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‘Dangote Cement price slash will help home seekers achieve ambitions’

Michael Simire
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‘Dangote Cement price slash will help home seekers achieve ambitions’

President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Alhaji Remi Bello, has lauded Dangote Cement for the slash in cement price, saying the gesture would enable many Nigerians desirous of building their own houses to achieve their ambitions.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote
Alhaji Aliko Dangote

Bello, represented by Deputy President of the Chamber, Mrs. Nike Akande, at the Dangote Industries Limited special day at the Lagos International Trade Fair, said the Dangote Group is living up to its mission of touching the lives of people by providing their basic needs through several products from its subsidiaries such as Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement, Dansa and National Salt Company of Nigeria (NASCON).

Bello said the slash in price would significantly impact the economy given that cement is a major component in building and construction. He commended the group for creating numerous employment opportunities in the economy through several linked and integrated industries.

Group Executive Director, Stakeholders Management & Corporate Communications, Dangote Group, Ahmed Mansur, who represented the President/Chief Executive, Aliko Dangote, at the event commended the organisers of the fair for attracting participants and exhibitors. He said the Lagos International Trade Fair had become a strategic and most prominent forum for companies to showcase their products and services as well as attract more investments.

Mansur stated that the Group would continue to explore opportunities beyond cement and sugar as it had ventured into the oil and gas sector. He said that Dangote Group is building a petroleum refinery that will end the era of importation of refined petroleum products and a large fertilizer complex that will boost food production.

According to him, the Group is expanding into the production of Nigerian rice with massive investments planned for the sector while similar investments are already on going in its sugar backward integration project.

Dangote Group’s stand at the Lagos Trade Fair was a beehive of activities with customers thronging to buy various products especially cement at the special trade fair price. The special day was to showcase the strength and diversity of the Group as well as keep the public abreast of recent developments in the Group.

Dangote Cement recently slashed the price of its products to N1,000 for 32.5 grade and N1,150 for 42.5 grade (excluding VAT and transport).

Customers and other end users of cement used the Trade Fair to make enquires and pay for the product at the designated banks’ branches within the Trade Fair ground.

Some of the customers described the opportunity of buying cement at the new rate within the Trade Fair Ground as a welcome development as, according to them, it enables them to make huge savings on the amount hitherto spent on cement as well as the hassles of going to the plant or depot to make enquires.

Dangote Sugar, another subsidiary of Dangote Industries Limited, also reportedly made brisk sales at the Fair. Apart from sales, prospective distributors mad enquiries on requirements for distributorship. Dangote Sugar at the Fair offered several varieties of sugar to customers including the 50 kilogram bags and the ready to use sachet range

National Salt Company of Nigeria (NASCON), another subsidiary of the Dangote Group, was at the Fair. Apart from edible/table salt, NASCON produces varieties of food seasoning.

Japan pledges $1.5bn to Green Climate Fund

Michael Simire
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Japan pledges $1.5bn to Green Climate Fund
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Japan on Sunday announced a pledge of $1.5 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) ahead of next week’s pledging conference in Berlin.

The pledge, announced on the margins of the G20 Summit taking place in Brisbane, Australia, comes in the wake of a $3 billion pledge by the United States.

Total pledges to date for the GCF, the financial instrument designed to assist developing countries achieve their mitigation and adaptation ambitions, stand at around $7.5 billion putting the aim of $10 billion by the next UN climate convention conference in sight.

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said: “I welcome the government of Japan’s pledge which has, along with other announcements over the past few days triggered a positive atmosphere around the upcoming pledging meeting in Berlin and in advance of the UN climate convention conference in Lima in a few weeks’ time.”

Ms Figueres also welcomed Sunday’s statement by the G20 Heads of State which included a strong and supportive section on climate action.

The statement said: “We support strong and effective action to address climate change. Consistent with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its agreed outcomes, our actions will support sustainable development, economic growth, and certainty for business and investment. We will work together to adopt successfully a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the UNFCCC that is applicable to all parties at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris in 2015.”

“We encourage parties that are ready to communicate their intended nationally determined contributions well in advance of COP21 (by the first quarter of 2015 for those parties ready to do so). We reaffirm our support for mobilizing finance for adaptation and mitigation, such as the Green Climate Fund,” it added.

With 196 Parties, the UNFCCC has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which has been ratified by 192 of the UNFCCC Parties. For the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialised countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments.

In Doha in 2012, the Conference of the Parties (COP 18) serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol adopted an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, which establishes the second commitment period under the Protocol. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.

Study: West Africa leads in renewable energy, energy efficiency

Michael Simire
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Study: West Africa leads in renewable energy, energy efficiency

The ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Status Report,  produced collaboratively by REN21 and ECREEE with lead authorship from the Worldwatch Institute, provides a regional perspective on the renewable energy and energy efficiency market and industry development in West Africa.

Fuel efficient cookstoves in Nigeria
Fuel efficient cookstoves in Nigeria

It says that although access to energy services remains severely constrained in the region, renewables and energy efficiency measures contribute to improved access.

Launched on November 10, 2014, the report concludes that renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies have rapidly become cost effective solutions for overcoming the diverse energy challenges facing the ECOWAS region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo).

“It is clear that the ECOWAS Member States acknowledge the enormous potential that renewables and energy efficiency bring to accelerating energy access and meeting the region’s energy needs,” says Christine Lins, Executive Secretary of REN21. “Through their commitment to developing renewable energy and energy efficiency across the region, ECOWAS Member States have taken a proactive role in ensuring their ability to address current energy sector challenges through the uptake of renewables, while simultaneously building a resilient system that prepares the region to effectively meet future energy needs and ensures sustainable energy access for all.”

The Executive Director of ECREEE, Mahama Kappiah, says that non-availability of reliable and up-to-date energy information in West African countries constrains opportunities for investments in the energy sector. The ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Status Report is therefore a “tool to make information on these activities in the ECOWAS region readily available to different stakeholders, as well as to local and global investors, developers, and project promoters by showcasing the ECOWAS region as one of the most active regions in Africa for the promotion of renewables and energy efficiency.”

“This report presents countries undergoing rapid change, including in the energy sector,” says Alexander Ochs, Director of the Worldwatch Institute’s Climate and Energy Program. “While we are witnessing important projects throughout the region, most ECOWAS countries are just starting to make use of the enormous renewable energy potentials at their doorsteps-and on their roofs, too. With national policies and regional cooperation just taking shape, the big renewable energy boom in West Africa is yet to come. An economically, socially, and environmentally prosperous Africa can only be built on the foundation of a sustainable energy system.”

The ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Status Report, covers recent developments and trends in the energy sector in the ECOWAS region. It uses up-to-date renewable energy data, provided by network of contributors from and around West Africa, and is targeted at policymakers, industry, investors and civil society to enable them to make informed decisions about the diffusion of renewable energy. By design, the report does not provide any analysis or forecasts.

Some Key Findings:

  • As of early 2014, the ECOWAS region had an installed capacity of 39 megawatts (MW) of grid-connected renewable electricity (excluding hydropower). The total installed renewable capacity, including hydro, was 4.8 gigawatts (GW).
  • Renewable energy technologies account for an estimated 28.8 percent of the region’s total installed capacity of grid-connected electricity.
  • Regional new investment in renewable power and fuels from six leading ECOWAS Member States (Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) was USD 29.7 million in 2013, down significantly from the peak of USD 370 million in 2011.
  • Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, and Sierra Leone are regional leaders in the contribution of renewables to their final energy consumption-at 30.3 percent, 22.4 percent, and 19 percent, respectively, in early 2014-largely as a result of their use of modern biomass.
  • Hydropower accounted for 57 percent of total installed electricity capacity in Ghana; it also played a significant role in Guinea (34.2 percent), Togo (28.8 percent), Côte d’Ivoire (28.2 percent), and Nigeria (16.2 percent). As of early 2014, only 19 percent of the ECOWAS region’s estimated 25 GW of hydropower potential had been exploited.
  • Wind energy provided 27 MW of installed electricity capacity, with 25.5 MW of this coming from Cabo Verde’s Cabeolica wind farm, sub-Saharan Africa’s first commercial-scale public-private partnership.
  • Cabo Verde leads the ECOWAS region in installed capacity of grid-connected solar photovoltaics (PV), with 6.4 MW. Ghana has an installed capacity of 1.92 MW.
  • The region’s use of solar PV technology is limited largely to distributed and off-grid functions. Senegal leads with installed capacity of 21 MW, followed by Nigeria with 20 MW and Niger with 4 MW.
  • By the end of 2014, 13 ECOWAS Member States had adopted renewable energy support policies, with all 15 Member States having at least one policy or one target at the national level promoting renewable energy technology development.
  • As of early 2014, feed-in tariffs had been adopted by Ghana and Nigeria and were being developed in the Gambia and Senegal. Cabo Verde became the first and only country within the ECOWAS region to adopt net metering.
  • As of early 2014, the share of the population using improved biomass cook stoves was 20 percent in the Gambia, 16 percent in Senegal, 10 percent in Sierra Leone, 6 percent in Nigeria, and 2.1 percent inBurkina Faso.
  • As of early 2014, eight ECOWAS Member States-Benin, Cabo Verde, The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo-had energy-efficient lighting initiatives.
  • Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria have established domestic programs for energy efficiency in the building sector. 

US-China climate commitments positive ahead Paris 2015, EU 2030, says CAN

Michael Simire
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US-China climate commitments positive ahead Paris 2015, EU 2030, says CAN

The tabling of national climate action commitments by the world’s two major polluters, the US and China, adds welcome momentum to what will amount to first steps in unison down a low carbon development pathway that brings us closer to a phase out fossil fuel pollution in favour of 100% renewable energy.

US President Barack Obama
US President Barack Obama

Commenting on the US-China climate announcements on Wednesday, the Climate Action Network (CAN) says that other countries should see these “game-changing” announcements by the US and China as a strong signal of commitment to the collective international effort to act on climate change as they prepare their own national plans.

CAN believes that the US and China’s announcement comes hot on the heels of the EU’s 2030 climate target which means that countries representing more than half the world’s GDP have outlined their first offers which will form the foundation of a comprehensive, global agreement to limit climate change due in Paris in December 2015.

The body states: “Of course, to take advantage of all the benefits that climate action can deliver, such as better public health, more jobs and stronger economies, China and the US can both do more. To more quickly speed up the on-going transition to renewable energy, China can, for example, work to peak its coal consumption by 2020, while the US can put money on the table at the Green Climate Fund pledging conference next week, allowing developing countries to boost their own action. Such steps will further build confidence in national capitals as they build their own climate action plans.

“In addition, with the international community still working out the parameters of the Paris agreement, the US and China – along with all countries – need to factor in the need to review the collective pledges once they are in order that they can be assessed for fairness and scaled up to meet the agreed threshold beyond which the climate will spin out of control.

CAN is a global network of over 900 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.

Mining affected communities around the world say ‘No to Mining’

Michael Simire
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Mining affected communities around the world say ‘No to Mining’

A clear message is coming from mining affected communities the world-over: No More! In a statement released today by the growing Yes to Life, No to Mining movement – a global coalition of civil society movements and mining affected communities – voices from Colombia, Uganda, the Philippines, Spain, Scotland, South Africa and beyond are united in their call for No Go Areas against mining and extraction, a move to a circular economy and rapid disinvestment from fossil fuels.

Nnimmo Bassey
Nnimmo Bassey

The statement marks the launch of a website as a platform for the Yes to Life, No to Mining movement. A movement first conceived in 2012 to connect and make visible the growing number of people around the world standing in solidarity against the extractives sector and in protection of ecosystems, habitats and homes.

“The website seeks to provide a forum to elevate stories of resistance and to support mining-affected communities who want to say no, recognising that they are not a loan voice in their struggles, but rather, that communities across the Earth are facing the same plight and are coming together to find strength to safeguard life. There are tools to support communities with advocacy and to know their rights, plus a photo and pledge campaign to gain solidarity from the public,” said Liz Hosken from The Gaia Foundation.

Featured prominently on the homepage is a video message from Nnimmo Bassey, former Head of Friends of the Earth International and Right Livelihood Award winner. The Nigerian born activist, whose organisation Health of Mother Earth Foundation has been instrumental in inspiring the movement, speaks boldly to invite everyone to stand together to stop the violations of the extractives sector:

“You may not want to admit it, but our planet is in a serious crisis and if nothing is done to halt the speed at which we are extracting minerals, metals and fossil fuels, we are just simply digging a hole that will be impossible to escape. I call on you. I call on all of us, to stand together in solidarity and say Yes to Life and a definite NO to Mining. The time has come to send a strong message to the exploiters of our planet.”

This week at the IUCN World Parks Congress in Sydney, representatives from the Yes to Life No to Mining movement – mining affected communities from across Africa, South America and Mongolia – will be calling for No Go Areas for all extractives activities. Simon Mitambo from the African Biodiversity Network is attending the event:

“The World Parks Congress must make a serious commitment to securing No-Go status for all protected areas, sacred natural sites and territories, community conserved areas, food growing areas, water systems and all those places vital for the equilibrium of life on our planet. Sacred natural sites are areas of great cultural, ecological and spiritual importance for indigenous peoples and local communities around the world. We must re-value the critical role that they play, respect the role played by the traditional custodians of these territories and recognise them as no-go-areas for extractive industries and other forms of destructive development. We are living at a time when our Planet is at the verge of collapse. We all need concerted efforts to remedy this situation, and this time round, it should not be business as usual.”

The Yes to Life, No to Mining movement was conceived in 2012 by a group of individuals, organisations and networks, all concerned with the wellbeing of the planet in the face of the exponential growth of mining over the last decade. Allies across a global network were moved to take action against the increasingly devastating impact of the extractives industries since the global economic collapse of 2008 prompted greater investment in tangible ‘resources’. As easier to reach deposits are becoming exhausted, the extractives sector is turning its efforts to ever more pristine and fragile ecosystems; the homes and habitats of so many.

Additional comments from Yes to Life No to Mining partners who are attending the 2014 World Parks Congress in Sydney:

 

“Mining might give countries quick cash and provide a few local jobs, but in the end it will wreak far more damage than prosperity. It will pollute rivers, which are much needed by the downstream communities and livestock; it will release greenhouse gasses which will ultimately impact low income countries; and it will affect the wellbeing of local people by destroying their connection with their sacred natural sites and impact upon critical fauna and flora. It will infringe on the rights of people as they will be displaced and affected by its by-products. Mining has proved to be a source of conflict among communities, destroying social fabric and damaging future relationships. The World Parks Congress must pass a clear message to secure sacred natural sites and protected areas as a no-go zones”. 

– Million Belay, Coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), Ethiopia

 

“Mining in sacred areas is a crime. It destroys the indigenous peoples and their ecosystems, exposing them to hunger and extreme poverty. The World Parks Congress must address this issue in order to save the lives of many “voiceless” communities affected by mining around the world.”

– Oussou Lio Appolinaire, GRABE-Benin, Benin

 

The IUCN World Parks Congress is taking place in Sydney from 12th – 19th November. Partners of the Yes to Life, No to Mining movement will host the session ‘Advancing the Protection of Sacred Natural Sites and Territories’ on Monday 17th November at the main ampitheatre from 1pm.

The World Parks Congress is a global forum on protected areas. The Congress is a forum where practitioners, civil society movements and indigenous community representatives come together to share knowledge and innovation, and develop advocacy strategies to influence the agenda for protected areas conservation for the decade to come. This years’ congress theme is “Parks, people, planet: inspiring solutions”. One of the most challenging issues civil society groups are addressing is the corporate influence in the conservation movement, commodifying nature and violating all forms of protected and community areas.

19 years after: Ken Saro-Wiwa should not die in vain, says group

Michael Simire
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19 years after: Ken Saro-Wiwa should not die in vain, says group

Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has flayed the Federal Government for failing to address issues that led to the death of playwright and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight other Ogoni leaders in 1995. The group is also demanding a public apology from the government and Shell for the incident.

The late Ken Saro-Wiwa
The late Ken Saro-Wiwa

In a statement issued in Lagos to commemorate the 19th year of the murder of Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni leaders, ERA/FoEN said that justice has not been served over the murders even as the insatiable appetite of the oil industry, particularly Shell which it claimed has ruined the environment and livelihoods in the Niger Delta, continues to grow.

According to ERA/FoEN, Saro-Wiwa and several other Ogoni leaders were executed by the General Sani Abacha junta for mobilising and speaking out against the impact of Shell’s activities and that of other oil companies operating in Ogoniland.

ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Godwin Ojo, is quoted in the statement as saying: “Ken Saro-Wiwa was killed because of his opposition to Shell’s environmental atrocities in Ogoniland and the decision of government to look the other way. It is sad and shameful that the kangaroo judgment that sent him to a cruel and undeserved death is yet to be quashed by the successive civilian administrations till this day.”

Ojo lamented that, in spite of the misery inflicted on the people of Ogoniland by Shell, none of the successive civilian governments including that of the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan administration failed to demonstrate the political will to bring the violator to justice.

“The sad reality is further rubbed in by the fact that more than three years after the submission of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Assessment of Saro-Wiwa’s homeland in Ogoni, there is nothing to show on ground that the implementation will be carried out as stipulated by the UN agency.”

The ERA/FoEN boss pointed out that, rather than engaging the issues frontally, “this administration has been going round in circles from setting up a Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) to initiating projects that do not have input from the Ogoni community”.

“What we are demanding like we have in previous years is the immediate quashing of the kangaroo judgment on Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni eight by the Justice Kuta tribunal and a public apology from Shell for instigating the crisis that led to the fiasco in Ogoniland. We also insist that the sacrifice made by the Ogoni 9 will be utterly meaningless if the implementation of the UNEP Assessment report is rubbished as is the situation at the moment. This 19-year gimmick must stop. We demand action,” Ojo insisted.

Nigeria boosts climate adaptive capacity in Osun community, others

Michael Simire
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Nigeria boosts climate adaptive capacity in Osun community, others

Rural communities in six states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are being offered a helping hand in their bid to cope with the vagaries of the warming weather and it’s damning consequences.

Borehole project 1
Borehole project 1

In the light of the nation’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, local folks in Kwara, Osun, Imo, Kogi, Gombe and Cross River states along with the FCT are receiving state-of-the-art boreholes, equipped with rainwater harvesting facilities, transformed with climate-smart agricultural practices and trained on the use and benefits of the Moringa plant as well as other alternative livelihood ventures.

The initiative, which is a pilot project that will eventually be replicated nationwide, comes largely under the Japanese government-sponsored Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP), which is being executed in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Environment (FMoEV) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Over the weekend, a team comprising officials of the Department of Climate Change in the FMoEV and Nigerian Environmental Study/Action Team (NEST) inspected borehole facilities in Orile-Owu, Ayedaade Local Government Area (LGA), Osun State.

Director, Department of Climate Change, FMoEV, Dr Samuel Adejuwon, said: “The project is aimed at helping the communities to adapt to the impact of climate change. Ordinarily, the residents travel several kilometres to access potable water, and this is during the rainy season. During the dry season, water sources get dried up completely, making it even more challenging for them to have access to water.

Borehole project 2
Borehole project 2

“So by siting this borehole makes water available at any point during the year, whether during the dry or wet season. Also, they are sure of the quality of water they are taking from the borehole because it is not contaminated. Besides coming from the ground, the tank is occasionally washed. So there is constant supply of quality water for domestic use.”

According to Adejuwon, other projects undertaken to adapt to climate impacts include rainwater harvesting, climate-smart agriculture in Aguatu LGA in Imo State whereby a very large percentage of land is cultivated for rice with water, weather station and other supporting facilities are provided.

He added: “We hope to replicate this in other parts of the country. Nigeria is very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change hence the execution of projects like this to ease the natural process of adaptation. We also have projects in Kwara, Enugu, Kogi, Imo and Cross River states and the FCT. These ones are being done under the Japanese government-sponsored AAP project. These are pilot projects. We want them to be sustained, the little capital projects, and get fish famers also involved in adaptation projects. We have done feasibility studies in some states but we are being held back by limited funding. We are also venturing into climate-smart agriculture, which involves a lot of funding.”

Isaac Oloogunebi, Finance & Admin. Manager at the Nigerian Environmental Study/Action Team (NEST) which, under a consultancy capacity, renovated and converted the two boreholes to motorised pump. They became operational in October 2012, but were commissioned May 2013.

Isaac Oloogunebi of the Nigerian Environmental Study/Action Team (NEST) (left) with Ann Umar and Dr Samuel Adejuwon (both of the Department of Climate Change of the Federal Ministry of Environment), in Orile Owun, Osun State
Isaac Oloogunebi of the Nigerian Environmental Study/Action Team (NEST) (left) with Ann Umar and Dr Samuel Adejuwon (both of the Department of Climate Change of the Federal Ministry of Environment), in Orile Owu, Osun State

Oloogunebi listed other projects to include those at Kwara State (provision of portable water), Kogi and Imo states, and FCT (rainwater harvesting and training on water, sanitation & hygiene – WASH management), Cross River (alternative livelihood: aqua culture centre and fishpond) and Gombe State (training on Moringa use and rainwater harvesting).

Ijaduola Sikiru, Secretary to the Committee Maintaining the Project at Orile-Owu, disclosed that the facility is being properly maintained from the stipend charged, which is N10 for 20 litres bowl or keg of water.

Sikiru, who is a farmer, stated that the project has positively impacted the environment, adding that more females than males participated in the planning, execution and monitoring of the project as well as contributed more to resources that ensured its realisation and upkeep. He added that females compared with men have more access to the services provided by the project.

According to him, the average time spent fetching water has reduced from about 45 minutes trip to the community stream to just two to five minutes to get to the water facility, adding that there has been no reported cases of water borne diseases since the facility became operational.

Dr Adejuwon sharing with community members
Dr Adejuwon sharing with community leaders

Fasasi Nurudeen, another farmer in Orile-Owu, revealed that about 100 people daily fetched water for domestic use from the facility before it was rehabilitated. He added the number has since doubled following its upgrading.

Saying that the entire community is now being served by the facility, he expressed satisfaction with the degree of the community’s participation in the adaptation project’s processes, as well as the resources made available and quality of work done.

KIDNEY TRANSPLANT IN NIGERIA

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How climate challenges smallholder vegetables farming in Zambia

Michael Simire
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How climate challenges smallholder vegetables farming in Zambia

It is late afternoon and the September heat is taking its toll on some portions of Moroson Hakakwale’s vegetable garden.

Hakakwale, who is village headman at Hajunza in Pemba district of Southern Zambia, engages in gardening especially during summer when it is off-field activity season in this Southern African nation.

Moroson Hakakwale
Moroson Hakakwale

“Off season gardening has become critical to our survival as smallholder farmers here. With frequent droughts, we have no option but to diversify into gardening for food and income security,” Hakakwale says.

Between May and October, most families here target wetlands in and around water bodies for easy irrigation of their vegetable crops which they sell for income to purchase additional staple food-maize, in case of field crop failure, which, according to Hakakwale, “has become perennial”.

Hakakwale believes smallholder farmers, who contribute over 90 per cent to the country’s food basket, have the potential to continue doing so even in the face of climate change if only sustainable irrigation solutions were introduced.

“Our greatest challenge is erratic rainfall. Since 1995, droughts have become more frequent.  Our production levels keep on going down. We have heard of climate change but we are seeking sustainable technologies to avert this problem, otherwise, hunger will remain a password in our homes because our agriculture is rainfall-driven,” he says.

He says the diversification programme where farmers are encouraged to venture into growing different crops such as vegetables for income would only make sense through sustainable irrigation technologies.

Moroson Hakakwale's diesel powered water pump
Moroson Hakakwale’s diesel powered water pump

The village headman bemoaned that the early drying up of streams was frustrating the diversification cause especially the off-season gardening.

“For me to survive in gardening up to now, I had to get an $800 loan to purchase this diesel powered irrigation pump,” Hakakwale points at his water pump which he bought last year.

He stated that, without the pump, he would have joined other frustrated farmers who get into the charcoal making business, believed to be an instant money spinner owing to the huge demand for fuel wood in Zambia standing at over 80 per cent.

“But you know, loans are not easily accessible by smallholder farmers due to collateral issues which most of us don’t have. I had to be recommended by an NGO to be given the money.

It is for this reason that we seek government’s intervention to come up with mechanisms to help us through irrigation loan schemes for example, equipment for harvesting rain water and other technologies that are simple and affordable by all,” he explains.

Moroson Hakakwale's spring onion chocked by heat
Moroson Hakakwale’s spring onion chocked by heat

Africa can feed Africa Now: Translating Climate Knowledge into Action, was the running theme for the Fourth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa-CCDA IV held in Morocco from the 8th-10th of October 2014.

Delegates deliberated on the potential impacts of current and future climate change on African agriculture in a bid to identify ways to adapt to and mitigate the adverse effects, in order to enhance agriculture’s performance and sustainability.

Just as Hakakwale has highlighted the role of irrigation, experts also identified it as a key factor to Africa’s Agriculture growth and potential to feed itself.

Ken Johm of the African Development Bank (AfDB) said Africa would not make any meaningful gains in agriculture without investing in the untapped potential of irrigation.

Johm,  who is Coordinator for Special Initiatives and Lead Economist for Agro-Industry Development, believes that “irrigation development is very important if there is going to be transformation of African agriculture.” He pointed out that the current statistics showing that only three to five percent of arable land is irrigated in Africa are a serious concern.

Zeroing down the situation to Zambia, the statistics above are not far from the truth as it is estimated that, out of 523,000 hectares (ha) that could be economically developed through irrigation, only 340,000 ha of land is irrigated in Zambia.

It is out of this realisation that the government of the Republic of Zambia, with support from the World Bank, is implementing a $115 million irrigation development and support project (IDSP) targeting small-scale and emergent farmers.

According to the project concept, it targets to provide bulk water infrastructure through construction of dams, establishment of canals and irrigation schemes with different irrigation equipment emphasizing on low to medium cost pumps for affordability purposes considering the target group.

And Kebby Kabunda, a Humanitarian Program Coordinator at Oxfam Zambia, agrees that climate change adaptation solutions among which is irrigation, should be devised in accordance with the needs of the local communities.

“For us at Oxfam, we believe in the grassroots approach and that is the message we are taking home,” Kabunda told me on the sidelines of the CCDA-IV in Marrakech, Morocco, emphasising the need for appropriate technologies that suit the needs of the local people.

With the launch of a €33million ClimDev Africa Special Fund by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to support climate change initiatives on the continent, climate change activists  and farmers alike are hoping for their active involvement in designing projects that directly answer to their adaptation challenges.

“All we are saying is that the locals must always be taken on board in these projects to avoid failure,” Robert Chimambo of the Zambia Climate Change Network says, pointing out that board room decisions have most often than not, proved futile in addressing people’s challenges.

By Friday Phiri (Lusaka, Zambia)

Christiana Figueres: IPCC report builds positive steam towards Lima, Paris

Michael Simire
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Christiana Figueres: IPCC report builds positive steam towards Lima, Paris

I would like to thank the scientists and the IPCC team chaired by Dr Rajendra Pachauri for their painstaking work in delivering the synthesis report of the 5th assessment for approval.

Christiana Fugueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC
Christiana Fugueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC

It comes in advance of the UN Climate Convention’s conference in Lima, Peru where one key aim is to deliver a new draft universal agreement that can be finalized in Paris, France in December 2015.

The contribution made by the IPCC over two decades has been incalculable in terms of providing the gold standard risk assessments that governments need for understanding and acting on climate change.

With every IPCC assessment those risks have become clearer and more sobering as have the likely impacts on lives, livelihoods and the health of our world now and for generations to come.

In its first assessment in 1990, the IPCC commented that observed temperature increases were “broadly consistent with predictions of climate models, but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability.”

The second assessment, in 1995, said: “Results indicate that the observed trend in global mean temperature over the past 100 years is unlikely to be entirely natural in origin.”

In 2001, its third assessment reported: “There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.”

By 2007, the consensus had reached “very high confidence” – at least a 90% chance of being correct – in scientists’ understanding of how human activities are causing the world to become warmer. Today the 5th assessment puts that certainty at 95% – a level at which to not act collaboratively and in a timely manner would fly in the face of both reason and responsibility.

The good news is that governments everywhere have been increasingly internalizing and acting upon the IPCC’s findings as have cities, investors, companies and citizens ranging from environmental groups to faith-based organisations.

There is a strong head of positive steam building towards Lima and Paris – the IPCC has and will continue to play a crucial role in bringing forward the science upon which the transformational policies needed to realise a low carbon, and ultimately climate neutral world in the second half of the century, can be forged.

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