Africa Climate Conversations.

Wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, and biofuels are some of the renewable energy resources. They are said to be green because they come from natural sources, are constantly replenished, and produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to coal, oil, and gas. But, if these technologies end up in open landfills after their life, with the minerals thy are made of polluting water, and soils, are they truly green?

On this episode, let’s explore the renewable energy hidden environmental costs of Solar Energy

The area around Kenya’s Lake Naivasha, including Kihoto, is considered part of the broader Lake Naivasha wetland ecosystem, as it is within its riparian land. 

On this episode we look into the history of flooding in Lake Naivasha and how settlements like Kihoto came about, as well as why this wetland is of huge importance. But first, what are wetlands, and why are they important? 

As the climate crisis continues, come with me to Syethe village, southeast of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi where we meet a group of women earning a living by weaving and selling handbags in addition to farming. With these easily accessible skills, materials and capitalising on technologies such as WhatsApp how are they helping breed a new culture of #resilience in times of changing agricultural fortunes? 

Let's find out together!

Clear frameworks for community benefit sharing in the mining and renewable energy sectors are essential.

However, Manson Gwanyanya, the researcher and representative for South and Anglophone Africa at the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, told the African Climate Conversations podcast that implementing these existing frameworks is key to delivering a shared prosperity for the communities whose land and resources are crucial for the energy transition in Africa.”.

Demand for critical minerals is set to grow by three and a half times by 2030 as the world transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy in order to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050. The African continent is home to massive transition mineral resource bases and enormous renewable energy potential, given its vast tracts of open land and favourable solar and wind conditions. But how well prepared is the continent for the critical mineral and renewable investment boom?

Sensors on aeroplanes measure wind speed, humidity, and temperature, which is crucial for weather forecasting. As climate-related extreme events increase in frequency and intensity, effective weather-related infrastructure is critical not just for the agriculture sector but also development sectors such as agriculture, industries, and communities, which require timely, accurate data to adapt to the changing climate and mitigate future losses. On today's episode, Dr. Abubakr Salih Babiker, a Technical Coordinator for Meteorological Infrastructure for Africa at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), explains the role airlines can play in bridging the current gaps in weather and climate data.

Our children are the next generation. We, as humans, pass on our legacy to them, whether good or bad. 

The environment underpins humans’ survival today and tomorrow. As the world warms, it’s important to remember the vital role the environment's natural resources, such as forests, play in balancing human activities such as the burning of coal and other fossil fuels and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

Hence, teaching our children about the environment and the need to protect it at an early age is critical. Environmental education helps children understand the importance of preserving our natural resources and provides them with the tools to become responsible environmental stewards.

Teacher Nzuu Boniface, the environmental club leader at the Msoa SDA primary school in Makueni County, Kenya has been teaching pupils to protect the environment by planting trees and handling waste materials. What are the benefits?

This week, I was visiting a town in Makueni County, located in the southeastern part of Kenya. About an hour's drive from Makueni’s capital town Wote, I met a 70-year-old lady who, after a severe three-year drought hit the village, learned how to weave beaded baskets. She is relying on WhatsApp, her family, and Facebook to make sales. Have a listen to our conversation.

This week, I was visiting a town in Makueni County, located in the southeastern part of Kenya. About an hour's drive from Makueni’s capital town Wote, I met a 70-year-old lady who, after a severe three-year drought hit the village, learned how to weave beaded baskets. She is relying on WhatsApp, her family, and Facebook to make sales. Have a listen to our conversation.

African nations are blessed with 30% of the world’s critical minerals. Mineral that the world needs to develop solar panels, wind turbines, renewable energy storage, electric vehicles, defence infrastructures, communication infrastructure, digital economy and many more.

However, past mining activities since colonial era has taught Africa taught lessons. Minerals, particularly diamonds, are widely believed to have been the main factor at the root of Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war in the 1990s. In addition to the Sierra Leone conflict diamond drive civil war in Angola, and the Democratic republic of Congo led to the UN definition of blood diamonds in the 1990’s. 

In 2020, the World Bank estimated the production of minerals such as graphite, lithium, nickel and cobalt, could increase by nearly 500% by 2050 to meet the growing demand for clean energy technologies. 

Therefore, a world rush to acquiring critical minerals required for these green energy technologies is inevitable.

But, has Africa learned from its past experiences? Should Africa move at the same pace as the rest of the world, or should it pace itself?

Humanly speaking, forests, minerals, oceans, water bodies, and other natural resources are seen as infinite by the human eye. Infinite in the sense that there are more resources to be mined or prospected for, more land to be utilized, a vast ocean and waterbodies that can handle enormous levels of pollution, vast underground water resources that can never be drained, and billions of fish to be caught.

This attitude that the earth has an unlimited capacity and the insatiable human nature to get as much as we can out of the earth for ourselves regardless of the harm we are causing the ecosystem is what I term as greed, and as the late professor Wangari Maathai once mentioned that, “this human greed have created so many of the deep ecological wounds visible across the world today.”

Can we restore balance?