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| FANRPAN Chief Executive Officer (CEO) among 50 eminent thinkers at Climate Change Global Roundtable |
2008 Brookings Blum Roundtable on Development
"Development in the Balance: How Will the World's Poor Cope with Climate Change?"
Working Group on August 1, 2008
"Making Forests and Conservation Work for the Poor" |
| 1 August 2008 |
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"Building a strong platform for Carbon Financing in Africa – Opportunities for Poverty Alleviation"
By Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, CEO Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN)
Climate change is relatively a new phenomenon in Africa, a more distant and abstract concept being promoted by researchers. African small scale farmers and rural communities in general do not have the facts and appreciation to make informed decisions on an issue that is destined to affect their livelihoods.
They keep hearing more about the impending Armageddon: the earth’s temperature going up and the Polar ice caps melting and very little is said about opportunities to benefit from their stewardship of the environment.
In partnership with the one of Africa’s regional economic blocks, the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) is promoting the establishment of a Carbon Fund that will enable African small holder farmers and investors to benefit from trading their carbon credits globally.
For the carbon facility to contribute to poverty reduction there is need for investment in research so that evidence is generated locally. There is also need for strong dialogue platforms that will use the research evidence to advocate for the development of effective policies for climate adaptation. Good policies are a prerequisite for investor confidence and good stewardship by rural communities.
COMESA and the PTA Bank will provide the leadership at international level to pave way for the revision of trade protocols to incorporate all bio-carbons from agricultural and land management systems. FANPAN will use its convening power and leadership in the region to convene multi stakeholder dialogues to create awareness and promote policy development for adapting to climate change.
Agriculture and agro-forestry are important to the economies of most countries in the COMESA region and to livelihoods of hundreds of millions of its inhabitants. Therefore a Carbon facility can play a catalytic role in supporting the development agenda of these countries.
A "deal" ensuring the inclusion of Africa’s interests in the new carbon and climate frameworks includes a totally new, Africa-lead, approach to the post-Kyoto treaty negotiations. However, any such deal will also require a quid pro quo. The most obvious stumbling block has been the refusal of African countries to accept any formal responsibility or undertaking for carbon emissions. Understandable, perhaps, but counter-productive. The actual returns to African economies and agricultural lands and producers from the carbon markets that would be associated with an opening of the climate system to bio-carbon, coupled with
the returns directly attributable to better soil fertility and agricultural/agroforestry output, would exceed any costs incurred from a long-term emissions reduction undertaking.
As a way forward on the global policy initiative, an ad hoc/ interim working group has been formed with the initial task of drafting a statement of purpose and rationale for an African group of nations to assemble as a coalition in the post-Kyoto negotiations.
African countries would need to take the necessary institutional and policy steps to realize the benefits of the Global Policy Initiative and to maximize the returns to the proposed Carbon Finance Facility. This would include ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and designing sustainable development policies, plans and control systems as well as defining the legal landscape for carbon ownership.
Carbon financing is Africa’s window of opportunity, not only for collaboration but for the inclusion of the often unheard voices from Africa. Carbon financing is the ideal development vehicle to alleviate poverty and restore food security. But ACTION cannot be postponed, Africa needs to embrace strategies for climate adaptation, this requires innovative research, policy reviews and carbon markets that benefit the majority. |
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