adminJeffrey Gogo Climate Story
THE African Union Commission chairperson Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma last Thursday invoked the spirit of legendary pan-Africanist and one of the creative forces behind a free Africa, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, in a moving futuristic speech on how Africa had broadly transformed since 1963 from colonisation to independence, war to peace, poverty to abundance and disease to health.
In a 2063 scenario, when the African Union (AU) celebrates 100 years of existence, Dr Zuma postulates a continent free from the bulk of its existing difficult challenges, overcome through continuous engagement, hard work, peace and unity.
The challenge of climate change, barely an issue during the formation of the AU’s predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, is introduced to Dr Nkrumah as half the challenge it currently is thanks to aggressive, deliberate changes to Africa’s agriculture and food production systems.
“We refused to bear the brunt of climate change and aggressively moved to promote the green economy and to claim the blue economy as ours,” Dr Dlamini-Zuma said in a letter from the future to Dr Nkrumah, who helped found the OAU, during the official opening of the AU General Assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Thursday.
“We lit up Africa, the formerly dark continent, using hydro, solar, wind, geo-thermal energy, in addition to fossil fuels.”
What Dr Dlamini-Zuma was actually saying in this statement is that since 1963 climate change had emerged as one of the forceful handicaps curtailing Africa’s present and future growth and development.
She was saying that although the OAU recognised the imperative of environmental protection at formation, the challenge of climate change had not been anticipated, and certainly not at the current scale which has resulted in manifold socio-economic sufferings.
The failure by African scientists to anticipate the dangers of the science had caused a corresponding delay by African governments, already burdened by low finances, to designing and implementing adequate responses.
Climate change is an emerging danger, fuelled by Europe and America’s explosive industrial revolution, but whose impact has been felt widely in Africa due to widespread poverty and the refusal by those historically responsible for causing it, to fund adaptation and mitigation.
By 2063, Dr Dlamini-Zuma tells Dr Nkrumah Africa had resisted such stereotypes, built own economies and strengthened climate resilience among its peoples.
In the face of rapidly changing climates, Africa had not stagnated neither did it wait helplessly for foreign aid to address climate change, which tended to affect agriculture more, the continent’s backbone supporting 70 percent of its one billion people.
Through multi-lateral engagements on international platforms such the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, local actions and partnerships with friendly global development organisations, Africa had succeeded in mitigating most of the severe impacts of climate change particularly on agriculture, under Dr Zuma’s predicted Africa in 2063.
Irrigation systems had been revolutionised, indigenous knowledge systems closely harnessed and economies transformed into green ones thriving on renewable energy systems, one of the fundamental pillars of the green economy concept.
The green economy, as defined by the UN Environment Programme is one, which results in “improved human well-being and social equity while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.”
The blue economy emphasises similar principles at a deeper scale. In 2063, Dr Dlamini-Zuma hopes to report back to Dr Nkrumah as follows: “The (African) agrarian revolution had small beginnings. Successful business persons (and local governments) with roots in the rural areas started massive irrigation schemes to harness the waters of the continent’s huge river systems. The pan-African river projects – on the Congo, the Nile, Niger, Gambia, Zambezi, Kunene, Limpopo and many others — financed by PPPs that involved African and BRIC investors, as well as the African Diaspora, released the continent’s untapped agricultural potential.
“By the intelligent application of centuries-old indigenous knowledge, acquired and conserved by African women who have tended crops in all seasons, within the first few years bumper harvests were being reported. Agronomists consulted women about the qualities of various grains — which ones survived low rainfalls and which thrived in wet weather; what pests threatened crops and how could they be combated without undermining delicate ecological systems.
“The social impact of the agrarian revolution was perhaps the most enduring change it brought about. The status of women, the tillers of the soil by tradition, rose exponentially. The girl child, condemned to a future in the kitchen or the fields in our not too distant past, now has an equal chance of acquiring a modern education (and owning a farm or an agribusiness). African mothers today have access to tractors and irrigation systems that can be easily assembled.”
First things first
This is the Africa desirable of and for all. It dovetails with the predominant thrust the AUC chair has shown since 2013 that of building self-sustaining agricultural systems, which secures Africa’s ability to produce enough food for itself and for export.
In her 2013 New Year’s message, Dr Dlamini-Zuma was bullish about the future of agriculture in Africa, expecting surpluses even, and pinning hopes on the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme, a design to raise agricultural output exponentially.
The AU has since declared 2014 “The year for agriculture and food security” at a time when farming has come under increasing pressure from climate change and global warming, and other historical and structural challenges in the sector.
However, before Africa indulges the future, as expressed by Dr Dlamini-Zuma’s ambitious future projections, the continent must first deal with the present, building a solid foundation for future climate actions.
The current frameworks for addressing climate change in Africa are still very weak, dependant on foreign aid or funding, which in the context of the ongoing world financial crisis has been coming in drips and drops, most times not at all.
As things stand, Africa is deeply frustrated industrialised countries have consistently backtracked on funding adaptation and mitigation programmes as promised at the Bali UN climate conference in 2007.
This reliance on external funding limits the effectiveness of domestic climate responses. Foreign money also bears the capacity to dictate the pace and structure of adaptation or mitigation strategies, which may not be suitable for Africa’s needs.
And although the term ‘environment’ was first used, as one of the many core principles of the AU 5 years after its formation, climate change was only introduced, as a common continental goal as late as 2007.
President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda in 2007 called climate change an “act of aggression” by the West on developing countries.
Also, the AU has not “institutionalised climate change as a security issue” despite the potential threat of conflicts arising from its impacts, such as those on food and water scarcity or ecological sustainability.
By 2020, it is estimated that up to 250 million Africans will experience water stress due to climate change. The cost of adaptation or mitigation for the continent is costly, ranging between 5 and 10 percent of gross domestic product.
It is clear from the foregoing that the AU needs to do more within the next 50 years to address climate change. Continental structures that govern climate change should be strengthened aided by the development of a comprehensive and binding response strategy as well as improvements in early warning systems.
The continent needs stand alone agencies with clearly defined goals to deal with climate change and its impacts. Such agencies should be able to address critical matters such as early warning and the mobilisation of adequate financial resources to support adaptation and mitigation.
God is faithful.
Online Reporter