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Climate change and its consequences for the environment present an enormous threat to human development and progress today. It is with this understanding that the UN subsidiary bodies are due to meet in Bonn, Germany, in June to advance agreements on climate change, anchored around the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

 

For most African countries, climate change has not only become a key policy priority as reflected in their national communications to the UNFCCC but also the reason for more concerted engagement in the global climate change debate. This may explain Kenya's recent move to launch a national climate change action plan that will guide the transition of the country towards a low carbon climate resilient development pathway. Coming at the height of the recent political campaign season, this important document may not have been noticed by many. However, its relevance for Kenya's future cannot be underestimated as it is an important milestone in Kenya's attempt to tackle climate change issues.

The plan lays out a policy road map for reducing the country's vulnerability to climate change, while also acknowledging that without such action, the country's development priorities aimed at transforming the country into a newly industrialising, middle-income country as envisaged under Vision 2030 will be hampered.

Like most African countries, Kenya's economy remains fragile due to the dependency on rain-fed agriculture which contributes upto 28.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product. Recent food shortages occasioned by droughts in most parts of the country point to the high level of vulnerability facing the agricultural sector.

According to the Environment ministry, recent droughts have left up to 3.7 million people without access to adequate food and therefore vulnerable to hunger. Between 2008 and 2011, drought alone slowed the country's economic growth by an average 2.8 per cent per year.

In more recent times, the ministry has further warned that the impacts of climate change could be as high as 2.6 per cent of GDP each year by 2030. Fatuma Hussein, a Kenya government party delegate to the climate talks, says the country's high dependency on rain-fed small scale agriculture has increased exposure to climate related risks, not only in the arid and semi-arid regions but also in the grain basket regions where some of the negative impacts could manifest through crop and livestock pests and disease occurrences. In most cases, climate change related risks worsen the poverty situation for rural and urban slum dwelling communities and weaken the safety net support networks.

But as pointed out by the chair of the Africa negotiating group, Emmanuel Dlamini from Swaziland, the circumstances of most African countries in regard to climate change are more or less informed by similar realities. For instance, Africa's contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) remains negligible. In a sense therefore, African countries have collectively done little in terms of harming the environment, yet some of the greatest impact of climate change are projected to occur in Africa. More important however is the fact that African economies, where agriculture is a key contributor to national GDP, have a low capacity to adapt to the negative impacts arising from climate variability and climate change.

These similarities provide a unique angle to Africa's case in global climate change talks, therefore giving impetus to the need for a common African position. The push towards a common African voice was recently demonstrated at the Doha 18th Conference of the Parties (COP18) of the UNFCCC.

A more energised African climate change team of negotiators argued strongly in favour of agriculture being included in an agreement that ensures its role in providing food security and improved livelihoods for millions of small holder farmers in Africa is secured while ensuring that they reap co-benefits from GHG mitigation due to their actions.

An earlier meeting of African ministers of environment held several months before the Doha global conference provided direction by emphasizing that adaptation to climate change should be the centre piece of Africa's common position in the talks. Dlamini says adaptation refers to the process by which Africa has to move towards regional and national level strategies that make it possible for African societies to live with climate change. At a more practical level, it means rural subsistence farming communities taking up or adapting simple innovations and technologies to increase agricultural productivity and conserve watersheds such as the Mau Forest in Kenya.

However, as far as lessons go, African negotiators at the global platform starting with the meeting in Copenhagen commonly referred to as COP 15, to later meetings in Cancun, Durban and more recently, Doha's COP 18, have learnt several critical lessons. According to Selam Kidane, Ethiopia's delegate to the talks, there is need for a more focused and strategic approach in advocating for the common African position at the global level. Kidane particularly emphasizes the need for more information and scientific data to feed into discussions during the upcoming Bonn talks. Fred Kossam of Malawi notes that to be effective, African negotiators should understand the technical issues related to agriculture as well as possess good negotiating skills.

Unlike, in previous sessions, the African team is billed to have been more successful at the recent Doha meeting because of prior preparatory sessions by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change and Food Security. According to Kossam, the African group in Doha was more engaged in the discussions due to the support they received from a science advisory group on African agriculture. The science group conducted a synthesis of issues highlighting common interests in the group of 77 (G77) and China as well as pointing out diverging opinions from other developed country submissions to the UNFCCC.

Moving, forward, African negotiators however understand that priority will be on securing partnerships at the global stage to help sustain and support national level climate change initiatives as well as early actions on agriculture. The Kenyan climate change action plan identifies several priorities such as the provision of knowledge to empower local communities to carry out adaptation particularly in agriculture. Knowledge is also required to inform and enrich policy making. There is also need for relevant technologies to facilitate adaptation efforts as well as financing to ensure that farmers and other key players have access totechnologies for adaption to and mitigation of climate change.