SUSTAINABILITY - The African Mirror

Dec

17

2020

Fresh wave of crop-ravaging locust swarms threaten E. African herders, farmers

SUSTAINABILITY

NITA BHALLA and MOHAMMED OMER A new generation of locust swarms is threatening to wipe out the livelihoods of farmers and herders across eastern Africa - deepening a food crisis in a region where 35 million people are already hungry, the United Nations warned on Wednesday. From January to August, massive desert locust swarms swept across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, ravaging crops and decimating pasture in the worst outbreak in decades. Governments, supported by U.N. agencies and international charities, responded with large-scale aerial and ground spraying of pesticides to destroy the swarms, which scientists have linked to climate change. But…

Dec

16

2020

By The African Mirror

Code red: UN calls for urgent shift to planet-friendly development

SUSTAINABILITY

MEGAN ROWLING UNDER huge pressure from COVID-19, climate change and natural destruction, warning lights for the planet and societies are "flashing red" - and now is the time to choose a safer, fairer path for human development, the United Nations said on Tuesday. "We are at an unprecedented moment in the history of humankind and in the history of our planet," it said in a report, urging efforts by governments, business and citizens to pursue a new kind of progress that protects the environment. "The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest harrowing consequence of imbalances writ large," said the Human Development Report…

Sep

30

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa tells Western envoys it needs financial support to shift from coal

SUSTAINABILITY

SOUTH Africa told visiting climate envoys from the United States, Britain, Germany and France that it needs major financial support to move away from coal, according to the environment department. South Africa is the world's 12th biggest carbon emitter, according to the Global Carbon Atlas, five places ahead of the United Kingdom, an economy eight times the size, emitting 479 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2e) in 2019. It is also by far Africa's largest emitter. This month, the government adopted a more ambitious emissions reduction target of 350-420 Mt CO2e per year by 2030, weeks before the…

Dec

13

2020

By The African Mirror

Climate primer: Why is everyone talking about ‘net zero’?

SUSTAINABILITY

As the Paris Agreement marks its fifth anniversary, a U.N-backed global campaign to slash climate-changing emissions has added new high-profile members to its ranks, including high-street fashion retailer Primark and consumer electronics giant Sony. The "Race to Zero", launched on World Environment Day in June, brings together businesses, cities and other organisations that aim by around mid-century to cut their planet-heating emissions to net zero - meaning they produce no more emissions than they can offset through measures such as planting trees. As a "Climate Ambition Summit" got underway on Saturday, the U.N. climate body said members of the Race to…

Dec

12

2020

By The African Mirror

Safe drinking water should mean safe collection too: how to reduce the risks

SUSTAINABILITY

GLOBALLY, millions of people don’t have access to water in their home. They collect water from shared water supply points or surface water sources and physically carry water containers back home for household use. DR JO-ANNE GEERE, Lecturer, School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia The importance of accessing water that’s safe to drink and enough water for washing, cleaning and cooking is clear. But little attention has been given to the safety of water collection away from home, or to the health and safety of the people who typically do this work. It’s most often women and girls…

Sep

27

2021

By The African Mirror

Africa’s $16 trillion race to de-carbonise

SUSTAINABILITY

SETH ONYANGO, BIRD SOUTH Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, Morocco and Kenya are building clean energy economies that could rake in billions of dollars in investment over the next decade. All have ramped up investments in renewable energy infrastructure to decarbonise their industries and run their economies with clean fuel. Some smaller states have also set ambitious energy transition targets from fossils, such as Rwanda’s target of generating 60 per cent renewable energy by 2030. Data show there is a huge incentive to decarbonise. In June last year, finance giant, Goldman Sachs projected that spending for renewable power projects in 2021, will…

Dec

11

2020

By The African Mirror

Why a new potato variety could be a game-changer for farmers in East Africa

SUSTAINABILITY

IMAGINE being a potato farmer in Ethiopia, Kenya or Nigeria. On a small piece of land, which you depend on for food and income, you have spent months planting, weeding and watering. Up to twice a week, you manually spray your field, sometimes with limited equipment, or hire someone to do it, spending much of your income on fungicides to avoid crop diseases. TADESSA DABA, Director, Agricultural Biotechnology Research Directorate, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research And yet within a week of cold and humid weather, your entire field has been destroyed by late blight, a disease that wipes out a…

Dec

10

2020

By The African Mirror

Conservationists trying to save Kenyan giraffes stranded on flooding island

SUSTAINABILITY

CONSERVATIONISTS are working to rescue giraffes stranded on an island in Lake Boringo in western Kenya after heavy rains led to the flooding of their rangeland habitat, threatening the animals with drowning. Relentless rains have increased lake levels which began to swallow up the peninsula where the giraffes have been living. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) in collaboration with the United States-based Save Giraffes Now and Kenya's Northern Rangelands Trust rescued two of the giraffes with a custom-made steel barge and is working to rescue the remaining six from the island. "There is great urgency to execute this rescue," said…

Dec

09

2020

By The African Mirror

Nairobi’s air has been polluted for decades: new review suggests a path forward

SUSTAINABILITY

ACCORDING to the State of the Global Air 2020 report, ambient air pollution was responsible for around 5,000 premature deaths in Kenya in 2019 alone. It is the fourth most important risk factor in driving death and disability combined in Kenya. Indeed, the 2017 national economic survey estimated that 19.9 million Kenyans suffer from respiratory ailments that are exacerbated by poor air quality. PRIYANKA DESOUZA, PhD researcher at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Kenya’s national environmental management agency imposed regulations in 2014 for national ambient air quality standards. These set out the maximum permissible…

Sep

21

2021

By The African Mirror

How countries alongside the Sahara can restore productive land faster

SUSTAINABILITY

NIGERIA'S President Muhammadu Buhari is about to take over the presidency of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall – the continent’s effort to restore degraded cropland, grazing areas and woodlands bordering the Sahara Desert. He takes over from Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, president of Mauritania. LARS LAESTADIUS, Adjunct Research Scientist, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences CHRIS REIJ, Sustainable land management specialist, World Resources Institute DENNIS GARRITY, Board Chair, Global EverGreening Alliance & Distinguished Senior Fellow, World Agroforestry (ICRAF), World Agroforestry (ICRAF) Buhari has the support of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and an international accelerator platform with…