In his submission before retiring to the private sector, Yvo de Boer sent a warning short, it is impossible to change the climate change architecture from inside the UN.

Does he know something we dont know?  What is wrong with the current architecture? Is it at the Kyoto Protocol level or is it at the “Financing mechanism level”, or is the current framework not able to deliver any depictable positive change?

What are countries offering on greenhouse-gas reductions?

On Sunday, South Africa said it would slow the growth of its emissions to 34 percent below the current annual growth rate by 2020 and to 42 percent by 2025, as long as international aid is forthcoming.

India has offered to improve its energy efficiency to 20 or 25 percent better than 2005 levels, provided it gets international money.

China has offered up a 40 to 45 percent efficiency improvement on 2005.

Brazil has put up actual emissions reductions of 36 to 39 percent below 1994 levels by 2020, if it gets financial help.

Contrary to popular perception, indigenous or local communities have intimate knowledge of their environment (soils, water, forest, flora, fauna, etc), and most of their decisions and actions are informed by this knowledge-base.

The landscape within which indigenous knowledge can efficiently be used to support adaptation and mitigation action is heavily degraded, this is a reality we all need to wake up to

Indigenous or local knowledge is the basis for local-level decision-making in many rural communities. It has value not only for the culture in which it evolves, but also for scientists and planners striving to improve conditions in rural localities.

Over time, human relationship with nature has produced complex knowledge systems, which are responsive to change, self regenerating as well as being multidimensional in nature. The close knit association between this knowledge systems and ecosystems offers us the greatest opportunity to understand how humans respond to change. This is crucial especially now that we are faced with a major environmental crisis related to climate change.

Incorporating indigenous knowledge into climate change policies can lead to the development of effective adaptation strategies that are cost-effective, participatory and sustainable (IPCC). However, the papers in this publication point out that the ecological space within which indigenous knowledge can effectively be used for adaptation has severely been degraded. They also highlight the continued and existing threat from development practices including those meant to assist in the processes of adaptation and mitigation.

The papers explore the role of the indigenous knowledge from two extreme ecological systems; the wet ecological systems of Vietnam and Bangladesh to the dry to semi arid ecosystems of Kenya. The three country case studies show that, often linear solutions have been designed to resolve issues or problems that are multidimensional in nature. This approach has more or less tended to shift the temporal problem and transferring the inherent risks to solitary ecological units or to whole ecosystems. This in turn degrades the active role of indigenous or local knowledge systems.

There is an emerging trend on how the role of indigenous or local knowledge systems has been systematically marginalised through developmental interventions over time in the Global South.

“There is no reason why Africa cannot be self-sufficient when it comes to food” Barack Obama, President of USA- July 2009.

Agriculture has proved more resilient to the global crisis than other sectors, according to the annual Agricultural Outlook report, published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Although the scenario varies by commodity, the sector as a whole is expected to be relatively better off because of the recent period of high incomes and income-elastic demand for food.

Downstream sectors are still having difficulties to access credit, liquidity is low, and trade finance remains constrained, the report says, but the agricultural sector seems to be withstanding the recession fairly well.

For the next 10 years, average prices for agricultural products are projected at or above levels of the decade prior to the 2007-08 peaks. Prices for vegetable oils, for example, are expected to increase by about 30%, and crop prices by 10% to 20%. While meat prices are not expected to surpass the average, dairy prices are expected to be only slightly higher.

Prospects for the biofuel markets remain uncertain, mainly because of unpredictable factors such as the future trend in crude oil prices, changes in policy interventions and developments in second-generation technology. As long as crude oil prices remain between $60 and $70 per barrel, the report says, biofuels will also be struggling against fossil fuels.

Should agriculture be on the agenda of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009? This no longer seems to be the question but the demand from the African Civil Society movements.

It is argued that if fundamental climate change mitigation and adaptation goals are to be met, international climate deal or treaty if you may must include agriculture.

Why is agriculture all of a sudden becoming a key contested area in the climate change discussions? For Africa, it is quite clear the majority population relies on agriculture and natural systems for production and  climate change is bound to impact them disproportionately compared to those who have other means of “securing production” under controlled environments.

So poor farmers farmers in Africa “with or without their consent have become a bargaining chip”- they need support and help to adapt to climate change.  Now, most people will stop there even the most educated in this new emerging hot bed of money and politics. Simply put, how does one help these poor farmers adapt to climate change?

How many solutions or practical measures have been tabled on how “that help” will be formulated?

Oakland Institute publishes some interesting articles on Africa in their section, voices from Africa.  One of their recent article was on food security.  Their conclusion is very accurate and spot on (whether you are a believer of climate change or global warming)!

The future of food security in the face of warming temperatures cannot be based on a system of profits and research that fails to address the needs of food-insecure farmers. We need real solutions that will enable farmers to maintain and increase yields with those materials and techniques already available to them with little extra cost: animal manure, increased irrigation opportunities, cover crops, compost, and integrated pest-management systems. Organic agriculture will reduce, mitigate, and adapt to climate change impacts and still remain accessible and economic to the billions of subsistence farmers around the world. If we really want to fight the food crisis, let’s start investing in and promoting organic production today to ensure better climate adaptation in the future.  Access the full article here……

Labour Day is a day that people from across the world do exactly the opposite, they dont labour.  But, as the debate on climate change continues to gain momentum, those of a curious mind are left somehow confused when faced with the current scientific data and the political debate, so us who are keen to go to the heart of this matter, we labour on Labour day digging for news and interesting thoughts on how to deal with the climate change globally.

In our dig this week, we feature an article that was first published by American Progress.  The write up was in their idea of the day. Below is a snap shot of the Idea.

As the world’s largest historic emitter of greenhouse gases—and with one of the highest levels of per capita emissions—the United States has a responsibility to help the least developed countries face the threats brought on by global warming. And providing financial assistance for these countries to use in adapting to global warming’s effects would be a responsible and sensible course of action that would also promote stability and prosperity abroad.

In the rapidly unfolding debate of international climate policy, “adaptation” refers to the ability of communities to prepare for and respond to the consequences of climate change. Adaptation is one of the four priorities of international climate negotiations, in addition to mitigation (reducing global warming pollution), clean technology transfer, and finance.

The idea is  to support adaptation;  is this a good or bad idea? Personaly I dont think it is a bad idea, but it would help if we did break it down a little!

Human induced cumulative environmental tweaks are leading to Climate Change

As Africa prepares to celebrate Earth Day this week, there is a growing unease as new scientific evidence puts Africa square in the same carbon foot print with India and China in contributing towards climate change.  Africa has been very vocal about climate change (the scenario of global warming), and not willing to shoulder any blame about green house gas emissions, until the latest NASA black carbon report.

Lately however, the issue of landuse change especially deforestation has been discussed at length and there is almost consensus that forestry needs all the different forms of support to arrest the continued degradation.  REDD has become a favourite tool and most African States are in favour.  A few  civil society organisations  are however critical and questioning the design of the model.

Agriculture on the other hand remains a topic outside the climate change discussions despite it being at high risk and a main livelihood for the 500 million inhabitants of Africa.  Agriculture is one of the most central issue towards the security of Africa and the survival of its people.   The focus has remained in the protecting the forestry sector and promoting good practice in an area where options have yet to be identified; eg where will the locals get their fuel wood, building material etc.

The question of Africas contribution to climate change has narrowed down to what Africa can get out of the global Financial mechanisms, but little in terms of the innovation that can come from this continent.  In fact, it is becoming almost gospel that “our own home grown problems” of poor governance and environmental corruption are no longer issues and it all boils down to climate change.  Whether it is illegal logging, inept politicians, poor land policies, self driven land degradation, the blame has shifted to global warming or climate change.

It is the high time we faced the reality, the short term fluctuations do not negate the fact that “there is human induced” environmental changes whose cumulative effect is leading to Climate Change, and especially so in Africa!!

Using modeling global warming has been shown to contribute 37 percent drop in rainfall and set to increase.

According to Prof. Peter George Baines, his analysis revealed four regions where rainfall has been declining linked to climate change. The affected areas were the continental United States, southeastern Australia, a large region of equatorial Africa and the Altiplano in South America. This work was based on the examination of reanalysis and satellite-based rainfall data, coupled with dynamical interpretations.

Mexico is currently experiencing one of the worst water crisis ever.  This great city was once a lake before being drained to make way for the metropolis.  It is now on the verge of disaster.

Meanwhile, according to a report featured by the National Geographic, 22 African countries are experiencing their worst wet seasons in decades, and climate experts say that global warming is to blame.

Devastating rains and flash floods have affected 1.5 million people across the continent, killing at least 300 since early summer.