Stories of Climate Justice Podcast: Climate Resilience and Carbon Inequality (Part I)

To listen to the podcast series, please visit the Stories of Climate Justice on Soundcloud here.

It’s hosted by Cinzia Alberti

Listen to Stella’s podcast on climate resilience and carbon inequality here.

Below is a transcript of the podcast:

Cinzia:

Tell us something about your story

Stella:

I’m involved in climate kind-of-things, and I’m very interested in climate resilience, in Kenya and in Africa. I work with activists, and I think they have a very interesting perspective on things that are going on, on the ground, as opposed to everybody else. Even with our politicians- they might have ideas and plans of what they want to accomplish, but the activists know what is (actually) happening and are able to put the politicians back in their place. When they’re lying, activists come out and say the truth; which is very interesting. I’ve seen a lot of that going on in Africa, with a lot of campaigns. You learn a lot through the activists as opposed to anybody else who’s talking about climate change.

Cinzia:

What does ‘climate resilience’ mean to you?

Stella:

I like to talk about the climate resilience theory, it puts everything in perspective. The theory talks about climate change, the next thing is vulnerability, the other thing is adaptation and then climate resilience.

Climate change is the risk. In Africa that is mainly through droughts and floods, and locusts in East Africa. That risk makes people vulnerable, because it means less food production, because of lack of water. It means a risk to health (malnutrition), etc. So, we consider that the climate risk that makes people vulnerable.

For you to remove this vulnerability, you ‘add in’ adaptations. So, that could be- farmers (that’s the biggest population in rural Africa), for them to reduce their vulnerability, you can increase their resilience by teaching them how to do better soil management; it could be using less pesticides (they are bad for the soil). It could also be water management. When there’s droughts and floods (those cycles), instead of letting the floods come and runoff, you tap that water so that when there’s droughts, they have something to use for their crop instead of their crop dying. When you start to improve their skills and techniques, in how to manage that risk, you’re increasing their resilience.

I’ve talked about farmers, but it could be anybody. It could be, anyone who’s facing any type of risk. It could be people with asthma, who are affected by the cold, or affected by the dust (when it’s really dry and hot). So, whatever you do to manage that risk, you can consider that an adaptation, and the more they do that, the more it increases their chances of navigating climate change; we say that they’re becoming more and more resilient. So, that’s what climate resilience is.

Cinzia:

What are the consequences of climate change that are already happening in sub-Sahara Africa or in Kenya?

Stella:

In research we say the most prevalent climate change events are droughts and floods. Those are happening mainly in the global South. But, in Africa it’s a big issue because Africa is the most vulnerable, and the least contributor to carbon emissions. This is where, when we’re talking about carbon inequality, this is where that conversation starts to really make sense.

We have to the North, the Sahara Desert, to the South we have the Namib and the Kalahari. So, when we have the drought cycles, it means that, that weather continues to persist, it’s becoming more and more desert-like; and also, it’s starting to spread south, like the Sahara, is starting to move south. That’s why we have the project called ‘the great green wall of Africa’. It’s a project that we could call ‘continental’. The countries along (it’s about ten or eleven countries) the Sahara Desert, their plan is to plant millions and millions of trees. So, they would need a lot of trees. It’s a really long distance (I forget the distance in km, but it’s a REALLY LONG DISTANCE). They’ve already done about- well, Ethiopia did 350 million trees in a day, that was a really big thing, globally. The Prime Minister was given an award (Nobel Peace Prize) for it- and there’s planting trees going on in the West; Senegal, Nigeria- so there’s already hundreds of millions of trees, and it’s still not enough.

We have droughts, and we have floods. Floods (like last year), are also becoming more and more coordinated. So, when you hear of a flood in Kenya, usually, at the same time, there’s a flood in Uganda; some floods in Somalia. There was a time this was happening in the East, and it was also happening in the ‘Central’ of Africa, and the West of Africa. So, even the floods are starting to become more and more coordinated. It’s not about a country now, it’s about a whole region. Those are the main risks.

Obviously, for farmers as I said (farming is the mainstay of economies), we have very many small-scale farmers, who suffer a lot from these droughts but also from the floods. The droughts- is mainly because they depend on the rain, to farm. They don’t do the ‘collecting water’, they don’t dig canals and store their water. They sow their seed and wait for the rains. So, if the rains are not coming, they lose a lot. The other thing is, when the floods happen, if you’ve planted and it’s dry, and you’re waiting for the rain, and the rain comes and it’s too much- so it becomes a flood- again you still lose your crop, because it’s going to be damaged goods. So, there’s a lot of losses for small-scale farmers, which translates to a lot of losses for our economies.

And, with all these events, what happens is, that atmosphere is not very conducive (especially when you have droughts), because it means you don’t have food, and water is also scarce. What ends up happening is, communities in these really dry places- because there’s no water- any lake near that area, or any water source, any well, becomes something to fight over. In these areas, there’s a lot of conflict. Everybody wants a right to the little water that is there.

With conflict also is- people have already started migrating. Along the Sahara Desert you’ll see that a lot. A lot of conflict and migrating. In the Sudan, that started happening a long time ago. Where the climate was leading to conflict and leading to migration. We have a lot of Sudanese and Somalis who’ve come into Kenya, because of these conflicts. So, that is already happening and has been happening, and (obviously) as we go into the future, with more and more water insecurity and food insecurity- only means that there’ll be more and more conflict and more migration.

Cinzia:

Aside from the country to country migration, do you see the farmers moving into the cities

Stella:

Let me speak about Kenya, because that’s where- I would have an idea. What’s happening is, farmers especially on coffee plantations, tea plantations, most of them are now converting their land- selling off their land- to big developers. So that people build on the land. People are losing faith in agriculture, and their skills in agriculture and food production, and are converting their land to apartments or large home schemes. So, it’s definitely having an effect on their way of life, already.

Cinzia:

‘Who’s responsible for the climate crisis and who’s paying the highest price’ (ref: carbon inequality). Is there a conversation about this (awareness) in Kenya?

Stella:

The awareness is very low, with regard to climate change. I’m talking about the layman, anybody walking in the streets, or in our rural areas, awareness is very low. There’s only a handful of people who are interested in it. And the people who really know about climate change, really know! But, it’s not trickling to these other people; to the larger population. So, there’s a very big gap (information gap). When the awareness is low, the conversation about the inequality, about the global North and global South, is not a conversation we have.

I was just reading a couple of government documents, our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that’s with regard to the Paris Agreement, and our National Adaptation Plans (NAPs)- what I picked up from them which I liked, was the fact that they agree, and they confirm, that decarbonization for Africa, for example for Kenya (in this case), is not that important. We are not contributing that much for us to be reducing anything.

In fact, resilience means adaptation, which means infrastructure, which means we’re going to need (to make) some carbon contributions in the process, to (actually) get to resilience. So, I liked the fact that they mentioned that decarbonization is not important- but that sustainability and any effort towards reducing carbon is important, which I don’t agree with- but at least they said that decarbonisation is not the primary goal. The goal is resilience and adaptation.

That gives me a bit of hope. It tells me that our leaders, or someone in leadership, knows something. Right? If you look at people, like I said, laymen walking the streets in Kenya, this understanding I don’t think, is there. It would be easy to get swept off with the ‘low carbon’, ‘everybody’s decarbonizing’ and yet, we don’t need to do it. So, it was good for me to see that.

The issue of carbon inequality which brings about the conversation about climate justice itself- the global North, and the carbon activities that have led to the development there, which is resulting to climate change, which is affecting the global south mostly- I feel like if people understood that, they would feel that that was enough leverage to cause a change, at least in the global South, in the conversation, in demanding better.

The Paris Agreement talks about, ‘the global North needs to support the South in adaptation’, and that requires finance. I feel like, that would give people confidence also, to fight for that a bit more. Right now, I don’t think the understanding is to that point, where people feel like they can demand something on this basis.

But, it’s a lot, to wrap your head around, and to realise what’s already happened, and what needs to happen, and what’s not happening. The people here, don’t have that understanding.

Cinzia:

This high-level conversation and understanding- who’s responsible for what (emissions)- the conversation is not accessible, but maybe they understand the need for resilience strategies, maybe this is the right way to cope with the floods and droughts. You founded a company and you’re trying to do that, right?

Stella:

Because as soon as they know that the rain patterns have changed, so ‘I cannot depend on the rain to grow my food,’ because that’s their livelihood, so as soon as they make the connection that the rains will not come (and it’s actually really bad now, we have droughts and floods). During the drought, ‘I need water, so, when it floods, I need to tap that water.’ As soon as they start to understand this, they change their habits so that they can still continue to do what they do; which is farming.

Cinzia:

Could you give a practical example? What could they implement?

Stella:

What they do right now (a lot) is to build dams. So, where there’s a river, just build a dam so that you make use of that water. The other thing is, they have these tanks they build back in the village. Actually, my grandmother taps rainwater from her roof, so that goes into the tank and- because for a really long time (also), there was no piped water, you had to find your own water; when the rains come, you have to tap it. Otherwise, you have to go down to the river. We do this in the cities, we know about it, but it’s things that make a difference for them, but they’re not doing it; like the rainwater harvesting from your roof. So, those are some of the things they do. For droughts (really), I don’t think they’re doing enough.

I talked (again), to my aunty yesterday. She visited about a month ago- or two months ago- and she gave me this story of- ‘in June (last year), they planted seed and then it rained, luckily for them, so it started to grow. But then it got really dry, and they need it to rain again, so that the maize and the beans start cropping. That didn’t happen, and didn’t happen for quite a while, I think a month and more. So, the whole time, they’re just sitting around, waiting for the rain. This is really bad. Eventually, the rain came, it was just a day or two of really heavy rain, so it started cropping. But then it went dry completely. Right now, it’s really dry and hot, so they’re just hoping that that rain was enough for them to harvest enough.

That tells you, even now, the response is not there (inadequate). The few people who know how to build dams, and do that for themselves, would be larger scale farmers. Otherwise, the small-scale farmers are yet to adapt in this way. The reason why it’s difficult, is because it’s expensive. Like, building a dam, is not something that a small-scale farmer- they don’t have that money.

In research I also read that most of the adaptation in Kenya currently, is just crop rotation. So, you grow maize this time, next time on the same land, you grow maybe beans. Crop rotation, so that the soil gets a chance to get nutrients from different plants. They can afford that, so that’s why they do it, but they cannot upgrade to any other interventions. So, I think that’s the main problem with adaptation right here.

Going back to climate awareness, that is something- I can tell you that I’m seeing people trying, like government is engaging (very recently) the youth in conversation around the NDCs and the NAPs, but this is still a conversation you only can have with a handful of people, who are interested in the topic.

So, I think people treat this like a hobby. You either like piano or you don’t. You like the drums or you don’t. They don’t get that it’s an issue that affects everyone. That’s the issue, we’re still treating it like a hobby. For some people.

Stella Nyambura Mbau PhD

Founder & CEO LOABOWA

#storiesofclimatejustice