Semi-arid regions of Africa, the Sahel in particular, have been identified as “hotspots” of enhanced vulnerability to climate change. This reflects the already marginal environment, high dependence on rain-fed agriculture, ongoing desertification challenges and limited adaptive capacity of socio-economic systems.Given the inevitability of some degree of climate change and already observed impacts, adaptation has been prioritized for climate policy. To this end, significant advances in adaptation have been made over the last decade, including the establishment and disbursement of adaptation funds through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), completion of National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs), initiation of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), mainstreaming of adaptation into development projects and the emergence of a large body of scholarship examining vulnerability to help direct adaptation efforts. A variety of adaptations have been identified, evaluated and in some case implemented, ranging from those explicitly designed to reduce vulnerability to projected change, to interventions that address the underlying determinants of climate vulnerability.
Many adaptations are being undertaken at the community-level, funded by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and donors, combining both hard responses aimed at specific risks of climate change and requiring significant capital investment and soft responses that are achieved through changes in policy, legal or administrative means that decrease vulnerability, with limited evidence of large-scale/trans-boundary adaptations. One example of a large-scale adaptation is the Great Green Wall (GGW), a proposal for a continuous band of trees stretching across the Sahel to reduce desertification by moderating temperatures, wind speeds and soil erosion, while increasing local microclimate humidity for agriculture.
The idea was initially proposed in the 1980s over concerns of desertification and received renewed attention in the early 2000s as a potential adaptation to moderate the impacts of projected future climate changes. While the plan has suffered from a lack of funding and political will, we believe the central idea of the GGW has significant potential for adaptation:
It is in view of the above the Heads of government of Pan African Agency for the Great Green Wall in its meeting at Mauritania resolved to establish Great Green Wall Carbon Bank staring from 2016. The 2016-2020 cycles will focus on Climate Change, Natural Resources Management Green Economy and Sustainable Development Goals.
Realizing this objective requires sustainable resource mobilization and technical capacity. Implementing the 2016-2020 strategic plan of the Pan African Agency depend on capacity to find ways to hanace the potential for the Great Green Wall Carbon Market and Carbon Trading Mechanism. International trade in Carbon resulting from Carbon dioxide and other Greenhouse Gases will secure the nature and protect the future of Millions of our next generation.
Reduction of the gases and creation of Carbon Bank will be trading window for African countries and enhance development of technologies to reduce the degradation of our environment. Industrial countries according to the Kyoto protocol will develop alternative energy sources apart from funds to bridge the gap of reducing global worming to less than 2% starting from 2020-2030. Both the Developed and Developing countries will benefit from the fund in posture to reduce the effect of climate change. Nigerian are therefore encouraged to improve in the process of de-carbonization and have understanding to benefit from the carbon bank.
The carbon trade market is presently a central pillar of the Kyoto protocol and the ability of individual companies to trade polluting rights through regulatory system known as CAP AND TRADE. The Great Green Wall Carbon Bank source of fund will be the industrialized countries, Environmental Organization, World Bank and Private sectors. Under the carbon bank even small farm can be traded. The bank is expected to match with international standard of accounting, cooperate governance and the rating Agencies (Authentication of carbon and carbon certificate).
Larai Daze
Head, Press and Public Relations Unit
National Agency for the Great Green Wall
