Renewable Energy Conference 2024 and Expo Should Reflect on Realities of ‘Tiny Actions’ With a Cumulative Impact

 

From 31st October to the 2nd of November, 2024, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Platform (NREP), will host the Renewable Energy Conference & EXPO (REC24 & EXPO) at the Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort in Kampala, Uganda. The event will consist of high level discussions, energy financing, technology development and deployment, knowledge management, research, capacity building and communities of practice, policy, planning, standards and markets.

The theme of REC24 & EXPO: ‘Transforming Livelihoods through Clean Energy Access’ is well-timed to reflect on. This is because the Uganda’s energy sector is undergoing policy changes while institutional reforms are anticipated in future. Whereas these are commendable policy milestones, the devil is in the detail – how they will these be translated into tangible, time-bound actions?

‘Transforming Livelihoods Through Clean Energy Access’ is a loud voice calling for an equal response to meet the needs of the a (youthful) population in dire need of basic needs and (green) jobs, that are motivated by energy ‘hotspots’ in rural areas. For example, through addressing the deficit in energy for lighting where majority of households (52 per cent) are reported in the Uganda National Population and Housing Census 2024 to be using Tadooba (local paraffin candle) as the main source while only about 20 per cent used electricity. Action here can unlock economic, public health improvement and social transformation

Though it could be taken lightly, possession of kitchens is still a challenge much as it defines where, how, what, when and how to cook. TheUganda National Population and Housing Census 2024 Report has also noted that overall, about half of the households (51 per cent) used outside built kitchens while 25 per cent used open space. More households in rural areas (56 per cent) cooked outside in built up kitchens compared to households in urban areas (34 Per cent). This has implications on household energy efficiency and related investment decisions at that level.

Read the full article in the East African SusWatch INFORSE East Africa E bulletin (September 2024)

World Cleanup Day: Dealing with Blisters of Plastic Litter in Nebbi (West Nile region, Uganda)

 

On 8 December 2023, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) officially established World Clean-up Day in its resolution A/78/122, to be annually observed on 20 September.

The resolution welcomes the contribution of World Clean-up Day activities to date to addressing the environmental challenges associated with waste management by mobilizing people globally to participate in coordinated voluntary action, empowering collaboration, and raising broad awareness of the need to reduce waste pollution tangibly.

Over the years, many national, regional and local governments and communities have been undertaking clean-up activities globally. World Clean-up Day represents the reflection on their achievements. The clean-ups serve as a reminder of the collective responsibility we share in preserving and maintaining a clean and healthy environment as well as sustainable waste and resources management.

Despite these efforts, the impact of single use plastics in many parts of the world is huge but not yet fully understood. For example, in Nebbi district (West Nile region of Uganda) while local level clean-up efforts are being undertaken at community level, poor waste management especially the single use plastic bags and used plastic bottles in many trading centres chock drainage channels and farmlands, among other negative effects.

In April 2024, Joint Energy and Environment Projects (JEEP) and Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development (UCSD) that are currently implementing the Climate Action for Improved and Sustainable Livelihoods (CAISL) Project in Nebbi District, were prompted to issue a joint civil society statement that called for a more nuanced national level action on single use plastics and used plastic bottles in order to back up community clean up exercises conducted in Nebbi and elsewhere in Uganda. Currently plastics make up a significant fraction of what is collected. Though this is partly reused in the community, a significant amount is burnt in the ‘open’ as the only ‘viable’ option.

Sustainable Development Goal 11: Life on Sustainable Cities and Communities aim to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Target 11.6 specifically calls for reduction in the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management by 2030.

World Clean-up Day aims to mobilise people globally to participate in coordinated voluntary action, empowering collaboration, and raising broad awareness of the need to reduce waste pollution tangibly. Further, it serves as a powerful reminder of the collective responsibility we share in preserving and maintaining a clean and healthy environment. Its inaugural commemoration will be observed on Friday 20 September 2024 in Tromsø, Norway.

World Food Day 2024: Celebrating 20 Years of the Right to Food Guidelines, But Is Ending Hunger & Food Insecurity Remain a Pipe Dream in Africa?

The World Food Day is celebrated on October 16 every year. The theme for this year is Right to foods for a better life and a better future. 

In addition, the international community this year celebrates an important milestone in the human right to adequate food - the 20th anniversary of the “Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security also known as the Right to Food Guidelines’

The Voluntary Guidelines to support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security were adopted by the FAO in 2004, with the aim of guiding states to implement the right to food. It is not legally binding, but directed to states' obligations to the right to food under international law

At the World Food Summit that took place in Rome in 1996, governments reaffirmed the right to food and committed themselves to halve the number of hungry and malnourished from 840 to 420 million by 2015. The Summit declaration noted as ‘intolerable that more than 800 million people throughout the world, and particularly in developing countries, do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs. The situation is unacceptable’.

But the recently released State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 (SOFI 2024) report, published by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, and WHO, noted that six years from 2030, hunger and food insecurity trends are not yet moving in the right direction to end hunger and food insecurity (SDG Target 2.1) by 2030. The indicators of progress towards global nutrition targets similarly show that the world is not on track to eliminate all forms of malnutrition (SDG Target 2.2). 

Billions of people still lack access to nutritious, safe and sufficient food. For example, the SOFI 2024 report warns that one out of every five people in Africa is facing hunger.

Furthermore, in Africa, Asia and South America - continents with the biggest food-related problems, not only is there shortage of food and lack of infrastructure but also mal-distribution and inadequate access to food. 

For example, according to FAO, while world’s farmers produce enough food to feed more than the global population yet, hunger persists. Around 733 million people are facing hunger in the world due to repeated weather shocks, conflicts, economic downturns, inequality, and the COVID19 pandemic. This impacts the poor and vulnerable most severely, many of whom are agricultural households. This is turn unwraps efforts to address widening inequalities and other global goals across and within countries. 

Therefore, on the occasion of the World Food Day 2024, the FAO call to governments for enhanced global commitment to the right to adequate food for all including through sustainable, fair and transformed agri-food systems, is more than urgent.

Read the full article from the East African INFORSE East Africa E bulletin, August 2024

Pact for the Future: Why Addressing Climate Finance is Fundamental

  

The Summit of the Future due 22-23 September 2024 is a high-level event, bringing world leaders together to forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future. Given the current global challenges, multilateral cooperation remains vital, but this depends on trust amongst the UN member states as well as the global citizens. Indeed the UN has described this Summit as ‘an opportunity to put ourselves on a better path’.

The scope of the Summit of the Future will encompass elements that will be reflected in the outcome document, entitled A Pact for the Future. These elements are Sustainable development and financing for development; International peace and security; Science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation; Youth and future generations; and Transforming global governance.

With regards to sustainable development and financing for development, the Summit of the Future must be an accelerator for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in full and on time through urgent and scaled-up action, policies and investments, including through the SDG Stimulus endorsed by governments at the SDG Summit last year.

According to the UN Secretary General, It aims to provide at least $500 billion US dollars annually in affordable long-term finance for developing countries. It calls for urgent action on debt, including breathing space for countries facing impossible repayment schedules. Its offset addresses the challenging market conditions faced by developing countries and accelerate progress towards the SDGs, including through investments in renewable energy,

universal social protection, decent job creation and the digital transformation. The UN Trade and Development (2023) estimates that nearly 57% of the African population, or about 751 million people, live in countries that spend more on interest payments than in the social sectors like climate action that need increasing (global) solid responsiveness.

Furthermore, as the African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi Adesina noted at a high-level roundtable on climate finance convened during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings in April this year, “Africa is in the eye of the storm from climate change, accounting for 9 out of the 10 most vulnerable countries to climate change globally”. He added: “But Africa is not getting what it needs to adapt to climate change. Africa received just $30 billion per year for climate adaptation, while its needs are $277 billion per year, leaving a huge financing gap.”

Also UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report that was released ahead of the UN Climate talks in Dubai last year finds that the adaptation finance needs of developing countries are 10-18 times as big as international public finance flows – over 50 per cent higher than the previous range estimate. According to this Report, as a result of the growing adaptation finance needs and faltering flows, the current adaptation finance gap is now estimated to be US$194-366 billion per year. At the same time, adaptation planning and implementation appear to be plateauing. This failure to adapt has massive implications for losses and damages, particularly for the most vulnerable.

So as the world gears up for the Summit of the Future, there are clear pointers of what needs to be done through multilateral approaches irrespective of political ideology, faith, gender or any socio-economic inclination. One of these is climate action that knows no borders.

Read the full article in the East African SusWatch INFORSE East Africa E bulletin (July 2024)

High Level Political Forum 2024: Climate Change is a New and Emerging Challenge to Uganda’s Development

                                            Picture: NGO Forum

 
Ahead of the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF 2024) due to take place in New York (July 8 – 17, 2024), a Pre-HLPF CSO dialogue organised by the Uganda National NGO Forum at Mestil Hotel in Kampala, brought together a diverse range of actors in implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Climate action (SDG13) is one of the focus SDGs this time round, and Uganda will be among the 38 Countries that will present her VNR report at the HLPF 2024.

According to Uganda's Third National Communications to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Uganda faces numerous events associated with the adverse impacts of climate change. Record breaking occurrences of floods, devastating and frequent droughts and erratic rainfall patterns have been experienced. Severe impacts including landslides, loss of biodiversity, land degradation and increased incidences of diseases, pest and vector infestations in both humans and livestock have followed. The recurrent floods in River Nyamwamba in Kasese District on the slopes of The Rwenzori Mountains, and long droughts across the cattle-keeping belt of Uganda are always pointers to the magnitude of the menace.

Biomass is the most essential energy source for most Ugandan populations, accounting for 90.5% (2021) of the primary energy consumed. Also, Uganda’s electricity connectivity rate of 28% is still one of the lowest in Africa compared with the Sub-Saharan average of 43%. Access in rural areas is particularly low at 8%, with insufficient access to modern energy sources and services such as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), biogas and improved cookstoves for clean cooking.

The widespread dependence on biomass energy resources for cooking and heating using inefficient methods, such as traditional cookstoves, has resulted in rapid forest depletion for firewood and charcoal, among others. The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA Uganda) reported in 2020 that ‘Uganda suffers a degradation loss of USD 2.3 billion, of which 25% is wood fuels and that 2.6% of Uganda’s forests are cut down annually for firewood, charcoal, agriculture and to make way for population growth. If this trend persists, Uganda will lose all its forest cover in less than 25 years’.

In effect, while efforts out by Government to put in place enabling laws and policies to facilitate increased production and supply of energy as reported in the VNR 2024 are plausible, a lot more needs to be done to counter the rampant use of biomass for cooking is a silent killer for Uganda’s tree cover, agricultural and other and landscapes. The VNR report 2024 presentation made by Mr Pascal Byarugaba from the SDGs Secretariat (Office of the Prime minister) noted that one of the steps is to,’ Prioritise the generation and use of more renewable and clean energy resources, especially nuclear power and solar energy’. This is within the framework of the enabling laws and policies that Government of Uganda has put in place to facilitate increased production and supply of energy.

However, the increased unpredictable negative effects of climate change that have led to the loss of human life, property, crops and livestock cannot wait, as they have disrupted the already stretched service delivery by destroying infrastructure, including schools, health facilities, roads, water and sanitation, including the very energy grid facilities.

It is an urgent matter to have interventions that ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all Ugandans. As noted by the UN Women Leave No One Behind Report, ‘the average monthly cost of electricity of Ugshs 25,538 is too high to afford for vulnerable groups such as poor, female-headed households, older persons and Persons with Disabilities’.

This is driving the biomass reliance (firewood and charcoal) further as an affordable alternative for many people. To make matters worse, the price of charcoal and firewood has recently escalated, meaning that vulnerable groups have to rely on even more inferior fuels to cook or to miss out cooking schedules (for example boiling water for drinking, coking foods that require long timespan to be ready, and so on). This opens up another pending discussion on implications of the lack of clean cooking options, which directly impacts on women and children.

The Voluntary National Review (VNR) is a part of the follow-up and review mechanisms of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This review is a process by which member states take stock of and assess progress and shortcomings in the implementation of the goals and targets. It is a regular and inclusive review of progress at the national and sub-national level, which is Country-led and Country-driven. The VNR reports are presented to the United Nations during the HLPF every July of the year

Ahead of 2030, Access to Clean Fuels and Technologies Fails in Sub Saharan Africa - Global Report

 

The 2024 Annual Report: Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report that tracks global progress with a global dashboard to register progress on the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7): ensuring universal energy access, doubling progress on energy efficiency and substantially increasing the share of renewable energy is out.

It also registers progress towards enhanced international cooperation to facilitate access to clean and renewable energy by 2030, as well as on the expansion of infrastructure and technology upgrade for supplying modern and sustainable energy services for all in developing countries. It assesses the progress made by each country on these targets and provides a snapshot of how far we are from achieving SDG7.

It serves as a guide for policymakers and the international community in advancing energy access, energy efficiency, renewable energy and international cooperation.

According to this Report, the world is not on track to achieve universal access to clean cooking by 2030. This is more noticeable in sub-Saharan Africa (pink line below), where the number of people without access to clean fuels & technologies continues to climb 📈 . 

 

The Report is jointly prepared by the Custodian Agencies – the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

It also receives inputs from the SDG7 Technical Advisory Group which comprises more than 30 organizations around the world and has been made possible with the support of our partners.

World Environment Day 2024: Time for a Coherent Regional Climate Plan

 

The World Environment Day 2024 will focus on the critical theme of “Land Restoration, Desertification, and Drought Resilience’. The theme aligns with the urgent call for action to restore degraded landscapes, protecting essential ecosystem services. Land restoration is a pivotal aspect of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), contributing significantly to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 15).

A case in point for this action is that land use and land degradation - ranked as the most pressing trans-boundary environmental issue in the Lake Victoria basin (one of the world’s most densely populated areas), according to the LakeVictoria Basin Commission’s Strategic Plan (2021-26). Land degradation has been recognized as a basin wide problem referring to decline in the overall quality of soil or vegetation condition commonly caused by human activities. The poor are impacted in a number of ways including reduced agricultural yields, higher energy prices, loss of future incomes and reduced access to lands. Soil erosion leads to land degradation. Also, the conversion of forests and wetlands into agricultural or urban lands affects water flow in rivers and increase siltation thus affecting hydro power generation and creates power outages that push up energy prices. In the past four decades, over 70% of the forest cover in the catchment area has been lost, about 75% of wetland area has been significantly affected by human activities and about 13% is severely degraded.

Therefore, this year’s theme on Land Restoration, Desertification, and Drought Resilience, is a plain reminder of what has gone wrong as evidenced in the above challenges and the increased occurrence of unfamiliar extreme weather conditions that have resulted in loss of lives and property across East Africa. When land is poorly managed, unfavorable weather conditions like el Niño find a ‘soft’ landing to worsen environmental degradation including land degradation through flash floods and loss of soil productivity due to droughts. A clear starting point is therefore urgently needed to scale up land restoration efforts in this region.

A viable start is for East African Partner States to prioritize the implementation of their National Climate Plans (Nationally Determined Contribution – NDC) especially climate change adaptation. Under the Paris Agreement, each Party is required to establish an NDC (updated every five years with ambition in mind). For example, in Rwanda’s Plan, agriculture is prioritized in terms of developing sustainable land use management practices, expanding irrigation and improve water management; while in the land and forestry sector, focus is on development of agroforestry and sustainable agriculture, promoting afforestation / reforestation of designated areas, improving forest management for degraded forest resources, harmonized and integrated spacial data management system for sustainable land use, and inclusive land administration that regulate and provide guidance for land tenure security.

On agriculture, Tanzania’s Climate Plan seeks to up scale the level of improvement of agricultural land and water resources management, increase productivity in an environmentally sustainable way through, inter alia, climate-smart agriculture interventions and to promote accessible mechanisms for smallholder farmers against climate related shocks, including crop insurances and strengthening knowledge systems, extension services and agricultural infrastructure to target climate actions, including using climate services and local knowledge.

While similar actions are also present in the Uganda’s and Kenya’s national Climate Plans, it is time a coherent regional climate plan under guidance of either the East African Community (EAC) or The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is generated to concretely address the rapidly growing borderless climate change challenge that is a key contributor to desertification and drought in East and the Horn of Africa. This will simultaneously enable focused implementation  of other global commitments under Agenda 2030 (SDG15), Africa 2063 of the African Union, the UN Convention on Drought and Desertification and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework for which East African Countries are Party. Nonetheless Community Driven Development (CDD) sub-projects with a focus on livelihood improvement are potential movers to address Land Restoration, Desertification, and Drought Resilience.

Read this and other articles in the EA SusWatch INFORSE East Africa Ebulletin (May 2024) from here