Harare — AT a climate change roundtable for parliamentarians held on October 19 2009, Environment and Natural Resources Management Minister Francis Nhema called for technical and financial support for "adaptation and mitigation" to be availed to Africa in the post-Kyoto process.

He said that at the ongoing negotiations for a new climate deal, Africa was advocating for "practical adaptation" to deal with the climate change threat.

This included "a technological revolution leading the way to a less resource intensive, low carbon economy".

"We need to stimulate innovation and encourage investment in cleaner technology now in order to move onto a sustainable path," said Minister Nhema.

The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 compelling developed countries to commit them to cut greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012, when the deal expires.

Greenhouse gases, which arise from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, are blamed for causing global warming and climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol has been beset by rejection by the United States of America and Australia as it required ratification by at least 55 countries of the 192 signatories, including the so-called Annex 1 countries, which include the US,and Australia as well as Canada, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Sweden, among others.

These countries were said to have accounted for 55 percent of greenhouse emissions of the industrialised group's emissions in 1990.

According to analysts, the Kyoto Protocol has thus become nothing but a "soft law" that is not easy to implement.

However, there is a measure of optimism that the forthcoming December 7-8 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen might produce a new binding and effective regime.

This is inspired by the hope that the US, the Kyoto Protocol villain, might buy it, after the Obama administration made overtures for co-operating with other members of the international community to combat climate change.

Yet the issue of adaptation and mitigation seems to be a matter of pragmatism, if not exactly an expression of fatalism, given the fact that it is basically in nobody's power to stop the US from pulling another Kyoto.

Minister Nhema says Africa should "suggest practical issues that will realistically assist Africa whilst at the same time playing a role in mitigation".

Africa will be the hardest hit by global warming and climate change, as it would have to grapple with problems such as floods, droughts, food shortages, diseases, and others, problems which it is contributing so little to.

For, it is estimated that Africa has contributed only 3, 8 percent of greenhouse emissions, yet it is the most vulnerable and least prepared to deal with the effects of climate change, which would affect some 60 percent of the whole African population.

There is thus need to lure investment to support adaptation projects that include strengthening of early warning systems, disaster preparedness and water harvesting, among others, Minister Nhema says.

As a matter of fact, for the simple reason that Copenhagen might at best produce another "soft law", there seems to be a more compelling need for adaptation and mitigation measures.

Some of the measures that have been suggested include Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD).

Deforestation has perhaps been the developing world's biggest contribution to climate change, as the clearing of vegetation for agriculture and developmental purposes has inhibited nature's absorption of carbon dioxide resulting in it building up in the atmosphere.

A solution thus requires measures that check deforestation and forest degradation, and, emphasise the role of conservation and management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries.

The Climate Change Office in Zimbabwe says that another area of adaptation involves what is known as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The CDM were designed to enhance the current limited participation of developing countries (especially in Africa) in building the technical base for action and to take policy actions in support of the existing institutional frameworks.

The objective was to convert policy or political statements into action through facilitation from institutions like the World Bank, United Nations Environment Programme and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), among others.

Projects are defined along climate change issues and at the same time addressing national major development policies.

CDM also involves bilateral co-operation as well as engagement of the private sector and building of partnerships in developing countries.

Players would support the identification and development of project design documents in countries hosting fewer than 10 registered CDM projects, to meet the cost of validating these projects.

In essence, developing countries can benefit through direct investments from developed countries that have obligations of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

In turn, developed countries reduce their emissions through investment in developing countries of cleaner renewable, low carbon emitting technologies.

The "Adaptation Fund" signed in 1992 has already been created under the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. Member states can access funding to assist in adaptation projects.

The UN climate change meeting held in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007 announced the approval of an adaptation fund to bolster the defences of poor countries that lack the money, technological and human resource bases to cope with climate change.

The fund is intended to finance climate change projects including sea walls to guard against expanding oceans, early warning systems for extreme events, improved water supplies for drought-prone areas, training in new agricultural techniques and the conservation and restoration of mangroves to protect people from storms.

Funding will come from a 2 percent levy on revenues generated by the CDM, the scheme allowing industrialised nations to pay for carbon credits produced by emission-reduction projects in the developing world and credit them against their own emissions targets.

But then, the idea not as rosy as it sounds.

A recent report said that while the need for climate change adaptation funding was "generally agreed to amount to hundreds of billions of US dollars, the UN fund set up for the purpose in 2008 currently holds just 18 million -- not billion -- US dollars."

A leading climate negotiator from Brazil was quoted as regretting that "(t) he level of ambition in funding is not matching up to the sense of urgency everyone now has".

The tax was estimated to generate at least US$1,6 billion by 2012, but revenues have so far been low due to alleged bottlenecks in CDM administration.

In September 2009, a UN report said that developing countries needed between US$500 billion and US$600 billion a year from rich nations to adapt to climate change and make sure their economies grow.

Another report said that a new climate change agreement would require "a staggering US$100 billion a year by 2020 . . . (and) some put the cost at closer to US$1 trillion".

The issue of funding made more precarious by the global financial crunch poses a dilemma for the mitigation and adaptation response to the problem of climate change.

But for developing countries like Zimbabwe, it is perhaps the most viable option.

However, Minister Nhema believes that Zimbabwe's "main challenge as a country is to develop strategies that can mitigate the diverse and complex impacts of climate change".