Thursday, September 7, 2023, No. 206 Süddeutsche Zeitung

The continent contributes little to global warming, but suffers particularly badly from it. Now it wants to become a driver of the energy transition.

Munich - William Ruto refuses to let his optimism be dampened.

The Kenyan president has been touting his country's advantages in the search for green energy for some time now.

Plenty of sunshine, plenty of wind, plenty of space, and a large young workforce. These are advantages it shares with many African countries.

Ruto was also a driving force behind the first African climate summit in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

In the conference hall he said: "Climate change and the crisis that comes with it is also Africa's opportunity to tap into the enormous resources we have for an environmentally friendly energy transition."

Ruto wants to create a sense of optimism. And while the first days of the summit, from Monday to Wednesday, showed how difficult it is to reconcile the interests of 54 states, the African countries ultimately adopted a

"The summit shows that the African continent wants to negotiate on an equal footing."

A truly powerful document. "The summit shows that the African continent wants to negotiate on an equal footing with the EU, the industrialized nations and China," says Kerstin Opfer, Africa expert at the environmental organization Germanwatch.

Regarding climate change, African countries have two things in common: they have contributed little to it; according to the Federal Statistical Office, they currently cause four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

As a result, they suffer disproportionately from the effects, as a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Monday underlined. Africa is the continent least able to cope with the consequences, explained Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, adding that "heat waves, heavy rainfall, flooding, tropical cyclones and prolonged droughts are having a devastating impact on communities and economies."

In 2022 alone, more than 110 million Africans were affected by extreme weather, with 5,000 deaths recorded, though the WMO fears the actual number is much higher. Examples include heat waves in Algeria and Tunisia, droughts in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, and floods in Nigeria and Madagascar. The damage amounted to more than US$8.5 billion.

Nevertheless, countries like Nigeria and Senegal are keen to exploit their oil and gas reserves. Namibia, on the other hand, believes that its entry into green hydrogen production will increase its gross domestic product by a substantial third by 2030 –

It still intends to extract oil. Other countries like Egypt, Ethiopia, or Kenya also want to.

focus on wind, sun and hydrogen.

On Wednesday, the African states agreed in the final document to accelerate the expansion of renewable energies. Fossil fuels were clearly rejected, analyzes Kerstin Opfer of Germanwatch. However, for the growth of green energies to succeed, the wealthier countries must provide the necessary financing and technology.

Money is a particularly sensitive issue. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the aftermath of the Russian attack on Ukraine, rising interest rates, and increasing natural disasters, many African countries are facing a debt crisis. Furthermore, banks are demanding

Interest rates on investments in Africa are roughly five times higher than in industrialized countries, which explains why only two percent of global investments in renewable energy flowed to Africa in the past decade. African heads of state and government are therefore repeatedly calling for a reform of the international financial system, more low-interest loans, and a readjustment of banks' risk management.

In the final document, the Africans propose using the Special Drawing Rights of states held at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a kind of currency reserve, to invest against the climate crisis, similar to what was done during the Corona crisis.

The IMF mobilized around 650 billion US dollars in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Since Russia's war, Germany has also increasingly sought energy partnerships in Africa: natural gas from Senegal, hydrogen from Namibia, Kenya, or Morocco. The coalition government usually supports African demands for this reason.

Jennifer Morgan, the Foreign Office's special envoy for climate change, said in Nairobi: "Europe is working shoulder to shoulder

with Africa" - to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Germany is largely keeping its financial commitments to developing countries; the fact that the promised 100 billion US dollars annually from industrialized countries has not yet materialized is mainly due to the USA.

In Nairobi, John Kerry, the US government's climate advisor, caused a stir when he declared that the fund for "damages and losses" in poorer countries, agreed upon at the 2022 climate conference in Egypt, must not include legally enforceable payments. He did, however, agree to a voluntary fund.

Another financial mechanism is raising hopes among Africans for more money. It offers companies and states that emit too much CO₂ into the atmosphere compensation by protecting their rainforests or creating additional natural areas as carbon sinks. The United Arab Emirates, host of the next UN Climate Change Conference, announced in Nairobi that it would contribute $450 million to this effort. However, the "carbon credit" mechanism is controversial. While the money could flow to poorer countries, it appears that the Emirates and other actors are using it to justify their continued exploitation of oil and gas, says Germanwatch staff member Kerstin Opfer. Thomas Hummel

We humans rarely fail to actively confirm this statement by Brecht.

Just a few years ago: due to the financial crisis and the developing economic downturn, there were plans to cut back on environmental protection as well.

Political parties and companies are demanding that better investments be made in consumer incentives and jobs – climate and environmental protection should wait, because that costs money and generates no income.

We all know that climate change is not discriminatory and does not react to economic booms or busts. Climate change affects us all, but the poor die first!

Twenty years ago, scientists warned that "if we don't drastically reduce CO2 emissions in the next ten years, things will soon become unpleasant in every corner of the world." Today, Athens is a sea of flames, forests are burning in many parts of Europe, and livelihoods and lives are being destroyed!

But the necessary wave of enthusiasm for sustainability has not yet reached the German public. Germany is a world leader in the development of environmental technology, but its widespread implementation is still severely lacking.

If we follow those who now want to turn back the eco-wheel to "weak" in the face of the health, pension, migration, inflation, Ukraine, and economic crises, then we have already lost the race for our secure future!

Robert Groitl

Food that will be thrown away

Wasting food, throwing it away, or simply destroying it is considered reprehensible in all cultures of our society, because we all know that approximately 800 million people worldwide suffer from hunger. At the same time, however, the FAO informs us

(the UN Food and Agriculture Organization),

about the destruction of 1.3 billion tons of edible food annually -

This corresponds to about one-third of world production. These foods (predominantly plant-based) are either already completely processed.

not harvested, or later sorted out as "not suitable for the market".

These 1.3 billion tons would be more than enough to feed all the hungry people in the world. What's going wrong here?

In developing and emerging countries, a large proportion of the fruit is lost in the fields -

No transport, no refrigeration, cancelled orders from wholesalers...

At the other end of the supply chain, in industrialized countries, food is wasted on a massive scale because retail orders were too large and cancelled, portioning in restaurants was too generous, or simply because food is forgotten in the home refrigerator and the expiration date is then seen as a mandatory disposal date.

Only if the fruit looks good,

The customers are buying – that's the apparent thing.

An irrefutable maxim in retail.

Food is wasted and disposed of along this chain, from producer to end consumer, for multiple and often inexplicable reasons.

This not only puts a strain on the end consumer's wallet – who is ultimately responsible for covering the entire production costs – but above all, it also burdens our environment – our shared living space, and the quality of life for all of us!

Russia

Russia is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat. However, this trade could deteriorate if the political situation worsens and other countries impose import bans. This would leave Russia with less foreign currency for importing other foodstuffs. Therefore, Putin's government has recently begun promoting agricultural research to ensure self-sufficiency if necessary.

Adaptation to climate change plays a crucial role. While higher temperatures and increased rainfall mean that new land is becoming available for crop cultivation in the north, climate models predict that more frequent extreme rainfall events and droughts could destroy harvests in the future.

One of Russia's measures is to return to traditional forms of agriculture. Direct sowing, without plowing the soil beforehand, could, for example, reduce soil erosion in the Siberian steppes. Initial trials with direct seeding have been successful, with yields increasing by up to 25 percent in some cases. Jürgen Vögele, an agricultural expert at the World Bank, says: "Russia is now among the top five countries that are increasingly relying on conservative agricultural methods—which benefits the environment and is economically profitable." TRG4/20

(Thoughts on UN World Water Day 2020)

On this year's World Water Day, the UN is calling for more sustainable water management worldwide. According to the German UNESCO Commission, 2.2 billion people, roughly a quarter of the current global population, lack regular access to safe drinking water.

Within the last 100 years, per capita water consumption has increased sixfold. This is due to changing human behavior, economic growth, changes and expansion of arable land, the blocking of groundwater seepage through increased development, and the monopolization of available water resources.

Water sources etc. naturally lead to a reduction in the amount of water available to each individual, especially in developing countries.

Climate change is exacerbating this trend and acting as a catalyst. Long-term solutions require our cooperation and support to ensure a secure water supply for the future. Drinkable water is not an endless resource on this planet; it is very unevenly distributed and limited.

The solution to the problem does not lie in increasing the amount of water pumped from groundwater reservoirs, but in better and more intensive management of the available water supply!

The questions to be clarified are:

• How much water is actually available to each region – without depleting natural groundwater reserves? The Sahel region, in particular, is now feeling the effects of the lowered groundwater level and the spread of arid areas; how can the available water be used optimally?
• How can water be sustainably recycled?
• How can water be distributed more fairly?

Especially in sub-Saharan regions, e.g. the Sahel, water repeatedly becomes an ecological and humanitarian flashpoint and often decides between life and death.

The main goals to be achieved are:

• Sensible use of the available quantities
• Extensively clean and recycle wastewater for reuse;
• Direct rainwater into soakaways to replenish groundwater reservoirs;
• Slow down the flow of surface water into rivers and seas;
• Optimize irrigation methods through targeted irrigation methods
• Shading of the cultivated areas;
• Restricting groundwater use in coastal areas to prevent the intrusion of saltwater (from the sea) into coastal areas; this also affects the subsidence of urban areas in coastal regions;

How can we, as an NGO, influence this?

• Find information and share it within the groups; any one of us can do this!
• Supporting members in developing countries, many measures are inexpensive, simple and can be implemented locally;
• Modify your own construction measures accordingly; water scarcity is also a European problem!
• Provide funds for appropriate measures;
• Can you help? Write in the groups and post requests on this topic. TRG4/20

We earn our living from what we earn,

But we shape our lives through what we give!

(Winston Churchill)