News / Africa
Rampant deforestation blamed for climate change
02 Oct 2024 at 07:11hrs | Views
The Africa Carbon Forum (formerly the Africa Voluntary Carbon Credits Market Forum, or AVCCMF) has blamed the rampant cutting down of trees and irresponsible mining activities in the country for worsening the vagaries of climate change.
The organization is partnering with the government in implementing strategies to address the negative effects of climate change.
In a statement, the firm's founder and executive director, Anglistone Sibanda, said that ACF is a non-profit entity whose vision is to see Africa taking a leading role in climate action and benefiting from the climate economy created by the Paris Agreement, leading to the attainment of National Development Goals (NDS1 and Vision 2030 in the case of Zimbabwe), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Africa Agenda 2063 objectives.
The organization was formed specifically to partner with the government in driving climate action that includes climate change mitigation programs, adaptation, and resilience building in communities to ameliorate the impact of climate change.
It also seeks to raise public awareness to increase local participation and build capacity on greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
"This is meant to enable Zimbabwe to achieve its Nationally Determined Contribution targets of 40% emissions reduction per capita by 2030 and the global goal of keeping the temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius and returning to the pre-industrialization era of carbon neutrality by 2050," the statement reads.
Sibanda said that the goals form the rationale behind the Paris Agreement, which created carbon credits as a mechanism for enabling the flow of funds from the global north to the global south to finance mitigation programs.
"This is in line with the global climate justice agenda to compensate Africa for the suffering it goes through despite not having contributed significantly to the depletion of the ozone layer. Africa currently bears the brunt of the impact of climate change versus its weak coping, adaptation, and resilience capacities, which in turn increases vulnerability and risk."
"The first challenge is the complex nature of the subject of climate change, which impedes participation. Due to this complexity, very few people in government, institutions of learning, and in the public domain understand it, much less the Paris Agreement instrument of carbon credits."
"This is the biggest challenge that we are working hard to deal with by popularizing the climate narrative. We have been running conferences, workshops, and seminars with various stakeholders on the subject."
ACF's director said that the main cause for climate change has been human behavior since the advent of the industrial revolution in the 17th century.
"Gigatons and billows of greenhouse gas emissions have been unleashed into the atmosphere, wantonly damaging the ozone layer. In the local context, communities have been wantonly cutting down trees that act as carbon sequesters for firewood, building of homes, fencing, etc."
"We have also been carrying out irresponsible mining activities, destroying natural ecosystems and biodiversity, while cities have been developing transport systems that emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, and industries have been unleashing large amounts of carbon dioxide," he said.
"Our thermal power stations for energy generation, our buildings, and our waste management systems have seen tons and tons of waste going to landfills, with 80% of that being plastic waste as well as biodegradable waste that generate methane gas, which in turn is more potent to the ozone than any other gases."
"All of these have brought us to where we are with extreme, unpredictable, vehement, and adverse weather patterns. We must change and change urgently in order to save the planet."
Sibanda said that humanity at large is to blame, with the developed countries being the biggest culprits, beginning with Great Britain, the United States of America, Russia, Germany, China, Japan, and the oil-producing countries.
He said that the United Nations has pointed out that the burning of fossil fuels has been the biggest cause, hence the COP 28, Dubai UAE resolution of phasing out fossil fuels.
"Zimbabwe has not contributed much considering that Africa as a whole only contributes less than 4% of the total global emissions. This is despite the billows of smoke in South Africa and Nigeria," he said.
"If anything, Zimbabwe's carbon emissions have been reduced due to deindustrialization that took place from the turn of the millennium, but the frequency and severity of droughts and cyclones has increased. As I said, there is a long way to go, but there is general appreciation, especially among young people, that are keen to participate, which is good for the country."
Sibanda said that their major partner is the Government through the Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife, and other supporting ministries that include Agriculture, Energy and Power Development, and Finance.
"As indicated by the post-cabinet brief of September 10 by the Hon Minister of Environment to Cabinet, we are working with the government in preparation for COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and in this, we will be hosting, together with the Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife, the University of Zimbabwe and our partners, a pre-COP29 high-level technical cross-sectoral stakeholder conference to take stock at Zimbabwe's mitigation programs," he said.
He said that this will be inclusive of the private sector, non-governmental organizations' work, and to consolidate Zimbabwe's position for an effective climate diplomacy strategy at the SADC, AU, and UN levels.
"We hope to leverage on the opportunity being presented by the fact that our President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is the current SADC chair to move into the region and drive the climate agenda with a possibility of establishing a SADC Climate Desk to effective regional climate action," he said.
"We will be scaling up training programs, premiering the Sustainable Cities Program, helping cities develop their Sustainability Monographs as in the case of the City of Bulawayo, in order to facilitate a rapid and impactful transitioning towards sustainability for the attainment of the Carbon Neutrality goal by 2050."
The organization is partnering with the government in implementing strategies to address the negative effects of climate change.
In a statement, the firm's founder and executive director, Anglistone Sibanda, said that ACF is a non-profit entity whose vision is to see Africa taking a leading role in climate action and benefiting from the climate economy created by the Paris Agreement, leading to the attainment of National Development Goals (NDS1 and Vision 2030 in the case of Zimbabwe), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Africa Agenda 2063 objectives.
The organization was formed specifically to partner with the government in driving climate action that includes climate change mitigation programs, adaptation, and resilience building in communities to ameliorate the impact of climate change.
It also seeks to raise public awareness to increase local participation and build capacity on greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
"This is meant to enable Zimbabwe to achieve its Nationally Determined Contribution targets of 40% emissions reduction per capita by 2030 and the global goal of keeping the temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius and returning to the pre-industrialization era of carbon neutrality by 2050," the statement reads.
Sibanda said that the goals form the rationale behind the Paris Agreement, which created carbon credits as a mechanism for enabling the flow of funds from the global north to the global south to finance mitigation programs.
"This is in line with the global climate justice agenda to compensate Africa for the suffering it goes through despite not having contributed significantly to the depletion of the ozone layer. Africa currently bears the brunt of the impact of climate change versus its weak coping, adaptation, and resilience capacities, which in turn increases vulnerability and risk."
"The first challenge is the complex nature of the subject of climate change, which impedes participation. Due to this complexity, very few people in government, institutions of learning, and in the public domain understand it, much less the Paris Agreement instrument of carbon credits."
"This is the biggest challenge that we are working hard to deal with by popularizing the climate narrative. We have been running conferences, workshops, and seminars with various stakeholders on the subject."
ACF's director said that the main cause for climate change has been human behavior since the advent of the industrial revolution in the 17th century.
"Gigatons and billows of greenhouse gas emissions have been unleashed into the atmosphere, wantonly damaging the ozone layer. In the local context, communities have been wantonly cutting down trees that act as carbon sequesters for firewood, building of homes, fencing, etc."
"Our thermal power stations for energy generation, our buildings, and our waste management systems have seen tons and tons of waste going to landfills, with 80% of that being plastic waste as well as biodegradable waste that generate methane gas, which in turn is more potent to the ozone than any other gases."
"All of these have brought us to where we are with extreme, unpredictable, vehement, and adverse weather patterns. We must change and change urgently in order to save the planet."
Sibanda said that humanity at large is to blame, with the developed countries being the biggest culprits, beginning with Great Britain, the United States of America, Russia, Germany, China, Japan, and the oil-producing countries.
He said that the United Nations has pointed out that the burning of fossil fuels has been the biggest cause, hence the COP 28, Dubai UAE resolution of phasing out fossil fuels.
"Zimbabwe has not contributed much considering that Africa as a whole only contributes less than 4% of the total global emissions. This is despite the billows of smoke in South Africa and Nigeria," he said.
"If anything, Zimbabwe's carbon emissions have been reduced due to deindustrialization that took place from the turn of the millennium, but the frequency and severity of droughts and cyclones has increased. As I said, there is a long way to go, but there is general appreciation, especially among young people, that are keen to participate, which is good for the country."
Sibanda said that their major partner is the Government through the Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife, and other supporting ministries that include Agriculture, Energy and Power Development, and Finance.
"As indicated by the post-cabinet brief of September 10 by the Hon Minister of Environment to Cabinet, we are working with the government in preparation for COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and in this, we will be hosting, together with the Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife, the University of Zimbabwe and our partners, a pre-COP29 high-level technical cross-sectoral stakeholder conference to take stock at Zimbabwe's mitigation programs," he said.
He said that this will be inclusive of the private sector, non-governmental organizations' work, and to consolidate Zimbabwe's position for an effective climate diplomacy strategy at the SADC, AU, and UN levels.
"We hope to leverage on the opportunity being presented by the fact that our President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is the current SADC chair to move into the region and drive the climate agenda with a possibility of establishing a SADC Climate Desk to effective regional climate action," he said.
"We will be scaling up training programs, premiering the Sustainable Cities Program, helping cities develop their Sustainability Monographs as in the case of the City of Bulawayo, in order to facilitate a rapid and impactful transitioning towards sustainability for the attainment of the Carbon Neutrality goal by 2050."
Source - Byo24News
