and new green crops could revolutionise agriculture in the Middle East, say the organisers of an upcoming major agri-business trade event in Dubai... EAC ministers meet over climate change The New Times Kigali: The East African Community ministers recently met and held talks in Kisumu, Kenya over climate change and food insecurity within the regional bloc. During the meeting, they concluded with a firm resolution to address food insecurity and the impact of climate change within the East African Community... Experts meet to okay document on climate change in West Africa Afrique en ligne Accra: A three-day meeting of experts from ECOWAS member states began Monday in Accra, Ghana, to validate the draft Regional Strategy and Plan of Action to Reduce Vulnerability to Climate Change in West Africa... Africa: First ministerial conference on meteorology to be held in Nairobi Xinhua Geneva: The First Conference of Ministers Responsible for Meteorology in Africa will be held in Nairobi from April 12 to 16, and ministers from across the continent will discuss disaster prevention, food security, health issues and climate change... Climate change in Mauritania: taking action before it is too late PENKI “Even without climate change, Nouakchott is at risk of flooding, given that a large part of the city was developed in a depression zone named Aftout,” warned Demba Marico, National Coordinator of Mauritania's Adaptation to Climate and Coastal Change Project. “When people build there, flooding is to be expected... South Africa: Minister issues climate warning News24 Port Elizabeth: There is a worrying lack of public awareness of climate change and solutions for it, Environmental Minister Buyelwa Sonjica has said. “It is long overdue that partnerships need to be formed with government to provide the knowledge that might guide planners and managers in urban, rural and coastal areas... Africa needs proactive action on climate change, expert says allAfrica.com A three-day climate change conference being held in Accra, Ghana, ends today. It was organized by the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance and representatives from more than 30 countries are attending, according to the Ghana News Agency. Despite many meetings on the issue, African nations need to better coordinate their efforts to combat climate change, says Youba Sokona, executive secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory based in Tunis... Lawmakers to get training on climate change Next Lagos: The National Assembly is to collaborate with the Federal University of Technology, Minna, on the training of legislators and other stakeholders on climate change. Eziuche Ubani, the chairperson of the House of Representatives Committee on Climate Change, made this known when members of the committee paid a visit to the institution... Don't trash climate talks, Kenya PM tells Africa Daily Nation Nairobi: African countries have been asked to stop criticising the outcome of last year's climate change talks in Copenhagen. Even though the talks did not yield to most of the demands by African states, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said they should consider them as “the first major step” towards finding a lasting solution to the problem... Research network to help poor countries tackle climate change AlertNet London: The British government has launched a research network on climate change and development that will support more than 60 of the world's poorest countries in their efforts to cope with the impacts of global warming and pursue low-carbon economic growth. The £50 million Climate and Development Knowledge Network, to be funded over five years by DFID, will link developing nations with climate experts around the world, providing them with knowledge to develop policies that take climate change into account... “Famine marriages”: just one byproduct of climate change Inter Press Service United Nations: The negative fallout from climate change is having a devastatingly lopsided impact on women compared to men, from higher death rates during natural disasters to heavier household and care burdens. In the 1991 cyclone disasters that killed 140,000 in Bangladesh, 90 percent of victims were reportedly women; in the 2004 Asian Tsunami, an estimated 70 to 80 percent of overall deaths were women... Water woes fall on women's shoulders Inter Press Service Colombo: As a wife of a rice farmer and mother of two children aged nine and two, Sanjeevani Bandara's days are packed with chores. Yet while she used to be able to keep up with all she has to do in a day, this Sri Lankan mother now finds herself struggling to accomplish even the most basic tasks... Bangladesh: Dealing with climate change demands a more gendered approach The Financial Express Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for all -- with this very theme, the women of the world will be observing International Women's Day 2010. The major concern of the present world is climate change and environmental degradation. In fact, involving women in protecting the environment would help societies develop the sense of responsibility needed to maintain a good balance between humans and the earth's resources... African development financier pledges more support for renewable-energy projects Engineering News Johannesburg: As climate change and carbon emission mitigation remains at the top of the political, economic and social agenda, the African Development Bank has pledged to provide more support for renewable-energy projects across the continent. In an exclusive interview with Engineering News, AfDB vicepresident for infrastructure and regional integration Bobby Pittman states that the bank is aggressively focused on the development of renewable energy in Africa... Going green The Economist London: The global recession was slow to hit Africa. Its banks and stock exchanges were isolated enough from the wider capital markets to suffer few shocks. Foreign investment remained steady. Oil-rich countries such as Angola continued to boom. But dampened demand for African exports last year, together with the shrinking of many venture-capital funds, has now hit the continent hard after a long period of unusually perky growth... Green finance wise, or otherwise Inter Press Service Brussels: A plan to give the European Union's lending arm a beefed-up mandate for financing the fight against climate change has drawn a sceptical response from campaigners on green and economic justice issues... Why transformation of the energy-industrial complex is crucial for a low-carbon economy Engineering News Johannesburg: Everything new has to start somewhere - so the saying goes. If truth be told, there are more than just climate change reasons why we need to shift our energy-industrial complex to a low-carbon trajectory. The key driver of this change, though, depends on the conceptualisation of the energy complex and how we plan its future... South Africa seeks to make virtue of necessity with green-industries plan Engineering News Johannesburg: The South African government has given strong signals that the country's energy intensity is no longer sustainable and has started to outline its low-carbon-economy vision. To be sure, the move has as much to do with the prevailing electricity imbalances as it does with any international trends or pressures relating to climate change, or aspirations to exploit the so-called ‘green job’ possibilities... State not changing SA environmental behaviour, say firms Business Day Johannesburg: Most South African companies do not feel that efforts by the government are effective in encouraging them to significantly change their environmental behaviour, according to a report issued recently by PricewaterhouseCoopers... Gauteng unveils strategy to cut energy use, emissions Engineering News Johannesburg: By 2055, the Gauteng province would reduce its overall energy consumption by 18% from business-as-usual projections and its carbon emissions by 49% in relation to 2007 levels, Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane has said. Speaking at the launch of the Gauteng Integrated Energy Strategy, Mokonyane emphasised that the province must, by that time, have a modern energy system where fossil fuel use and fuel poverty were markedly reduced... Solar heater boom to drive SA economy Fin24 Cape Town: Exponential growth in the market for solar water heaters forms the backbone of the green economy part of the government's new Industrial Policy Action Plan. The plan's objective is to increase the installation of solar water heaters from the current 35 000 a year to 250 000 a year over the next three years, and to increase domestic production from 20 000 units to 200 000 units a year... Pravin Gordhan: Why coal is the best way to power South Africa's growth The Washington Post Washington: Today, the South African economy is two-thirds larger than it was in 1994, when Nelson Mandela took office as the country's first democratically elected president. With this growth has come strong new demand for electricity. Millions of previously marginalized South Africans are now on the grid... Concerns over Africa's stuttering carbon market Daily Independent Lagos: Mixed feelings have welcomed Africa's fledgling carbon market, which observers believe is stuttering in the face of a massive potential. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the continent has over 120 carbon market projects up and running or in the pipeline, in areas ranging from wind power to forestry schemes... Trevor Manuel warns on lending bodies' demands Business Day Johannesburg: Countries risked losing part of their sovereignty in exchange for international development funding, Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel warned in an interview. Manuel, who is responsible for national planning, was appointed to the high-level advisory group on climate change finance, an international body set up by UN Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon... Food sovereignty: New approach to farming could help solve climate, economic crises Solve Climate Discussions of climate change keep running head-long into a barrier: China, India, Brazil and the other countries of the global South need to develop. No leader of an underdeveloped country will ever agree to a climate change proposal that will take away that country's right to develop. This isn't so odd... India lags Brazil, Russia, China in eco performance Business Daily India lags behind other countries such as Brazil, Russia and China in environmental performance as indicated in the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI). India is ranked 123 in the index, produced by a team of experts from the Yale University and Columbia University, released early this year... Climate change challenges dwarf funding promises - economist AlertNet London: The annual $100 billion rich countries have agreed to mobilise by 2020 to help developing nations address climate change is “a very modest sum”, according to a top academic who is a member of a high-level panel that will work out how to raise the money. The pledge “is a small sum in relation to the type of challenges we are talking about,” Nicholas Stern, a professor at the London School of Economics, told a conference of development experts in London this week... |
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Africa-wide Civil Society Climate Change Initiative for Policy Dialogues - ACCID
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