In December 2015, several years of vigorous and intense campaigns by thousands of climate activists across all the continents of the world, resulted in the Paris Climate Agreement, a deal agreed to by 193 countries, admitting the imminent danger of climate change and the need for urgent actions to be taken to stem the tide of global warming. Although some saw the deal as a major milestone – given previous history of foot dragging and outright denial of climate change- there were no explicit commitments by the parties detailing what actions needed to be taken to check climate change.

In response to this reality of inaction, climate activists and campaigners all over the world came to the conclusion that despite this agreement, world leaders will not act to check climate change unless they are pushed to do so. This began the Break Free from Fossil Fuel movement.  Between the 4th and 15th of May 2016, thousands of climate activists around the world embarked on a wide series of actions ranging from street walks to shutting down coal mines and disrupting fossil fuel extraction activities.

In Nigeria, the events kicked off on the 10^th of May 2016 in Oloibiri, Bayelsa state, famous for being the first place Nigeria extracted crude oil from. Of course the oil wells in Oloibiri have long since gone dry, but the residue of many years of pollution, the conflict and social dislocation remains with the people. For a place where millions of petro dollars has been extracted, Oloibiri is a sad reminder of what happens when the oil wells run dry. In a town hall meeting and rally symbolically held at the first well-head, various speakers from the Oloibiri community reflected on the neglect which their community has suffered despite contributing so significantly to the Nigerian economy in the past.

Chief Nengi James a community leader in Bayelsa said: “Since 1956, this land has been bleeding. They have drained it and sapped every nutrient from it. Look around you; does this look like a place where so much money has been taken from? Aside from these decadent well -heads that reminds us of what we once had, and the low farm yields on account of their constant pollution, we have nothing to show for oil. Oil didn’t bring better schools, it didn’t bring better healthcare, and it didn’t bring greater peace. It brought us conflict, poverty and pollution. If we could go back to 1956, nobody will take any crude oil from here; we will ask them to leave us in peace.”

On the 12^th of May 2016, the Break Free from Fossil campaign in Nigeria arrived Bori, the traditional headquarters of the Ogoni nation, another community that wishes the oil business had never started in its domain. Addressing hundreds of community people, the representative of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) reiterated the need to clean up the Ogoni environment and the Niger Delta.

“We have been told that the cleanup will begin in a matter of weeks, we are waiting and hoping that this time it actually happens. The effect of oil extraction has been devastating for our people. Our water, land and air have all been terribly polluted, we can’t plant or fish anymore, we drink oil poisoned water. Our environment is gone,” said Bariala Kpalap, PRO of MOSOP.

“For us in Ogoni land, we made up our minds 23 years ago to leave the oil in the ground. We sacked Shell from our land because we could no longer stand the pollution, poverty and conflict their extraction was causing. We since came to the conclusion that oil was useless to us. You can be assured that this land will never again allow itself to be bled in the name of crude oil extraction,” said Celestine AkpoBari of the Ogoni Solidarity Forum.

Speaking further, Nnimmo Bassey of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) said: “The Ogoni experience tells the very sad tale of fossil exploitation in all its ugliness. The pollution, the poverty, the deaths, the carnage and displacement are simply unprecedented. When the business started, the Ogonis thought it was oil, but it turned out to be blood.”

The campaign finale on the 14^th of May 2016 took place at Ibeno in Akwa Ibom state where Mobil operates an offshore oil field from where it regularly pollutes the water and air of the community people. In a town hall meeting as part of the Break Free from Fossil Fuel campaign, a fisherman lamented that fishing which was once the pride of the community had become non lucrative. Reaching for his bag, he produced a handful of sea weed, saying: “This is all our nets catch now. The fishes are all gone; they don’t like water with crude oil in it.”

Different speakers at the event lamented the declined livelihood of the community on account of oil pollution. According to a women leader, “we have no benefit from crude oil. It is a curse to us, we want it to be left in the ground so the fishes can return and we can resume our lives”.

Placard-carrying campaigners matched past the fenced and heavily guarded compound of multi-national Mobil, where staff and foreign expatriates live in affluence away from their poverty stricken neighbors all around, and ended at the ocean banks. Campaigners said prayers and dipped their fingers in the water in the hope that the curse of oil will be lifted.

“This is the start of a major campaign which will take local and international dimensions. We will continue the campaign everywhere. We will do it both physically and virtually. This call to keep the oil in the ground will keep sounding from every corner,” said Ken Henshaw of Social Action.

According to Nnimmo Bassey of HOMEF, “Oil has put Nigeria in a very bad state today. We are demanding an urgent transition and exit from the dirty oil age. In our energy generation, we should no longer be talking of gas plants, the focus should be on renewable energy, water, wind and solar. The Earth needs to heal. This is the minimum that we must realize as the world moves to catastrophic climate chaos.”

Delegates to the UN climate treaty are gathering on Monday (May 16) in Bonn, Germany for the first time since adopting the Paris Agreement during a landmark political moment in the French capital last December.

The political momentum which delivered the agreement in Paris also catalysed the signatures of 177 countries at an Earth Day signing ceremony in New York this year. Attention is now turning to preparing for implementation as countries meet for the first time as the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA) to prepare draft decisions on all the issues in the Paris Agreement which need to be fleshed out further. The APA will present this draft legislation before the first meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement once the treaty enters into force – which happens once 55 countries covering 55% of global emissions or more have ratified the Agreement. This is expected to occur sooner than 2020.

In addition to questions of policy and ratification, observers can expect some procedural jostling for position in Bonn as countries elect the co-chairs for the APA and begin work on its agenda. As the opportunity arises to breathe life into the elements of the Agreement, address any gaps, and flesh out the rule book, what will be the key substantive issues?

Critical steps to deliver the Paris Agreement
Turning the promise of Paris into a reality include:

• Bridging the “mitigation gap” between climate pledges and the Paris temperature goal
• Addressing barriers to implementation, including lack of financial, technological, and technical capacity

Equipping communities to plan for and deal with the adverse impacts of climate change

• Developing strategies and policy mechanisms to ensure adaptation action on the ground
• Creating the framework necessary for countries to address economic and non-economic loss and damage arising from climate change

Reactions from the global civil society have trailed the development:

Martin Vilela, Coordinator, Bolivian Platform on Climate Change: “Faced with a planetary emergency the likes of which we can barely comprehend, we should look more soberly on the Paris Agreement. Its goal of a 1.5-degree limit to warming seems to have been a hollow one-governments all over the world have gone back to fossil fuel extraction and in some cases have doubled down-propping up a deadly industry while the renewable revolution is on the cusp of breaking. It will take strong people’s movements to deliver radical emissions cuts as much as intergovernmental processes.”

Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator, Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development: “Before the ink was dry on the Paris Agreement we were reminded that there is no “safe level” of warming for most of the world. In the Philippines, farming communities suffered a terrible drought brought on by El Nino. When they asked for food, they were met with bullets. Climate change is destroying communities-we need to deal with that reality. Losses and damages will continue to build up with every typhoon and drought, but who will cover the costs? How will we achieve food security for our people? In Bonn, governments better keep in mind the deadly new reality brought on by their lack of action over the years”

Azeb Girmai, Climate Lead, LDC Watch: “The Paris Agreement needs to go beyond mere recognition of the huge need for adaptation support and come up with a concrete plan to identify the source and amount of support immediately. Communities on the frontline of impacts from the adverse effects of climate change in Africa still have nothing to celebrate as no new or additional finance has been secured in the new agreement to urgently build their adaptive capacity alongside their on-going development efforts.”

Meena Raman, Coordinator of Climate Programme, Third World Network: “A success of Paris was that the nationally determined contributions covered all types of climate action-from reducing emissions to preparing and supporting communities for the impacts of climate change. Developed countries mustn’t roll back that progress by picking and choosing some parts of the roadmap for the way forward.

Asad Rehman, Head of International Climate, Friends of the Earth (EWNI): “Post-Paris, climate scientists, political leaders, and civil society groups all agree that the world needs a rapid energy transformation. One example at a regional level is the African Renewable Energy Initiative, which has already seen $10 billion dollars pledged to it. A critical objective going forward is to take this initiative global with renewable energy for the whole world. Looking forward to Marrakech, the Moroccan Presidency has an opportunity to continue to advance Africa’s leadership by making COP22 deliver a real world renewable energy outcome for the people.”

Tamar Lawrence-Samuel, Associate Research Director, Corporate Accountability International.

“We know we cannot rely on the Paris Agreement alone to catalyse the rapid action our world requires. In fact, without more ambitious action now, we will be on a path that far exceeds the temperature threshold that would prevent the worst effects of climate change. To ensure governments can take action far beyond the Paris Agreement, we must first ensure that those that wish to undermine progress-polluting industries like Big Oil, Coal, and Gas-are out of the room.”

Turning the promise of Paris into a reality

Bridging the “mitigation gap” between climate pledges and the Paris temperature goal?

A 2014 “structured expert dialogue” by the UNFCCC warned that 2 degrees is not a safe “guardrail” for temperature warming. With many scientists and campaigners pointing out that-given the impacts seen at 1 degree of warming-no amount of warming is “safe,” Paris was celebrated for setting a goal of limiting warming to well below 2 degrees, and asking countries to pursue efforts toward a stricter limitation of 1.5 degrees’ temperature increase. However, the Agreement offers no prescription for how to achieve this.

When the emissions reductions of current pledges are added up, they amount to 3.5 degrees of warming. In spite of this, countries are reluctant to immediately improve their pledges in order to bridge the gap-the EU, for example, has already ruled out any revisions to its NDC, which covers the period 2020-2025. Given this, many observers are beginning to fear that the so called “mitigation gap” will be addressed by relying on unproven and possibly harmful “negative emissions” technologies such as “BECCS” (bio energy with carbon-capture and storage) which they say will have serious implications for food security.

In Bonn, a “Technical Expert Meeting” (TEM) on renewable energy will reconvene, and one on mitigation will commence as countries seek to find ways to address the gap.

Addressing barriers to implementation, including lack of financial, technological, and technical capacity

A further challenge to making the promises of Paris a reality is the projected cost of the NDCs. With only around half of developing countries having costed their pledges, the price tag is already in excess of $4 trillion. The commitment contained in the Paris Agreement to mobilise $100 billion per year, starting in 2020, falls significantly short of what’s needed-resulting in a “finance gap” alongside the “mitigation gap.”

In Bonn, discussion around climate finance will focus on sources-how much should be public money, and what can be counted as climate finance as opposed to, say, development finance.

Equipping communities to plan for and deal with the adverse impacts of climate change
Developing strategies and policy mechanisms to ensure adaptation action on the ground

Despite being cemented as a key pillar of the Paris Agreement, adaptation remains a neglected area of work with many of the provisions being vague. An important part of the adaptation discussion remains unresolved: who will pay? The Agreement does not specify who will be responsible for providing “continuous and enhanced international support” for adaptation, whereas the Convention has been clear that developed countries bore the responsibility. Additionally, the Agreement merely requests countries to “consider” using public and grant based finance in regards to adaptation.

While most of the adaptation related implementation actions are housed in various related bodies- like the Adaptation Committee and Least Developed Country Expert Group (LEG)-and therefore won’t be taken up directly in Bonn, the session will launch an adaptation Technical Expert Meeting. As they begin to develop the rule book of the Paris Agreement, key questions will arise around transparency of adaptation support; how adaptation efforts and needs as well as losses and damages are communicated in NDCs; how global adaptation needs as well as losses and damages are communicated via the global stocktake; and what adaptation efforts can be supported in the pre-2020 period before the Agreement enters into force.

Creating the framework necessary for countries to address economic and non-economic loss and damage arising from climate change

Similarly, the hot-topic of loss and damage-which was high-profile and divisive in 2015-remains a critically important issues for governments and citizens, particularly in the developing world where impacts of climate change are disproportionally felt. The Paris Agreement included, for the first time, loss and damage as a stand-alone article and anchored the existing Warsaw International Mechanism as the institutional arrangement to work on the issue. The opportunity for international cooperation on the issue has never been greater: the Paris Agreement encouraged the further understanding and support of resilience building in communities and ecosystems. Countries have also been asked to set up a task force to “develop recommendations for integrated approaches to avert, minimize and address displacement related to the adverse impacts of climate change.”

In Bonn, countries will begin discussing how to strengthen the loss and damage mechanism, as well as what lessons can be learnt in regard to non-economic losses. They will also take up the issue of impacts from slow-onset events as well as the difficult question of who will foot the bill for carrying out further work to bring in loss and damage as a competent of international climate policy.

The latest round of UN climate change negotiations will get underway on Monday in the German city of Bonn, with governments looking to the next steps needed to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement and continue the momentum forged in 2015.

In order to ensure the aims and ambitions of the agreement, global greenhouse gas emissions will need to peak soon followed by quick reductions over the years ahead.

In the second half of the century those emissions need to be so low they can be easily absorbed by the Earth’s natural systems such as forests and soils. Building and supporting more resilient societies and economies will also be key.

Governments are already moving rapidly to bring the agreement into force. The Bonn UN Climate Change Conference (16-26 May) comes just weeks after 176 countries and the EU signed the agreement, with several key economies indicating they are ready to join the agreement this year and 16 States already depositing their instruments of ratification.

The Bonn meeting comes in advance of the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to be held in Marrakech in November. Here, governments will begin work on the “rule book” of the Paris Agreement covering how the agreement will work in detail once it enters into force.

The Bonn negotiations, which run for two weeks, will see the introduction of a new UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, a new Moroccan Presidency, as well as the first session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA). The session will be largely procedural, paving the way for COP22 which takes place in Marrakesh this November, but there will also be an opportunity to make substantive progress on some key issues.

Topics for the rule book include issues such as transparency on the reporting of climate action by nations as part of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Given that immediate and accelerated climate action is required for governments to reach their climate goals, a key focus in Bonn will be on activities which have a high potential to curb and reduce emissions.

At a “Climate Action Fair”, governments will discuss the social and economic value of carbon, along with how to shift to cleaner public transport and to increase the energy efficiency of vehicles.

The fair will also focus on building resilience to the unavoidable impacts of climate change, with governments discussing best policies in the area of adaptation, exchanging examples of best practices and exploring funding for such activities.

Cities, regions, businesses and investors, whose actions are crucial for supporting governments to meet their climate goals, will also be present in Bonn. Many of their individual and cooperative contributions are being captured on the UN’s NAZCA (Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action) portal.

The importance of new technologies will also be on show. A German-led Clean Energy Partnership, a consortium of 20 companies, will present hydrogen vehicles that can be test-driven by delegates and media representatives.

Opening press conference

On Monday, 16 May at 12:15 p.m. CEST, the UN’s top climate change official UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres will hold a joint press conference with the President of COP 21 (the official name of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris last year), French Environment Minister Ségolène Royale. They will be joined by a high-level representative of the Moroccan government, hosts of the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech in November (COP 22).

Immediately after the press conference, Ms. Figueres and her guests will plant a tree on the premises of the UN, to commemorate the signing of the Paris Agreement and to honor Earth Day, also as part of a global campaign to plant trees as natural absorbers of carbon dioxide and important for realizing many of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Action for Climate Empowerment

On 18 and 19 May, the 4th Dialogue on Action for Climate Empowerment will take place in Bonn. The Dialogue is an annual forum for Parties and stakeholders to share their experiences, exchange ideas, good practices and lessons learned in the area of climate change education and public awareness. See here for details.

Global Youth Video Competition launch

A press conference will be held on 20 May to launch the 2016 Global Youth Video Competition. The objective of the Global Youth Video Competition is to highlight climate action by youth through videos; giving them a platform to identify their successes and inspire other youth and policy-makers.

UNCCC’s Momentum for Change Initiative shining a light on climate action

Events on 25 May will foster dialogue with previous winners of the Momentum for Change Awards, designed to celebrate results-driven and replicable climate solutions.

Side events

Side events at the Bonn meeting will be organised under the common theme “Accelerating implementation of the Paris Agreement” and fall into the categories “Enhancing ambition”, “Promoting implementation” and “Providing support to developing countries”.

Virtual participation

Along with live webcast, social media community tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Flickr enable virtual participation in the Bonn UN Climate Change Conference. Information on live webcasts of each respective day will be posted on the main meetings page. The main Twitter hashtag for the event is #SB44.

Civil society will be on the ground in Bonn to ensure that negotiators take the following steps during this session.

Set a workplan for COP 22 in Marrakesh that focusses on:

• Loss and Damage (for climate impacts that cannot be adapted to)
• The roadmap for delivering $100billion per year in climate finance by 2020
• Managing an early implementation of the Paris Agreement

Create a long-term workplan for the APA that focusses on:

• The ‘global stocktake’ of national plans for climate action (due in 2018)
• How to boost the ambition of national climate action plans (INDCs)
• How to produce national low carbon development plans (due in 2020)
• Developing information requirements and a transparency framework

Civil society will also be working to encourage governments to highlight the need to ensure ‘Paris Compatibility’ within other upcoming international agreements on Aviation (ICAO) and HFCs (MOP).

It is impossible to look out over the winding waterways and lush green wetlands of the magnificent Okavango Delta and fail to understand the importance of conserving the natural world.

A World Heritage Site teeming with plants, fish, birds and home to some of the planet’s most endangered animals, the delta is one of Botswana’s – and Africa’s – most impressive natural jewels.

It is clear that the world has a moral obligation to save areas of wild beauty like these: the planet would be poorer without them.

But it’s not only about saving nature for nature’s sake. It is also about recognising that the natural world, when looked after correctly, can contribute immensely in tackling some of the most critical problems facing humanity, from hunger to poverty, disease to climate change.

Here, in Sub Saharan Africa, more than 70 per cent of people depend on forests and woodlands for a living. Ecosystems like the Okavango Delta play a key role in Botswana’s economy, providing livelihoods for herders, farmers and fishermen alike in addition to the revenue accrued from tourism.

If we are to advance some of humanity’s highest ideals, then we need to improve the way we manage these vital ecosystems and sustainably harness the essential resources they provide us with.

Nowhere is the need for this greater than here in Africa. Reducing poverty, creating jobs, combatting climate change, ending hunger and driving sustainable economic growth on the continent – goals set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – will require trillions of dollars at a time when international financial assistance to Africa is on the decline.

But, despite the daunting costs involved, the potential for real transformation is there. Africa holds 30 per cent of the world’s mineral reserves, roughly 65 per cent of its arable land and 10 per cent of its internal renewable fresh water sources. Its fisheries are estimated to be worth $24 billion and the continent boasts the second largest tropical forest in the world. These are just some of the resources that make up Africa’s vast reserves of natural capital – the environmental assets that, if managed properly, could drive the continent’s transformation.

But simply extracting these resources will not be enough to bring long-lasting change. If current population and consumption trends continue, humanity will need the equivalent of two Earths to support itself by 2030. This is clearly not viable in a world where climate change will make it even harder for the natural world to provide for our basic needs.

So, instead of simply extracting natural resources and exploiting natural capital we need to start managing them sustainably. The economic incentives for this are compelling. Africa alone could save as much as $103 billion every year by harnessing its natural capital in a sustainable way – money that could then be pumped back into alleviating poverty, providing access to clean energy and improving education and health.

There are even more savings to be made by stemming the illicit flow of money from illegal logging, the illegal trade in wildlife, illegal fishing, illegal mining practices and degraded ecosystems.

In addition, sub-Saharan Africa currently spends $35 billion every year on food imports, a vast amount when you consider that only 3.5 million hectares out of a possible 240 million hectares of land suitable for wetland rice cultivation have been exploited.

By one of the most conservative estimates, the illegal plunder of the continent’s natural resources, its food imports and the damage done to its ecosystems loses Africa $195 billion every year.

This astonishing figure exceeds the total amount of money that Africa requires every year to invest in improving infrastructure, healthcare and education, and combatting climate change – all key goals of the 2030 Agenda.

If Africa is to achieve the sustainable development goals, then it is vital that we reverse these losses. This will require governments to roll back the damage done to ecosystems and tackle illicit financial flows. We can then redirect the recovered funds back into African economies and ensure that these funds are used to boost natural capital-based sectors like clean energy and agriculture.

The benefits of doing this are clear. In Africa, simply increasing crop yields by 10 per cent equates to a seven per cent reduction in poverty. Providing access to clean energy will reduce the indoor pollution that kills 600,000 people every year on the continent. And reversing environmental degradation and prioritising healthy ecosystems not only combats climate change but also helps to tackle desertification and reduce biodiversity loss.

Strong work has already gone into laying the foundation for a future that recognises the importance of natural capital. In 2012, in Botswana, a meeting between African heads of state and public and private sector partners adopted the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa.

The aim of the declaration is “to ensure that the contributions of natural capital to sustainable economic growth, maintenance and improvement of social capital and human well-being are quantified and integrated into development and business practice”.

This month, at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment in Cairo, Egypt, Africa will seek to build on the momentum generated in Gaborone by focusing on how natural capital can contribute to implementing the 2030 Agenda and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and its first ten-year plan, which aims to achieve a “prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development”.

These are major steps forward but they are only the beginning of the fight for a brighter, more prosperous future. To rally the world to greater action, countries like Botswana are pushing for the international community to come up with a clear plan on how best to manage natural capital in a way that fosters sustainable development and eradicates poverty.

In May 2016, countries will meet in Nairobi for the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) – the world’s most powerful decision-making body on the environment. At UNEA, Botswana, the DRC, Kenya and Zimbabwe will table a resolution that seeks to develop policies and programmes that will enable countries to sustainably harness natural capital, crack down on illicit financial flows, reverse the degradation of environmental assets and foster international cooperation.

It is crucial that the world comes together to pass this resolution so that we can expand and diversify our economies, create jobs, achieve food security, enhance the productivity of our ecosystems and achieve a more inclusive society.

These are noble ideals that we urgently need to make a reality. This is the Africa that we want and it is the future that people all over the world deserve.

By Tshekedi S. Khama, Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism of Botswana

Africa’s transformation lies in the continent’s rich soil. If we protect the ecosystems that sustain us we can lift Africans out of poverty, achieve food security, build climate resilience, create wealth and end hunger, says Amina J. Mohammed, Minister of Environment for Nigeria

There is an old Nigerian proverb that says “Fine words do not produce food”. So I will keep my words as simple and clear as possible.

Africa is facing a harsh reality. One in every two people on the continent lives in extreme poverty. In 15 years, most of the world’s poor will reside here in Africa. Sadly, as I write, about 240 million people go to bed hungry every night while malnutrition kills more than 50% of the African children who die before they reach the age of five.

These stark statistics are hard to grapple with. But imagine for a moment the pain of a mother who cannot feed her new-born daughter with the proper food she needs to live beyond the age of five. Imagine the mother who toils all day in the field but still goes to bed with a stomach aching from hunger because she cannot afford enough food to feed her family.

And now picture this: millions of perfectly good, nutritious tomatoes rotting in the hot Nigerian sun. For this is the reality: that, while 13 million Nigerians suffer from hunger and more than one million children suffer from malnutrition, the country wastes 75% of the 1.5 million tonnes of tomatoes it grows every year.

And yet, despite the waste of this nutritious fruit, Nigeria spends $1 billion every year on importing tomato paste.

There is another West African proverb: “It is a fool whose tomatoes are sold to him”. But I believe I can improve upon this proverb: for the true fool is the man who grows enough tomatoes to feed himself only to throw them away and buy someone else’s tomatoes. Yet this is exactly what happens here in Nigeria.

This is not just a Nigerian problem. It is an African problem. Sub-Saharan Africa spends $35 billion on importing food every year and the region loses a further $48 billion from food that is wasted post-harvest because of poor roads, inadequate storage and poor access to markets.

These are enormous sums of money that, when added to the $68 billion the continent loses every year because of depleted soils and degraded land, could be ploughed back into African economies to drive the transformation that the continent so badly needs.

The money saved could be used to empower more women, end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, combat climate change, create jobs and promote sustainable agriculture -all of which are key goals set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

What makes the situation even more frustrating is that 65 per cent of the world’s arable land and 10 per cent of its inland water resources are found right here in Africa.

But if these numbers are alarming then they should also give us cause for hope for they tell us that the roots of Africa’s transformation lie in the continent’s rich soil. These are not just fine words: simply raising crop yields by 10 per cent reduces poverty by about seven per cent. Neither the manufacturing nor service sectors can boast to have such a profound impact on poverty.

The challenge will be in harnessing the fertile soil of Africa at a time when climate change will make it increasingly difficult to grow enough food to feed the continent’s booming population, which is expected to double in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050.

Today, we already have the knowledge to do this. Simply raising agricultural productivity is not enough. If we want to achieve food security, we must ensure that we look after the vital ecosystems that allow us to produce our food.

This means looking after the bees and insect pollinators that are necessary for the growth of 75 per cent of all our crops. It means looking after our soils and our water sources. It means protecting the rich biodiversity in our forests. It means building climate resilience. And it means sharing the knowledge and the technology that allows us to do all of these things.

If we can do this – if we can optimise food production by embracing an ecosystem-based adaptation approach to agriculture – we can boost yields by up to 128 per cent.

What is even better about this approach is that it does not have to require enormous resources. There is an ancient farming technique in West Africa called zai. This simple technology – a demi-circle dug into dry soil and used to grow seedlings – can turn crusted land into nurseries by improving water retention, protecting seeds from being washed away, concentrating nutrients and improving soil structure.

If properly executed, zai can increase yields by up to 500 per cent in some of the trickiest terrains on earth. It is already having a major impact on the dry Sahel region where it has reclaimed severely degraded farmlands and raised farm yields from virtually nothing to 300 to 400kg of crops per hectare in a year of low rainfall. Simple technology like must be shared across the continent.

We must also focus our efforts on improving every part of the food chain. We will have to improve our transport links and storage facilities so that we don’t waste so much food after it is harvested. We need to link farmers to markets and we need to build local, regional and national partnerships to deliver these improvements.

The benefits of an ecosystem-based adaptation approach to agriculture are clear. Not only will this approach help the continent achieve food security – one of the key sustainable development goals – but, in doing so, the continent can begin to hit a series of other targets set by the 2030 Agenda.

Investing in ecosystem-based adaptation-driven-agriculture and its linkages to sustainable commercial value chains could boost farmers’ incomes and create up to 17 million jobs while catalysing an agricultural sector that is expected to be worth $1 trillion by 2030.

By prioritising healthy ecosystems with this type of agriculture, we can also help to combat climate change, reverse environmental degradation, which is costing the continent up to $68 billion annually, fight desertification and stop biodiversity loss.

And, on top of all this, we can also produce more nutritious food that has greater immune boosting compounds than conventionally produced food, boosting human health and well-being.

This is why the creation of the Africa Ecosystems Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly (EBAFOSA), which serves as the continental policy platform to foster and nurture partnerships through branch formation in each African country, is necessary.

The forum targets policy, demonstrates how EBA-driven agriculture works, enhances access to renewable energy that can power agro-processing and boosts access to markets. The launch of EBOFOSA branches across the continent, including one in Nigeria last month, is a step in the right direction.

Next month, 193 countries will meet at the UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi for the United Nations Environment Assembly – the world’s Parliament on the Environment. It is vital that the international community uses this opportunity to recognise that healthy ecosystems underpin human health, wellbeing, livelihoods, jobs and sustainable growth.

Ultimately, an ecosystems-based adaptation approach to agriculture means working with nature so that we can grow the food we need without damaging the vital ecosystems that sustain all of us.

As the continent continues to battle with climate change, we can no longer afford to play the proverbial fool for we already know that the continent’s transformation lies in the richness of the African soil. And we already know how to harness this vast potential. So the time has come for us to put aside our fine words, pick up our tools and start to sow the seeds of the future we so desperately want.

The Clean Energy Partnership is presenting its fleet of vehicles at the UN Climate Change Conference holding next week in Bonn, Germany. The partnership will also provide information on present status of hydrogen mobility and its potential as a key component in an energy and transport revolution – because hydrogen-powered electric vehicles support the UN goals for the decarbonisation of transport.

The shared goal of the 197 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is to stabilise the climate system by stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations at a level which would avoid the worst climate impacts. The resulting necessity to successfully transition to green energy is particularly relevant for the transport sector: one of the largest emitters, transport is responsible for 23% of global CO2 emissions. At the same time, the volume of traffic is steadily increasing worldwide. There is an urgent need to continuously reduce the use of fossil fuels in transport. Governments and business have great hopes in the potential of new technologies, which in combination with renewable fuels will enable efficient, environmentally friendly mobility.

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said: “Emissions from transportation are one of the key challenges facing governments as they work towards national and international action in support of the new UN Paris climate agreement. Showcasing the next generation of alternatively-powered vehicles underlines how fast technology and solutions are moving, delivering ever more opportunities for fast-forwarding the ambition needed to keep a global temperature rise well under 2 degrees Celsius.”

The Clean Energy Partnership is dedicated to developing hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles, the requisite infrastructure, and ‘green’ production of hydrogen, in an integrative approach that includes linking the energy and transport sectors as a basis for the sensible use of renewable fuels. Hydrogen, used as an energy source and storage medium, provides a sustainable solution to the challenges of the energy revolution. Under the   auspices of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport, the CEP currently unites 20 industrial partners, who are all working to meet German and EU climate protection targets. This makes the Clean Energy Partnership Europe’s largest demonstration project in the field of hydrogen mobility – and it has already achieved some major successes. For example, the suitability of hydrogen as a fuel for daily use is now considered proven. Now the partners are demonstrating how hydrogen-powered electric vehicles can be used in individual and public transport to support a sustainable transport strategy.

The Climate Change Conference in Bonn from May 16th to 26th will be attended by an estimated 1,500 delegates and representatives of numerous NGOs. It is tasked with preparing resolutions for the subsequent conference in Marrakesh in November. During the conference, the Clean Energy Partnership will present the state of hydrogen and fuel-cell technology, and demonstrate their potential for the decarbonisation of transport.

On May 16th and 17th, CEP staff at a stand in the conference building will provide information about the technology, and the national strategy for establishing a hydrogen-powered transport and energy revolution. Also on May 16 and 17, fuel cell vehicles will be available for test drives outside the conference centre. During the ‘Ride & Drive’, delegates and visitors can experience hydrogen mobility and get to know the drive of the future at first hand, accompanied by an expert.

On 23 May 2016, the Chairman of the Clean Energy Partnership Thomas Bystry and Dr. Stephan Herbst, from Toyota Motor Europe will participate in the Technical Expert Meeting on Mitigation and take a position on the potential of hydrogen-based mobility for a low-carbon transport and energy policy.

The Clean Energy Partnership – an alliance of 20 leading companies – has set itself the goal of establishing hydrogen as the ‘fuel of the future’. With Air Liquide, BMW, Bohlen & Doyen, Daimler, EnBW, Ford, GM/Opel, H2 Mobility, Hamburger Hochbahn, Honda, Hyundai, Linde, OMV, Shell, Siemens, Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen SSB, Total, Toyota, Volkswagen and Westfalen as its partners, the ground-breaking future project includes technology, oil and utility companies as well as most German car manufacturers and two leading public transport companies. Germany’s National Innovation Programme for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP) has sponsored the CEP since 2008. It is coordinated by the National Organisation for Hydrogen and Fuelcell Technology (NOW).