Africa COP 15

Introduction to COP 15
COP15 will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark and will last two weeks from 7 December to 18 December 2009.

The overall goal for the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference hosted by Denmark is to establish an ambitious global climate agreement for the period from 2012 when the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol expires.

It is expected that ministers and officials from 192 countries will take part. In addition, there will be participants from a large number of organisations. The conference is preceded by the Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions scientific conference in March, co-located in Copenhagen.

Africa at COP 15
What was included in the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol- specific to Africa?

What impact will the Global Economic Recession (slowdown) have towards the financial instruments designed to  supporting Climate mitigating action from the global South?

Moving away from Carbon economies in the Global South, the economic trap
In the face of the Global Economic Slowdown, most of the global south governments will have reservations or will doublespeak about their commitment to dealing with climate change.  Just like in the North, they will not be ready by Cop 15 to shift their “oil dependent” economies to the more expensive green energy path without a guarantee of a hefty investment from the North.  By 2010, the world will still be very far from the total economic recovery.  Unfortunately, economic prosperity has been the major yardstick in the design of the existing climate mechanisms and have underpinned the negotiations.  This being both an economic and political question, the framework will remain the single most important factor determining how the beyond COP 15 commitments will be shaped.  Unfortunately, even tools like the REDD framework are now at a very delicate position just like the idea of cap and trade.

1.0 Climate Change and Health in Africa- away from the economics and politics
Through changing weather patterns, humans are exposed to climate change (IPCC).  There is emerging evidence that shows;

• Altered distribution of some infectious diseases
• altered distribution of some natural allergenic compounds

Water borne and water related diseases might also be on the increase in areas that will be exposed to floods, while malnutrition related illnesses might be elevated in countries exposed to water scarcity and prolonged droughts.

Low income countries will be in particular vulnerable and especially the urban poor, the elderly and children.

The cost of dealing with the emerging crisis on a mass scale is undoubtedly “overwhelming” if viewed from an economic point of view.  The failure to deal with it even worse.  Alternatives must be sought away from the mainstream.

1.1 The role of indigenous knowledge in dealing with the health questions in Africa

Alternative healing practices and medicine should provide one of the rapid responses to the projected impact of climate change on human health.

At COP 15, the role of indigenous knowledge as a tool to mitigate the impacts of climate change must be integrated and supported as part of the evolving National Action Plans to Adaptation (NAPA). This will require less financial intervention as compared to promoting the modern medicine on a global scale.

2.0 Soils in Africa: The Role of Soil in food security and climate change management (food security and conflict mitigation)

Soils are a massive carbon reservoir, not only in Africa but across the globe. In Europe the soils are holding between 73 and 79 billion tonnes of carbon around half of which is stored in the peat bogs of Sweden, Finland, Britain and Ireland. Just 0.1% of this carbon released into the atmosphere through poor soil management would be equivalent to an extra 100 million cars on the road – 50% of the vehicles in Europe.

The best way to ensure the carbon stays in the soil – and that soil captures as much extra carbon is possible – is to protect and manage the soil. Carbon is lost from soil when native ecosystems are destroyed to be replaced by cropland. The decrease of organic matter in topsoils can have dramatic negative effects on water holding capacity of the soil, on structure stability and compactness, nutrient storage and supply and on soil biological life such as mycorrhizas and nitrogen-fixing bacteria (M Henry et al 2009).  The current trend of soil degradation needs to be reversed, and soil management practices must be improved if a high rate of soil carbon sequestration is to be achieved (EU ClimSoil Report, 2008).

2.1 Status of Soils in Africa
Landuse change is responsible for the global 20% anthropogenic C released to the atmosphere, and the primary net C release from Africa; much of it from burning of forests (IPCC, Henry et al 2009). The typical slush and burn activity has a negligible impact on the released carbon from the soil to the atmosphere unless there is over exploitation due to other factors.

Soil fertility in Africa is under pressure and heavily depleted of their Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) (Smaling et al 1996). It is also estimated that topsoils have lost between 20-50% of their original C content. However, data on the status of soils in Africa is scattered and there exists few comprehensive soil maps to support accurate data about SOC.

Baseline information is needed not only to support the question of potential for sequestration of Carbon, but as an indicator for strategic interventions linked to food security in the future.  The question of SOC should be divorced from the politics of Carbon Financing and climate change and focus on the food needs of the continent.

The solution to soil fertility lies on the small scale farmers and their soil management practices.  The role of Indigenous knowledge systems yet again has a great role to play in this sector.

2.2 Existing solutions
There exists different mechanisms that can be used to improve soil fertility, however, improving SOC involves an integrated approach to land use management.