Moving Mountains

Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, has been crowned by 40-meter-high glaciers for almost 12,000 years despite standing just 3 degrees off the equator. “No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude,” reads the famous opening line of Ernest Hemingway’s short story The Snows of Kilimanjaro from 1936. Today, the animal that strayed too far from its normal territory would perhaps no longer be in danger of freezing to death: Between 1912 and 2011 the ice shrank by more than 85 percent and will likely disappear by the middle of this century, according to NASA and UNESCO. 

Experts state that there are various factors at play: from temperatures rising on the surface area of the Indian Ocean to changing rainfall patterns caused by deforestation. Whatever the cause, the snows of Kilimanjaro are evaporating into thin air – desiccating rather than melting – for the first time in over 10 millennia. Beyond the symbolic and cultural loss there are more pressing effects for local farmers, who have relied on seasonal meltwater to support their crops and livestock for thousands of years. Such are the links between climate change and food security. 

Vanishing glaciers, floods, droughts, heatwaves and locust infestations are painfully clear to see. But there are also creeping, insidious effects of climate change including desertification, described by the UN as “a silent, invisible crisis that is destabilizing communities on a global scale”. Sub-Saharan Africa lost over 160 million hectares of healthy land between 2015 and 2019, according to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification – equivalent to the entire land mass of Mozambique and Namibia combined. 

Where to channel our efforts? 

Humans are an adaptable species, calling vastly different environments on every continent “home”. But even we have limits, and in many cases our limits have been crossed. The UN and the international community have upped their response in recent years, but given our finite resources how can we best weigh competing demands? 

Where should we focus flows of short-term humanitarian aid and long-term development assistance? Some political leaders continue to cite myopic regional interests, saying there are no easy answers – but actually there are. 

We now have global rankings that balance on the one hand “climate vulnerability” across areas such as food, water, health, ecosystems services, human habitats and infrastructure, with on the other hand “resilience readiness” across education, business, rule of law and political stability. These are the main targets and indicators of the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN), an international ranking cited in November 2023 by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). A ranking “grounded in science-based evidence… [that aims] to enable leaders to make informed decisions across critical environmental, economic and social sectors”, according to the US-based University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. 

The ranking notes how the USA suffers “natural” disasters every year, but is mostly ready and resilient in the face of such threats (coming in 17th place). Nearby Haiti, however, faces one existential struggle after another (169th). Across the Atlantic, the picture is starker still as 9 of the 10 most vulnerable countries worldwide – home to some 230 million people – are in sub-Saharan Africa. These countries, including Chad, Eritrea and Sudan, are home to the most vulnerable communities on the planet, a fact noted in other reports by the World Food Programme and the UN Environment Programme. 

Will these communities be first in line to receive assistance from the new UN Loss and Damage Fund, the climate support mechanism provisionally agreed in early November 2023? Financial support is set to include substantial contributions not only from rich nations but also from large developing countries and will at first be managed by the World Bank. The UN Loss and Damage Fund is not, however, the only support available. Also in early November 2023, the Arab Coordination Group (ACG), the second-largest grouping of development finance institutes in the world comprising 10 development funds including the OPEC Fund, pledged US$50 billion in support to African partner countries. The President of the Islamic Development Bank, Muhammad Al Jasser, said: “The commitment reaffirms ACG’s steadfast dedication to climate action and sustainable development, promising a brighter future for the continent.” 

Building African leadership for climate 

Extra resources are always welcome, but who will decide where and when they are spent? The OPEC Fund takes its cue from partner countries: working on national needs-based finance (NBF) requests, an instrument to support developing countries to implement priority mitigation and adaptation measures in line with their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and national adaptation plans. 

The OPEC Fund’s South-South cooperation for Africa follows the same spirit – partnerships not only with national governments, but also with the African Development Bank, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa and others. Joint projects directly support climate governance through policy-based loans. The cooperation also lends indirect support through political solidarity and contributing to strengthening South-South identity. 

Speaking at the Africa Climate Week in Nairobi in September 2023, Kenya’s President William Ruto set out his vision: “In Africa, we can be a green industrial hub that helps other regions achieve their netzero strategies by 2050. Unlocking the renewable energy resources that we have in our continent is not only good for Africa, it is good for the rest of the world.” 

Achim Steiner, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), went further, focusing on the next generation and what they will need to live in dignity: “The continent of Africa, home to the world’s youngest population, is already on the sharp edge of combining access to electricity with this new pathway of development through decarbonization. Yet there is a pressing need to combine the climate action solutions that are sprouting up across Africa with brand-new sources of finance to ensure that communities everywhere can bolster their climate resilience on a continent that is heating up faster than other parts of the planet; and deliver a range of new opportunities like jobs and livelihoods.” 

"Africa should have a joint strategy, talk with one voice"

The international community needs to align global goals, empower grassroots and better coordinate regional policymaking. We need to shift low-efficiency mindsets and increase climate finance flows through better data, clearer rankings and compelling arguments. We need to move mountains if we are to save vulnerable nations – the vast majority of which are in sub-Saharan Africa – from climate catastrophe. That may not save the snows of Kilimanjaro, but it will help the families in its foothills.  In an interview with the OPEC Fund, Fatima Denton, Director of the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) in Ghana, gives concrete examples of African leadership, while stressing the need to scale-up efforts by including grassroots 

Fatima Denton is the Director of the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA). Prior to joining UNUINRA, Denton worked with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Ethiopia since 2012. Her roles included Director of the Natural Resource Management Division and Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre.  “Africa is the only continent that has a regional body that is solely looking at aspects of climate change: the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC). 

“The committee meets regularly and is a very good example of leadership, but it could be more pro-active and coordinated on the global stage. Take green minerals, for example. To scale-up renewable energy, we know we’ll need more copper and cobalt, so Africa should have a joint strategy, talk with one voice, and negotiate as a bloc. 

“Turning to grassroots level, there are many climate-smart, high-potential initiatives across the continent. My organization, UNU-INRA, has been looking at the informal sector because in some African countries 80 percent of jobs are in the informal sector. We think it’s far too important to be left out of the international climate equation, so we’ve set up a digital platform – the Just Energy Transition in the Informal Sector (JUSTIS) – to help informal groups bring green goods from production to delivery to commercialization. It aims to bring together all major stakeholders: from entrepreneurs to investors to government officials to potential consumers. 

“Another problem is making sure our global goals align. At UNU-INRA we’ve been working with the government of Ghana to square the circle of food security and climate action, specifically in terms of rice cultivation, which produces large amounts of nitrous oxide and methane. The latter is over 20 times more potent than CO2 in terms of global warming, so this is clearly a major issue at scale. Long story short: African farmers need more help and incentives to adopt management practices that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. 

“My role is to highlight and clarify all these challenges, help researchers find innovative solutions and make sure decision-makers have access to the latest data and best analysis feeding into their climate and development policies.” 

Africa's Climate Crisis 

Desertification 

One hundred million hectares of healthy land – equivalent to the size of Egypt – are lost each year worldwide, according to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (October 2023). Sub-Saharan Africa lost over 160 million hectares of healthy land between 2015 and 2019. Botswana is one of the region’s few success stories, managing to reduce its land degradation by almost 20 percent. 

Droughts 

Almost 30 million people face chronic drought conditions in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Mauritania and Niger. A newly identified phenomenon known as a “flash drought” – which ruins crops and sparks wildfires – is set to double due to climate change, according to the University of Reading, UK (September 2023). Southern African nations are set to be among the worst affected worldwide. 

Floods 

More than 11,000 people died in Libya’s floods caused by a rare Mediterranean hurricane (or “medicane”) in September 2023. Prior to that more than 3,000 people were killed in flash floods in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda in May 2023. And almost 1,000 people were killed in floods and mudslides during Tropical Cyclone Freddy, the longest cyclone on record lasting 36 days – which performed an extraordinary “double pass” over Madagascar and neighboring countries in February 2023. 

Africa and the OPEC Fund 

Tanzania 

Third Tanzania Poverty Reduction Project 

Approved: December 2013 Completed: September 2019 

Total project cost: US$18.2 million OPEC Fund financing: US$13.5 million The loan was the latest in a series of OPEC Fund contributions to support the government’s fight against poverty. It included extensive construction in school buildings, dormitories and offices, rehabilitation of outpatient treatment buildings, work in the water sector, rehabilitation or repair of roads, irrigation of canal and environmental protection subprojects. By 2020, the implemented subprojects were estimated to have already contributed to improving the lives of 200,000 direct and 1.3 million indirect project beneficiaries. 

Testimonials

“Our goal is to involve beneficiaries in productive activities and equip them with skills and knowledge how to engage in income generating activities.”

-Alvera Ndabagoye, Executive Director of the Arusha District 

"I have children to take care of at home and without the program I would not have managed to feed them and provide all the basic needs. My earnings helped me to construct a house, pay school fees and buy a balanced diet for my family.” 

-Sophia Sarakikya, a beneficiary