NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - The UN has called for protection of journalists so that they are able to highlight environmental issues.“UN Environment is taking a stand against the ongoing threats, intimidation, harassment, and murder of environmental defenders around the world, with the launch of the UN Environmental Rights Initiative in Geneva ,” said Erik Solheim, Head of UNEP, which is headquartered in Kenya.Speaking in Nairobi, Solheim said journalists and other environment activists need protection because they help people to better understand their rights and how to defend them and assist governments to better safeguard environmental rights.“Those who struggle to protect planet and people should be celebrated as heroes, but the sad fact is that many are paying a heavy price with their safety and sometimes their lives. It’s our duty to stand on the side of those who are on the right side of history. It means standing for the most fundamental and universal of human rights,” Solheim said.He urged governments to prioritize the protection of environmental defenders from harassment and attack and to bring those who harm or threaten them to justice swiftly and definitively.‘Killings, violence and threats often go unreported and unpunished. More journalistic coverage and stronger legal support at the local and national level are essential to defend the defenders,” said Jonathan Watts, Global Environment Editor, The Guardian.Solheim said environmental rights are enshrined in over 100 constitutions and yet in January 2018 Global Witness documented that almost four environmental defenders are being killed per week, with the true total likely far higher.“Many more are harassed, intimidated and forced from their lands. Around 40 -50 percent of the 197 environmental defenders killed in 2017 came from indigenous and local communities,” he said.The UN noted that violations of environmental rights have a profound impact on life, self-determination, food, water, health, sanitation, housing, cultural, civil and political rights.This comes at a time when the Kenya Government has imposed a 90-day moratorium on timber harvesting in public forests.Deputy President William Ruto also unveiled a taskforce last week to investigate why Kenya is losing forest cover quickly due to illegal timber harvesting and settlements.The 15-member team led by chairperson Marion Kamau will investigate why the country has 500,000 acres in water catchment areas that have no trees.The taskforce will also look into existing legal frameworks, including the forest Act and others, to ensure punitive measures are put in place to address various environmental challenges facing the country.The team which has two weeks to deliver its interim report and a month to give its final report is set to collect views from the public, religious groups, civil societies, diplomats and other interested stakeholders.“I have told the taskforce that this is not a public relations exercise. In the past, we have had exercises that end up being photo opportunities. The taskforce has a very clear mandate,” Ruto said when he unveiled its members.The call for protecting journalists and environment activists also comes at a time when the Sengwer indigenous people in Embobut forest…

PAMACC News, Nairobi - KENYA With the global car fleet due to triple by 2050 and greenhouse gas emissions from transport growing faster than any other sector, West African states have set sights on 2050 to phase out dirty and inefficient fuel.Bernard Koffi of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) disclosed this today at the ongoing African clean mobility week taking in Nairobi, Kenya.West Africa is believed to be Africa’s sub-region with the least fuel efficiency and economy levels as 80% of the vehicles across the sub-region are used vehicles while 72% of the vehicles used in ECOWAS countries are imported.The challenges of attaining fuel efficiency and economy in West Africa, according to Koffi include absence of policies and strong fiscal measures against the importation of vehicles that are over the age limit; and high age limits for the importation of used vehicles. Age limit for the importation of used light duty vehicles (LDVs) in most West African states hover between 8-15 years.Other extant challenges include poor fuel quality, and road congestion leading to high carbon emissions.These challenges notwithstanding, ECOWAS is confident of achieving fuel efficiency and economy at least by 50% by the year 2050 through the implementation of its Air Quality Agreement signed by ECOWAS ministers in 2009, and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of all ECOWAS member states to the Paris agreement.Mr. Koffi believes that the sub-region can achieve the target even before the target year by harmonising carbon emission standards and fuel specification, promoting clean vehicles and fuel economy, and strengthening institutional and regulatory frameworks on fuel consumption and carbon emissions.“An example of these measures is the recent ban placed on the importation of dirty diesel by five West African countries” he said.It would be recalled that Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Togo in 2016 announced measures to end the practice of European oil firms and traders who export to Africa, highly polluting fuels (derogatorily dubbed “African quality”) that could never be sold in Europe.Effective 1st July 2017, the five West African states banned the importation of high-sulphur diesel fuels making the permitted levels of sulphur in imported diesel to fall from as high as 3,000 parts per million (ppm) to 50ppm. Meanwhile, Europe since 2009 fixed the maximum permitted level at 10ppm.Speaking at the African clean mobility week, Erik Solheim, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) commended the ban by the west African states.“West Africa has sent a strong message that it is no longer accepting dirty fuels from Europe. Their decision to set strict standards for cleaner, safer fuels and advanced vehicle emission standards shows they are placing the health of their people first” Solheim said..

Governments from over 41 African countries alongside private sector, civil society and development partners, are in Nairobi this week to explore ways of achieving cleaner mobility across the region.The week-long meeting which is dubbed “the Africa clean mobility week” seeks to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles in Africa by leveraging on technological advancements driving low-carbon mobility within and outside the region.The Africa clean mobility week, according to the conveners, represents Africa’s quest to transit to cleaner mobility, building on the outcomes of the 2014 Africa Sustainable Transport Forum.It would be recalled that African ministers, at this forum held in Nairobi in 2014, adopted 13 action points aimed at boosting Africa’s capacity to harness the impact of cleaner mobility on health, environment and economic growth in the region Transportation and climate changeTransportation remains at the very core of development. The sector, considered as an essential enabler of business, comprises movement of persons, products or services using road, air, rail or water.As important as this sector is, it is not insulated from the impacts of climate change such as heavy rains, sea level rise and pollution. It is also a significant contributor of greenhouse gas emissions which lead to climate change.According to a new briefing published by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and the Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS), physical impacts of climate change on primary industries are likely to include damage to infrastructure and industrial capital assets, and could reduce availability of renewable natural resources including water.The briefing which distilled the key findings from the recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report for the transport sector indicates that most sector scenarios project that global demand for industrial products will increase by 45–60% by 2050 relative to 2010 production levels.Rising demand for products used to reduce GHG emissions and to adapt to climate impacts could, perversely, create pressures to increase industrial emissions, the briefing asserts.Also, a 2016 World Bank report says that transport was the largest energy consuming sector in 40 percent of countries worldwide in 2012. It was second-largest consumer in the remaining countries. According to the report, carbon dioxide gas emissions from energy are expected to grow by 40 percent between 2013 and 2040.Combating climate change through clean mobility initiatives therefore becomes a right step in the right direction. Imperatives of cleaner mobility in AfricaAcross the world, the challenge of curbing or decreasing the sector’s contribution to climate change particularly in urban centres remains ever present.In Africa, urban transport and the transition to low-carbon mobility have remained strange bed fellows owing largely to commuters’ willingness to leave their cars at home and turn to greener modes such as public transit, cycling, or walking.Getting Africans to make the switch appears an uphill task as decades of car-centric development, combined with the car culture which projects the private car as a status symbol, have made it hard for African governments to take people out of their vehicles.With unprecedented motorization rate spurred by…

MIDRAND, South Africa (PAMACC News) - Legislators at the Pan African Parliament are eager to pursue industrialised countries, whose activities have resulted in excess emission of greenhouse gasses that have led to global warming, but the African civil society on climate change has a different message.Latest research findings in Kenya for example, show that temperatures have risen in all the country’s 21 semi arid counties with five of them surpassing the 1.5 °C mark in the past 50 years. This, according to the study, has led to sharp reduction in livestock population, impacting heavily on livelihoods.Paris Agreement on climate change calls for international interventions to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.“The changing climatic conditions is a problem all over Africa, and the first thing we must do, is accept that there is a problem that must be tackled immediately before pursuing those who caused it,” said Augustine Njamnshi, a board member of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), which brings together over 1000 African climate related civil society organisations.“If a man puts your house on fire, will you start by pursuing the man, or will you try and put out the fire, then follow up with the arsonist thereafter?” asked Njamnshi during a training workshop for African Members of Parliament in Midrand, South Africa.The Kenyan study, which was conducted by scientists from the Kenya Markets Trust (KMT), commissioned by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Canada and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) – through a project known as Pathways to Resilience in Semi-arid Economies (PRISE) reveals that cattle population has reduced by over 26% between 1977 and 2016.“Our projections show that the temperatures are going to increase even further in the coming years, and the impact is likely going to be more devastating,” said Dr Mohammed Said, one of the PRISE researchers. During the MPs training in Midrand, the lead trainer, Stephen Mutimba pointed out that African continent, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, is exposed to climate variability and extremes at frequencies which exceed normal thresholds, and that such events could significantly erode gains already made in poverty reduction.There is therefore need for different countries to devise coping mechanisms so as to save livelihoods.Mutimba said that governments can only prepare for disasters that may result from the extreme weather events only if they have access to adequate climate information.“Climate information and services are key resources for governments and communities to prepare for these changes and when well integrated into policy and practice, they can help reverse this trend and enhance cross-sectoral climate resilient development,” he told the legislators.According to Mithika Mwenda, the PACJA Secretary General, there is urgent need for legislators to work hand in hand with the civil society and researchers for climate adaptation and in advancing the climate discourse at the global level.“We all need to embrace the Talanoa dialogue,” said Mithika. ‘Talanoa’ is a traditional word used…