Expanding irrigation can help African farmers produce twice as much food

Helping more farmers to access and use irrigation systems holds the key to African countries meeting hunger and food security targets, a new report sets out.

Food production in Africa still relies almost exclusively on rain-fed agriculture, leaving farmers and rural communities vulnerable to increasingly erratic rainfall patterns and extreme climate conditions.

Yet there is vast potential to scale up irrigation, particularly across sub-Saharan Africa, to increase crop yields and improve resilience to climate shocks, the report finds.

Water-Wise: Smart Irrigation Strategies for Africa, launched at the Malabo Montpellier Panel Forum, highlights success stories from six African countries where greater levels of irrigation have led to better and longer harvests, higher incomes and better prospects for farmers.

Analysing best practices from Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Niger and South Africa, the report authors find yields from irrigated crops can be double or more of comparable rain-fed yields on the continent. Moreover, the economic benefits of expanding areas under irrigation are estimated to be double the costs under climate change.

“This report shows the great potential for irrigation to improve agricultural output across Africa,” said Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima, Vice President of Malawi and co-chair of the Malabo Montpellier Forum, which is presenting the report at its meeting in Rabat, Morocco.

“The analysis shows that there are lessons we can learn from our neighbours within the continent itself. Malawi is committed to expanding the area of arable land under irrigation and has already seen incomes rise by up to 65 per cent where farmers participate in irrigation schemes.”

Just six per cent of cultivated land is currently irrigated in Africa, compared to 14 per cent in Latin America and 37 per cent in Asia.

The report authors found several common features among the countries that have made significant progress in expanding irrigation, and offered nine recommendations to help others meet food security and nutrition targets under the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Malabo Declaration.

“Dedicated, effective government institutions and significant increase in public investment for irrigation programs are critical,” said Dr. Ousmane Badiane, Malabo Montpellier Panel co-chair and Africa director for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). “In addition, interventions aimed at easing access to finance and building skills for operation, repair and maintenance of equipments are some of the key factors that have enabled countries to make considerable progress.

“Partnership with the private sector and farming communities and improved regulations for safe and sustainable use of water, are other driving factors.”

The report highlights the business case for irrigation development, pointing out that in the most vulnerable parts of Africa, irrigated agriculture also means farmers can extend the growing season, increase productivity and incomes, and improve their livelihoods.

In Niger, one of the countries with the fastest pace of irrigation expansion, up to 20 per cent of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) is generated through irrigated agriculture.

“Two things need to come together in smart irrigation: first, robust technology that saves water and energy and can be sustained locally, and second, sound and fair local organizations with women and men farmers in the lead of their irrigation,” said Professor Joachim von Braun, Malabo Montpellier Panel co-chair and director of the Center for Development Research at Bonn University, Germany.

“Assuring both of these conditions call for wise policy design, not just top down directives, and the income opportunities will be attractive for rural youth.” 

But report authors reiterated that expansion must be planned carefully to avoid adverse impacts on the environment and human health.

“We must elevate irrigation to a top policy priority to bring it to scale as a key ingredient to ensure the continent’s food security in the face of more extreme weather conditions,” said Dr. Agnes Kalibata, former agriculture minister for Rwanda and a member of the Malabo Montpellier Panel. “We need to scale new models that put emphasis on farmer-led irrigation to scale household level resilience to shocks.

“Whether small-scale and farmer-led or large-scale, it is crucial that any irrigation systems and technologies supported by governments or the private sector will need to be designed to fit local environments and meet the needs of smallholder farmers.”

Katowice Climate Package to open new era of Global Climate Action

Governments have adopted a robust set of guidelines for implementing the landmark 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.

The implementation of the agreement will benefit people from all walks of life, especially the most vulnerable.

The agreed ‘Katowice Climate Package’ is designed to operationalize the climate change regime contained in the Paris Agreement. Under the auspices of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, it will promote international cooperation and encourage greater ambition.

The guidelines will promote trust among nations that all countries are playing their part in addressing the challenge of climate change.

The President of COP24, Michal Kurtyka of Poland, said: “All nations have worked tirelessly. All nations showed their commitment. All nations can leave Katowice with a sense of pride, knowing that their efforts have paid off. The guidelines contained in the Katowice Climate Package provide the basis for implementing the agreement as of 2020”.

The Katowice package includes guidelines that will operationalize the transparency framework.

It sets out how countries will provide information about their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that describe their domestic climate actions. This information includes mitigation and adaptation measures as well as details of financial support for climate action in developing countries.

The package also includes guidelines that relate to:

The process for establishing new targets on finance from 2025 onwards to follow-on from the current target of mobilizing USD 100 billion per year from 2020 to support developing countries;

How to conduct the Global Stocktake of the effectiveness of climate action in 2023; and

How to assess progress on the development and transfer of technology.

The UN’s Climate Chief, Ms. Patricia Espinosa said: “This is an excellent achievement! The multilateral system has delivered a solid result. This is a roadmap for the international community to decisively address climate change”.

“The guidelines that delegations have been working on day and night are balanced and clearly reflect how responsibilities are distributed amongst the world’s nations,” she said.

“They incorporate the fact that countries have different capabilities and economic and social realities at home, while providing the foundation for ever increasing ambition,” she added.

The agreed guidelines mean that countries can now establish the national systems that are needed for implementing the Paris Agreement as of 2020. The same will be done at the international level.

Functioning together, these systems will ensure that nations can act in an atmosphere of trust and assess progress of their climate actions.

“While some details will need to be finalised and improved over time, the system is to the largest part place”, Ms. Espinosa said.

Commenting on the decision, Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group, Gebru Jember Endalew, said: "While there are parts of the package that could and should have been stronger, the implementation guidelines adopted today provide a strong basis to start implementing the Agreement. The next step, of course, is for countries to take urgent, ambitious action to fulfil their Paris Agreement commitments."

The main issues still to be resolved concern the use of cooperative approaches, as well as the sustainable development mechanism, as contained in the Paris Agreement’s article 6. These would allow countries to meet a part of their domestic mitigation goals through the use of so-called “market mechanisms”.

Market mechanisms provide flexible instruments for reducing the costs of cutting emissions, such as carbon markets.

Here, the Paris Agreement recognizes the need for global rules to safeguard the integrity of all countries’ efforts.

These global rules are important to ensure that each tonne of emissions released into the atmosphere is accounted for.

In this way, progress towards the emission limitation goals of the Paris Agreement can be accurately measured.

“From the beginning of the COP, it very quickly became clear that this was one area that still required much work and that the details to operationalize this part of the Paris Agreement had not yet been sufficiently explored”, explained Ms. Espinosa.

“After many rich exchanges and constructive discussions, the greatest majority of countries were willing to agree and include the guidelines to operationalize the market mechanisms in the overall package”, she said.

“Unfortunately, in the end, the differences could not be overcome”.  

Because of this, countries have agreed to finalise the details for market mechanisms in the coming year in view of adopting them at the next UN Climate Change Conference (COP25).

Talanoa Dialogue and Action Before 2020.

The Fiji-led Talanoa Dialogue, a year-long inclusive dialogue around ambition as it relates to the Paris Agreement, concluded at COP24, with the Global warming of 1.5C report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a major input.

“As the decision adopted indicates, there is a clear recognition of the IPCC’s role in providing scientific input to inform countries in strengthening their response to the threat of climate change”, Ms. Espinosa underlined.

“I thank all experts for their hard work and important contribution to the IPCC’s work”, she added.

A coalition of African environmental civil society organisations under the umbrella of the Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) jointly raised concern about lack of concrete outcomes.

“There is no doubt that we leave Katowice when the IPCC Special Report has been trashed by a section of parties to the Climate Change Convention thus posing a credibility gap to the report,” said Mithika Mwenda, Executive Director for PACJA.

The final High-Level session in Katowice resulted in the Talanoa Call for Action, which calls upon all countries and stakeholders to act with urgency.

Countries are encouraged to factor the outcome of the dialogue into efforts to increase their ambition and to update their nationally determined contributions, which detail nations’ climate actions, in 2020.

A High-Level stock-taking of actions taken before 2020 gave countries the opportunity to assess their current level of ambition. Another stock-taking is planned for 2019.

“While there are clearly gaps that remain, the stock-take of actions taken before 2020 and the Talanoa Dialogue have clearly shown that the world has built a strong foundation for climate action under the Paris Agreement”, said Ms. Espinosa. 

Major Announcements

Many developed countries pledged financial support to enable developing countries to act. This is especially important for the replenishment of the Green Climate Fund.

Countries have sent significant positive signals towards GCF’s first formal replenishment, with Germany and Norway announcing that they would double their contributions.

The Adaptation Fund received a total of USD 129 million.

The engagement of multilateral development banks (MDBs), international organisations, businesses, investors and civil society at COP24 helped to build the political will towards the outcome in Katowice.

Many made key announcements that were critical to build momentum. These include:

The World Bank’s pledge of $200 billion in climate action funding for the period 2021-2025;

The MDBs announcement to align their activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement;

The commitment by fifteen international organizations to make their operations climate neutral; 

The announcement by the C40 Cities coalition, which includes cities across the globe, to work with the IPCC to identify how the Global Warming of 1.5C report can apply to cities’ climate actions.

“Katowice has shown once more the resilience of the Paris Agreement – our solid roadmap for climate action,” said UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.

He has prioritized five ambitious areas – Ambition in mitigation, Ambition in adaptation, Ambition in finance, Ambition in technical cooperation and capacity building, and Ambition in technological innovation – which will be at the centre of the Climate Summit that he will convene in September 2019.
 
“And ambition must guide all Member States as they prepare their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for 2020 to reverse the present trend in which climate change is still running faster than us,” he stated. “It is our duty to reach for more and I count on all of you to raise ambitions so that we can beat back climate change”.

Many more announcements were made and inspiring examples of climate action showcased at the Global Climate Action High-level events.

The next United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place in Chile and consultations will provide clarity on the city and exact date of the conference in due course. 

Empower women to help save Africa from climate change

As the world prepares to implement the Paris Agreement on climate change in Katowice, Poland, African delegates want the continent to unlock the power of its women and girls if it is to adapt to climate change, cope with disasters and build its green energy sector.

Research shows that when women are involved in decision making, agreements on the environment are more likely to be ratified and projects around natural resources, such as water, are more likely to succeed.

If given access to education and finance, African women can contribute to finding technological solutions and driving the continent’s renewable energy industry too.

“When you empower women in the context of climate change you empower a family, a community and a country,” says Dana Elhassan, senior gender expert at the African Development Bank, which allocates international funds to development projects.

“You cannot solve a problem with half the team. A lot of the unpaid work that women do, such as collecting firewood and water, and caring for the family, are massively affected by climate change - so we have to make sure adaptation initiatives address their needs, vulnerabilities and potential.”

Women as agents of change

Studies show that when women are part of decision making, ratification of multilateral agreements on the environment are more likely, adds Mafalda Duarte, head of the $8.3 billion Climate Investment Fund, one of the largest climate financing instruments in the world.

There is also strong evidence that women play a vital role in dealing with disasters by mobilising communities - something that will become increasingly important as climate change advances, she says.

“Discourse is quite tilted to considering women as victims of climate change - but we are agents of change and if we are perceived as such this will make a big difference,” says Ms Duarte.

“Our empowerment represents greatly under-utilised opportunities to build our economies and tackle climate change.”

When women are empowered - given access to finance, assets and decision making - there are big impacts across sectors, she adds.

“Renewable energy is traditionally seen as a male sector but if you are deliberate in giving access to women, they become entrepreneurs and help us push forward that agenda,” says Ms Duarte.

Women can drive business and technology solutions

When women are empowered equally to men there is a massive leap forward in economic gains: a recent McKinsey study found that if women were participating economically as much as men, they would be adding 28 trillion dollars to global GDP by 2025.

In Africa, lack of access to finance has resulted in an estimated $42 billion financing gap

for women entrepreneurs across business value chains.

Yet unlocking African women’s ingenuity and giving them access to finance could generate technological advancements that help deal with climate change, believes the African Development Bank.

As mobile phone technology has proven, Africa is capable of leapfrogging into an era of digitisation, which minimises risks and cuts costs of doing business.

African women have shown potential to compete in this digital work-space – Mfarm, AppsTech, JuaKali, Nandimobile, Hehe Ltd, Obami, DotNxt, are only a few of the women-led tech startups in Africa listed by Forbes.

“If we women are given the right platforms, we will achieve the change we wish to see in the world,” says Ms Duarte.

Unlocking investment in African women holds incredible return and transformational impact potential. Women form the backbone of African economies, accounting for a majority of small- and medium-sized businesses and dominating the agriculture sector as primary producers and food processors,

COP24 is the 24th conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This year countries are preparing to implement the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit the world’s global warming to no more than 2C.

Leading International Organizations commit to Climate Neutrality at COP24

Today, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 24) in Poland, 15 international organizations jointly announced a commitment to make their operations climate neutral. 

The organizations will measure their greenhouse gas emissions, reduce them as much as possible and compensate the currently unavoidable ones with credible carbon credits. 

Representing over 2 million tons of CO2 per year in emissions, and more than 50,000 staff, the aggregate action by these organizations sets an important example that can inspire all levels of society.

While some participating organizations are only just starting their journey, others have already achieved full climate neutrality.

The rest have already developed advanced sustainability strategies to step up their climate action by committing to reach climate neutrality. Through this commitment, organizations with more evolved plans will support those at earlier stages and share best practices.

By joining this initiative, organizations not only demonstrate a clear commitment to climate action and to implementing the global climate neutrality goal contained the Paris Agreement, but they also serve as models for others to follow suit

The international organizations that announced their commitment to climate neutrality are:

1.     Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Secretariat

2.     Common Markets for Eastern and Southern Africa Secretariat (COMESA)

3.     Eastern Africa Development Bank (EADB)

4.     Western Africa Development Bank (BOAD)

5.     Asian Development Bank (ADB)

6.     Pacific Community

7.     ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability

8.     European Investment Bank (EIB)

9.     European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

1.  Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat

1.  Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

1.  International Paralympic Committee (IPC)

1.  Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE)

1.  World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) 

 By doing so, they have joined the United Nations agencies, which adopted a strategy and a roadmap in 2007 to reach climate neutrality by 2020.

Over half of all UN system entities are now climate neutral, representing 39% of the total UN emissions as per the 2018 Greening the Blue report. The UN Headquarters have reached climate neutrality for the first time in 2018.

Some of the climate actions that these organizations are implementing to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions include the installation of solar photovoltaic systems, policies for reduction of air travel, upgrading of insulation and lighting systems in buildings, reduction of paper used at conferences, installation of efficient cooling systems, promotion of car-pooling schemes among employees, establishment of sustainable procurement policies, and enhanced collection and recycling of waste, among many others.

The initiative’s ambition is to motivate other international organizations to take this commitment soon and amplify the message of the urgency of climate action of society and avoid the worst effects of climate change.

COP24 must finish the job of protecting ‘that thin blue line of life’

UN’s Climate Chief, Patricia Espinosa and other top UN officials have made passionate pleas to governments to finish the work they set for themselves and conclude the Climate Change Conference (COP24) with a strong and effective outcome.  

The main objective of the conference is to finalize the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement.

With more than 100 Ministers now in Katowice to provide political guidance, and with only a few days left to go, Ms. Espinosa said: “Many political divisions remain. Many issues still must be overcome. But I believe it’s within our grasp to finish the job… Let’s complete the Paris Agreement Work Program and, by doing so, immediately unleash the power of the Paris Agreement itself.”

Ahead of COP24, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a special report on the achievability and implications of a 1.5°Celsius global average temperature rise compared to pre-industrial levels, the lower temperature goal of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

In Katowice, Hoesung Lee, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reiterated the key findings of the report, namely that the temperature goal is achievable, but that this can only happen if there if governments take urgent and far-reaching action in all aspects of society, with many implications for policy-making.

“Every bit of warming matters. Every year matters. Every choice matters.  With this report, the scientific message is clear. It is now up to you, the governments, to act,” he said.

Mr. Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, also addressed Ministers and delegates.  

He warned that current levels of greenhouse gas emissions were unsustainable, and were already leading to dramatic climate change impacts around the world, from the melting of Artic ice to many incidents of fires flooding this fear.

"We are expecting a 2 to 4 percent increase in global carbon dioxide emissions this year. If we are serious about the Paris Agreement, we need to see different numbers."  

He also pointed out that even if pollution of the atmosphere is stopped today, the current levels of CO2 would stay in the atmosphere for many years to come, locking in extreme weather.

African civil society at COP24 acknowledged progress has been seen on Agriculture, Gender and NAPs but there are serious concerns on the climate finance, adaptation and the finalization of the robust Paris Agreement Work Programme.

“We stand at a unique point in human history. Incredible opportunity exists if we embrace the transition towards a low-emissions future and unleash the power of the Paris Agreement,” said the UN Climate Chief.

At the end of her speech to the high-level segment of the Conference, Ms. Espinosa alluded to the words of Mae Jemison, the first black female astronaut in space, who spoke about traveling to space and exploring the unknown.

“What struck her most was looking back at Planet Earth and seeing not just the beauty of our planet, but the thinness and fragility of the atmosphere surrounding it—the thin blue line protecting all life on Earth. That’s what we’re fighting for. That’s what we’re here to protect: That thin blue line of life. That thin blue line of hope.”

Ten New Insights in Climate Science

Impacts of human-induced climate change are coming earlier than expected – but halving global emissions in the next decade is achievable and affordable, say scientists.
 

Many impacts of human-induced climate change, from drought and heat waves to Antarctic ice melting, are coming earlier than expected. 

Extreme events, such as recent fires in North America and floods across Asia, can with increased certainty be linked to global warming.

Halving global emissions over the next decade is technically achievable and would save the world billions of dollars, say scientists in a new statement to coincide with the UN annual climate talks in Katowice, Poland.

Their warning comes as global emissions are projected to rise for a second consecutive year to a new historical high after three stable years.

Professor Johan Rockström, Co-Chair of Future Earth and Chair of the Earth League, the organisations that produced the statement says: “Emissions must peak by 2020. The world cannot allow climate catastrophe to unfold when all the solutions to solve this challenge are here in front of us.”

“Our analysis of the most recent research shows that a global transition to clean energy is affordable, achievable, and already underway,” says Future Earth Executive Director Amy Luers. “But to avoid catastrophe, we must ratchet up the pace and move beyond energy. The research shows clearly that we must cut emissions by half across all economic sectors in the next decade, to have a chance of avoiding the worst impacts of the climate crisis.”

The statement, “10 New Insights in Climate Science,” will be presented at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 24th Conference of the Parties, 10 December, and distributed to negotiators in Katowice. It is published by Future Earth and the Earth League, two major international organizations representing networks of global sustainability scientists, and summarizes recent Earth-system science, policy, public health and economic research.

Summary of the 10 new Insights in Climate Science:

1. Extreme weather events are now clearly attributable to climate change

The frequency and intensity of extreme events, including flooding, heat waves, and drought conditions have been increasing. Until recently, it was difficult to clearly attribute these events to climate change. Now, more accurate observations and progress in modelling has made the link clear.

2. Growing climate impacts show risks of critical tipping points

Changes have been observed in major Earth systems – like a weakening of the Atlantic overturning circulation, mass mortality of the world’s coral reefs, and the tripling of ice loss from the West Antarctic ice sheet. These and other systems could reach points where they rapidly collapse or a major, largely unstoppable transformation is initiated. The risks are growing.

 3. Every half degree matters: Large difference in impacts between 1.5°C and 2°C degrees of warming

This year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on 1.5^oC has shown that the magnitude and risk of a range of climate change impacts increase significantly between 1.5°C and 2°C.

4. New understanding of the acceleration of sea level rise and its future

The rate of ice loss from Antarctica is increasing. It is now almost twice as high as projected by the latest IPCC assessment (2014). Limiting warming to 1.5°C instead of 2°C can avoid the inundation of lands currently home to about 5 million people.

5. Managing plants and soil: a prerequisite for meeting the Paris Agreement

Between 2007 and 2016, land use change was responsible for annual global emissions of, on average, 4.7 billion tons of CO₂, which is around 12 percent of CO₂ emissions. Natural climate solutions could potentially provide over one-third of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed between now and 2030 to stabilize warming to below 2°C.

6. Options to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere are limited

Scenarios that have recently been assessed by the IPCC show that the world will need to draw down between 100 and 1000 billion tons of CO₂ out of the air, so-called Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), during this century to achieve the 1.5^oC target. But research shows that CDR at the upper end of this scale is in conflict with other sustainable development goals.

7. Major socio-technical transformations needed to meet the 1.5°C target

Globally, approximately halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is consistent with meeting the Paris Agreement goal to stay “well below 2°C.” This is technically feasible but this scale of emissions reductions requires transformations of full socio-technical systems, across all sectors and scales. There is already considerable momentum in the energy sector that it could see major shifts towards very low emissions, with the right support. However, there is worryingly little progress in reducing emissions from buildings, transport, food systems and industry.

8. Stronger policy measures would reduce climate risks

Global fossil fuel subsidies remain massive. Phasing out these would reduce global carbon emissions and strengthen public budgets, but reforms should consider acceptance, effects on poverty, and possible adverse effects such as shifts from gas to coal. A portfolio of policies including standards, regulations, incentives, and carbon pricing would effectively support and accelerate a low-carbon transition.

9. Transformation of food systems needed for global health and reduced greenhouse gas emissions

Decarbonizing and building resilience in the world food system is a prerequisite to succeed with the Paris Agreement. Dietary shifts away from unhealthy “Western diets” towards reduced meat and dairy consumption are a significant way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve health.

10. Benefits for global health by addressing climate change

Climate change is increasing the numbers of injuries, illnesses, and deaths from, for example, extreme weather and climate events, infectious diseases, and under nutrition. Efforts to combat climate change would have significant co-benefits for health, chiefly, saving millions of lives through lower air pollution.