Africa Should Scale Up Nature’s Contribution to Climate Change Fight

By Michael O’Brien-Onyeka

As African countries work to enhance their climate goals and action plans ahead of the implementation period of the Paris Agreement, maximizing their considerable potential for cost-effective Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) offers a significant opportunity.

NCS involve the protection, restoration and sustainable management of natural ecosystems — forests, savannah, agricultural lands and wetlands, including mangroves — to reduce carbon emissions, enhance carbon storage and increase resilience.

The case for NCS has already been articulated compellingly, including their ability to deliver at least a third of the global carbon emissions reductions needed by 2030 while providing equally critical benefits that support sustainable development and adaptation.

A recent study by Conservation International scientists Bronson Griscom and others on NCS potential in the tropics indicated that if maximized, cost-effective NCS can mitigate 50–300+% of recent historic national GHG emissions in African countries, while providing additional vital benefits such as water filtration, flood regulation, soil health, biodiversity habitat, and enhanced climate resilience.

The study identified a range of key NCS pathways with big potential in Africa, including avoided forest conversions, reforestation and agroforestry, among others, depending on the region.

Alongside fossil fuel emissions reductions, focusing on NCS makes sense for Africa. While the continent is only responsible for an estimated 7.1% of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, the majority of these emissions are from forest degradation and deforestation tied to the production of charcoal and slash-and-burn farming.

These emissions are expected to rise significantly in the coming years as rapid population growth contributes to heightened demand for forest products and leads to loss and degradation of natural ecosystems. According to data from the Global Forest Watch, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar and Cameroon were among countries with the highest primary forest losses in the world in 2018, indicating the scale of the challenge. African countries also dominated the list of countries with the highest annual percentage jump in deforestation in 2018 relative to 2017. Threats to ecosystems from agricultural commodities, such as cocoa and palm oil, and infrastructure development may worsen the problem in the future.

In addition, the worst impacts of climate change are projected to hit Africa disproportionately and natural ecosystems are at the heart of efforts to enhance the resilience and adaptation of people and economies in the continent to climate change. That’s why protecting them is crucial.

Africa has high potential for NCS since it’s home to vast natural ecosystems including 20% of the world’s tropical forests, 18% of global mangroves and the world’s largest peatlands, among others. Keeping the significant quantities of carbon in those ecosystems locked away and enhancing their carbon storage should be a priority.

For instance, the Congo Basin peatland complex alone is estimated to store 30 billion tonnes of carbon, equivalent to 15 years of emissions from the United States. However, they face growing threats from human activities.

NCS are already being implemented in Africa in various forms and degrees as part of existing national agendas for biodiversity conservation, sustainable development, restoration and others. Yet, countries need to consider the linkages between nature conservation, sustainable development and climate actions in order to harness the potential for NCS to raise climate ambition. This will empower greater — and much needed — action on the ground and secure the needed technical and financial support.

A 2019 publication by Conservation International and partners indicated that NCS are underrepresented in countries’ existing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) or climate goals, including those in Africa. For instance, coastal ecosystems (mangroves, salt marshes and sea grass) are not part of many current NDCs in Africa despite having notable mitigation and adaptation potential. This year, countries are being asked to update their NDCs in 2020 as part of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement implementation process, thereby providing an important opportunity to nations to enhance ambitions by identifying all appropriate cost-effective mitigation pathways within their territories — such as NCS–and including them accordingly.

In addition, countries need to tap into the best available science and indigenous knowledge to set up measurable and evidence-based NCS targets to empower effective implementation and monitoring as part of their obligations to the Paris agreement.

Various technical guides are available to help countries integrate NCS effectively into their NDCs and enhance their climate goals in line with their national contexts and priorities.

There is also a great need to unlock considerable financial and technical support to empower African countries to fully realize their NCS potential, including investments in providing alternative livelihoods for communities and strengthening governance capacity of national and local authorities.

It’s encouraging that awareness and momentum about NCS have improved significantly in the recent months; that awakening needs to be translated into enhanced actions of this climate solution in addition to cuts in use of fossil fuels if Africa, and the world, is to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Michael O’Brien-Onyeka is the Senior Vice President, Conservation International’s Africa Field Division based in Nairobi, Kenya. Email: mobrien-onyeka@conservation.org, Twitter:@m_obrien68