Browsing: Climate change

Nature hurts economies, and if such economies are not well equipped to handle the aftermath of flooding, famine, water scarcity, or food insecurity—the more shocking realities are bound to come.

Climate change is real and it hurts African economies, and the region is being slapped with a heavy price to pay, amid its struggle to mark sustainable development.

According to a 2018 report by The Conversation, in the same year—almost 10,000 homes were wiped off the ground by floods, displacing nearly 2 million people in Africa up to September 2018.

In East Africa, Tanzania losses nearly $2 billion in damage from floods according to a report published by Nature Climate Change in 2017.

As the least emitter of greenhouse gases, Africa stands to lose a lot in this battle, with climate action funding coming in short and countries such as the United States of America and China tiptoe on taking …

The African Development Bank climate finance continuous to gain ground as the bank in 2019, committed 3.5 billion across the continent to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation projects.

This is according to the Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) Climate Finance Report 2020, which noted that AFDB’s climate financing mostly targeted renewable energy and resilient agriculture sectors.

According to the report, the climate financing represents 35 per cent of the total the 2019 approvals of projects worth US$ 10.2 billion, representing an increase of 0.3 per cent over 2018 and 26 per cent over 2016.

“As African economies face the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, relaxing action or redirecting financial resources away from climate change will further exacerbate these impacts in diverse and complex ways,” said Anthony Nyong, AfDB Director for Climate Change and Green Growth.

The pan-African financial institution in its report on climate finance published in 2019 pledged …

FAO’s latest update says that large numbers of desert locust swarms that have formed in Kenya and Ethiopia since January could move west in the coming weeks…

The East African region is counting the cost with more than 35 million people more are at risk due to the locust invasion…

At Kapiti research station, 70 Km south of Nairobi, scientists based at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and its Mazingira Centre – a-state-of-the-art environmental and education facility in East Africa is conducting essential climate observations. Collecting actual data on how the climate is changing in Kenya’s Savannahs has remained a challenge. Thus, the data available to show climate variations in East Africa has always needed validation.

The most commonly used method is use of satellite imagery which unfortunately lacks the ability to show actual data for a specific area spanning a couple of kilometers. This data captured by satellite, especially land surface temperature and greenhouse gas emissions might have a certain level of difference with that observed on the ground, commonly referred to as variance. Further, the use of satellite imagery and simulations are often not calibrated to the region where they are applied to and thus have an …

With more than 14 million people in Southern Africa facing acute hunger, non-governmental organisations are calling on the AU Heads of State to address the issue threatening lives in the region.

The NGOs comprising of Oxfam, CARE, Plan International and World Vision are also calling for the implementation of agricultural policies that will enable people to feed themselves in line with the AU’s Malabo Declaration’s commitment of investing 10 per cent of national budgets in agriculture.

In addition, Southern African leaders are being urged to increase investments in early warnings and early action systems on natural hazards and promote agroecological approaches to transition towards more just and sustainable food systems.

14.4 million people facing acute hunger

Severe food insecurity rates across 9 southern African countries are 140 per cent higher now than in 2018 primarily because people are being hit by weather extremes driven by climate change.

Across the Southern …

Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) has partnered with Clever Green Kenya (CGK) to manage post-consumer plastic waste in the country through the formation and management of a Producer Responsibility Organisation.

The Producer Responsibility Organization shall setup Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for the benefit of KAM Members and other plastic users, as per the recommendations of the Kenya Plastics Action Plan launched in December 2019.

The Action Plan is a private sector-led policy and action plan aimed at enabling a circular economy for environmentally sustainable use and recycling of plastics in Kenya. It identifies the specific actions that the public and private sector should undertake to achieve this including waste management at county level, formation and regulation of EPR schemes and establishment of recycling value chains and standards.

Speaking at the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony, KAM Vice-Chair and PET Sub-sector Chair, Mr Mucai Kunyiha noted that the role …