The risk to food security in Africa – will the Climate Deal help or hinder?

Civil society observers have warned that new climate rules could threaten even greater hunger in Africa, if they are not protective of the rights of small-scale farmers.

“Negotiations on a new climate deal are struggling due to trust issues – but we will not be hoodwinked by technical or procedural tricks,” stated Mithika Mwenda, General Secretary of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) at a press conference.

He was referring to problems at the talks over the chairing and a renewed focus on how to account for emissions from land-use, a central issue for many Africans dependent on the land for their livelihoods.

The two-week UN talks in Bonn, Germany are focused on increasing climate actions in the near-term and on creating a new climate agreement for 2015 – to come into effect in 2020.

“Negotiations can’t work when promises are broken. We were promised a legal second commitment period of Kyoto, we don’t have it. We were promised that emission cuts would be strengthened this year, they weren’t,” noted Aissatou Diouf from ENDA, a non-profit organisation based in Dakar, Senegal.

Africa, represented by Sudan, has discussed the non-carbon benefits, REDDplus and agriculture at the ongoing SBSTA 40 Summit.

“Agriculture is very important to the African continent in context of food security, sustainable development and poverty eradication and we must address adaptation in full contest,” reads a statement from Sudan.

“We cannot have a situation where because of UN rules we count emissions from farming as if it were industrial emissions. It would open the door to trading in the soil of African farmers by the bankers in Europe. Comparing apples and oranges like that puts the whole fruit-cart at risk,” said Hindou U. Ibrahim from AFPAT, an Indigenous Peoples Organisation based in Chad.

African civil society is concerned about a new deal of counting emissions from the land-sector in Africa but don’t want to see farming left out completely. “In fact it has to be there for adaptation,” said Mandla Hadebe, FOCCISA/EJN a faith-based organization in Cape Town, South Africa. “There must be sharing of finance and technology to allow the farmers in Africa who are hit by climate change they have not caused to be able to respond”.

 

Mr. Mwenda concluded that “the talks started with the laughable suggestion from Mr. Obama that a policy of keeping US emissions above 1990 levels well into the 2030s somehow counts as leadership. Policy like that is leading us straight to 4C of warming and untold problems of hunger and starvation in Africa”.