Africa Climate Conversations.

Intense floods, cyclones, and drought, have devastated many sub-Saharan African countries, this year. As temperature rise, so does the losses in livelihoods and damages to key infrastructure hampering development and country planning. In Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia, rains have failed consecutively. By March 2022, more than 13 million people were severely food insecure. Tropical storms and cyclone...

Between 1970 and 2019, more than 11 000 disasters were attributed to weather, climate, and water-related hazards worldwide. This was reported by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in a 2021 report on mortality and economic losses from weather, climate, and water extremes. These disasters left over two million people dead. It also resulted in economic losses of $3.6 trillion.  However...

Professor Paul Kimani, a plant breeder and lecturer at the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences at Kenya's University of Nairobi, has extensively researched a variety of drought-tolerant beans in Kenya. Over the years, his research has been made possible by funds from overseas. Professor Kimani says the Kenyan government has tried funding research, but intermediaries are killing the rese...

Kibera- the biggest informal settlement in Kenya and possibly in the African continent. According to UN-Habitat, Kibera has the highest settlement density of any settlement in Kenya estimated at 250,000 people.  Today, we speak to Stephen Oduor, the founder Kibera Plastic initiative - a youth-led community-based organization ridding the slum of plastic waste. The informal settlement has...

In 2019, Kenya imported 185,000 tones of second-hand clothing or mitumba - about 8,000 containers. The clothes and shoes sold in the second-hand markets started as donations from rich nations to charitable organizations meant for developing nations. But over the years, the second-hand industry grew from donations to a market amounting to paid taxes of about Ksh12 billion in 2019. Unfortunately, th...

Urban development in Kenya's Capital city, Nairobi, started when Nairobi was established as a railway headquarters in the late 19th Century. Despite numerous attempts at planning, Nairobi has operated for decades without a plan. Until 2014 when the Nairobi Integrated Urban Development Master Plan (NIUPLAN) expected to guide the city until 2030 was drawn.  NIUPLAN comes after the 1973 Metropol...

The IPCC has released the Working Group II report prepared by 270 scientists from 67 countries on the latest evidence on the impacts of accelerating Climate Change on humans and nature. Africa has contributed among the least greenhouse gas emissions, but countries like Madagascar requiring USD1B annually to adapt to climate change are heavily impacted by subsequent storms and cyclones. Climate Cha...

Tiny particles in the air reduce visibility. Also, cause the air to appear hazy when levels are elevated. Often referred to as PM2.5, the particles can travel deeply into the respiratory tract, reaching the lungs. Exposure to fine particles can cause runny nose, shortness of breath, sneezing, eye, nose, throat, and lung irritation, as well as coughing. In today's episode, I host Sean Khan, the Glo...

Ghana's air quality monitoring started back in 1996. Over the years, different sectors have joined hands to curb air pollution emanating from the transport sector, and solid waste management of which 60percent is collected. Additionally, dust storms from the northeast of Africa and extraction of precious minerals from e-waste has led the country to set up air quality monitors every four kilometers...

Africa attracted about five percent of development funding and less than four percent of philanthropy funding to fight air pollution between 2015 – 2020 according to the 2021 report . Most sub-Saharan African countries are highly in debt. The 2022 international debt crisis report shows that sub-Saharan Africa's debt rose from $665 Billion in 2019 to 702B. With most of the funding is in the form of...

Cities in Africa are fast-growing. Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to have 13 megacities by 2100. A 2021 UN Environment report on Air Pollution and Development in Africa shows that outdoor air pollution was responsible for an estimated nearly 400,000 deaths across Africa in 2019.  Economically, countries like Ethiopia, Ghana, and Rwanda annually are recurring losses in the economical producti...

Did you know that you breathe about 150 liters of air daily and that the air you breathe goes directly to your lungs and bloodstream? Dr. George Mwaniki, the head of Air Quality at the World Resources Institute (WRI) Africa , says breathing in dirty air sucks in tiny particles that can damage lungs, hearts, and brains.  The world health organization reckons that reducing air pollution levels...

Africa's growth has been accelerating for the last twenty years. Before the Covid-19 outbreak, Africa was on track to more than triple its population this century. While this growth is excellent, it brings enormous air pollution challenges.  Air pollution is one of the most significant environmental risks to health. The world health organization reckons that reducing air pollution levels can...

A recent report on education by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) shows that 1 in every three families in Kenya and Uganda borrows money for school fees. Meet vulnerable students from Njumbi High school in Murang'a county in central Kenya whose parents cannot afford to raise their school fees since joining the school.  The school office of the Champ...

This December, I thought it best to look back into our communities as we approach the holiday season. Today, this episode highlights the economic impacts Covid 19 has had on schools, drug surges, and mental health impacts.  As of November 2020, the World Bank data shows that the COVID-19 pandemic pushed an estimated two million people into poverty in Kenya. The economic and social disruptions...

Annually, nearly 20 million people leave their homes due to climate-induced displacement, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 80 percent of those displaced are women and girls Women are key agents of change, but education is vital in developing required leadership traits. During the Gender Day celebrated during the just-concluded UN climate summit (COP26), the need to m...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) latest report on global warming clearly shows that human influence is responsible for warming the atmosphere. In today's conversation, Africa Climate Conversations ask Dr. Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla, the AIMS-Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Science at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Rwanda, if the pledges made at the just con...

Africa is the most vulnerable to climate change and among the most impacted by climate change. Under the international climate negotiations, the continent negotiates as a group under the African Group of negotiators (AGN) on climate change. However, 33 African countries are classified as Least Developed Countries (LDC) . The countries negotiate under the LDC negotiating stream under the United Nat...

For the world to achieve the Paris agreement goals, climate finance which has been a contentious issue under climate negotiations, is critical. Also, implementing national commitments or NDC's is essential. Negotiators have been discussing long-term finance and the common time frame by which NDC's communicated by countries must be implemented. Today, Ambassador Mohamed Nasr, a former African Group...

Africa is the continent most vulnerable to climate extremes. The IPCC six assessment report (AR6) confirms the continent warms faster than the global average over both land and oceans. From experiencing the hottest weather in Egypt this August that has occurred in the last 50 years to cyclones and heavy rains that resulted in higher-than-normal vegetation growth providing ideal conditions for dese...

Covid 19 has already demonstrated the availability of funds when a crisis occurs. Unfortunately, a report by nature shows that when it comes to providing finance for the climate crisis twelve years since Copenhagen, when developed countries promised to make available USD 100 billion annually for poor counties to address the climate crisis, it is clear - we are not yet there. However, a September O...

The climate emergency is worsening. The world has witnessed record-high temperatures, widespread wildfires, and increasingly unpredictable floods and droughts. IPCC report on climate science is unequivocal; human activity is to blame. The report reinforced the absolute urgency of closing the 2030 emissions gap if the world limits warming to 1.5°C.  The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC...

The Kyoto protocol recognised Africa for its vulnerability to climate change. But under the Paris agreement, Africa lost that recognition. The African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) says Africa's special needs and circumstances need reinstating.  Home to 17 percent of the global population, Africa contributes less than four percent of global emissions and is the most vulnerable...

This episode marks the beginning of building momentum to the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference also known as COP26.  We start by contextualizing the current climate change negotiations by looking back to where it originated and how it has evolved. To walk us through that journey, I am joined by a James Murombedzi, a climate change policy and governance expert. COP26 is scheduled i...

The 26th annual UN climate conference will occur between 31 October and 12 November this year in Glasgow, Scotland. Did you know that the climate journey did not start at COP21 with the Paris agreement in 2015? In June 1972, the first world conference to make the environment a critical issue was held in Stockholm, Sweden. That is the United Nations Conference on the Environment. Twenty years later...