Calestous Juma is professor of the Practice of International Development and director of the Science, Technology and Globalization Project at the Harvard Kennedy School. He also directs the Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Juma currently is writing a book, tentatively titled, "Going for Green Growth: Low-Carbon Innovation Strategies for Africa." He spoke in an email exchange with AllAfrica's Cindy Shiner about climate change and Africa.
How have Africans responded to the threat of climate change?
Developing countries are taking climate change very seriously. This is mainly because they regularly experience the impacts of natural disasters such as droughts, hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. Many of them experience persistent famines. They are therefore quite aware of how vulnerable their societies are and the challenges associated with responding to natural calamities. They know that their economic systems are not robust enough to cope with many of the predicted impacts of climate change. This knowledge informs their perception of the risks associated with climate change. African countries have been particularly sensitized to climate change from their experience with drought. They pushed for a UN treaty of drought and desertification. Their concerns about drought and climate are now conflated.
Climate change has been called a crosscutting issue, one that should be treated like Aids, for example. How do you see climate change as being a crosscutting issue in Africa and how should this influence the way it is handled?
The term "crosscutting" does not adequately capture the projected impact of climate change. This is a global phenomenon of Biblical proportions. It is the stuff that legends are made of - but our children will experience it. Climate change will have far-reaching implications for Africa's ability to foster human welfare. The most dramatic impacts will be felt in areas such as the availability of freshwater, food production and tourism (due to impacts on wildlife whose habitats are fragile ecosystems).
One way to respond to the challenge is to build resilient economic systems based on decentralized energy sources, distributed populations and modern agriculture which involves the diversification of crops. In some areas African countries might have to switch from growing cereals to growing more climate-resilient tree-crops such as breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis).
What are some workable solutions coming out of Africa to deal with the consequences of climate change?
African countries have the least capacity to respond to climate change because of their weak economic systems and low levels of technological competence. Because of this they have also contributed the least to aggregate greenhouse emissions. Yet they are likely to be disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. They are already experiencing some of the impacts.
Africa is starting to respond to the challenge by forging common political positions through the Africa Union. Some of the solutions will come from creating more robust economic systems. The second response is coming from institutions that are working on low-carbon growth strategies. The African Development Bank, for example, is exploring new ways to promote low-carbon growth strategies as well clean energy sources for rural development.
The way forward will entail intensified identification of existing and emerging technologies that can be used to design more resilient economic systems. Experience from adaptation to drought, especially in the Sahel region, will be another important source of ideas. On the whole, Africa will need its next generations to be smarter than the current ones, especially on technical matters. Training in ecology and engineering will be essential investments.
What are your perceptions of carbon trading and how this might benefit Africa?
Carbon trading must be accompanied by serious mitigation and adaptation measures. Otherwise it could create a dangerous level of complacency. It is not in the interest of those who benefit from carbon emissions to want to reduce them. Many of the schemes, such as paying other people to plant trees in lieu of reducing emissions, are like paying others to go to jail on your behalf. They will keep some individuals out of prison but they will not reduce crime. In fact, they may increase it.
What must African governments do?
African governments have a unique opportunity to turn the climate crisis into an opportunity. The starting point is for them to start creating domestic markets in clean technologies, many of which are now widely available. They need to define themselves as leaders in "green innovation" since they have not committed themselves too excessively to polluting technologies. They should be vigilant against import of polluting technologies. It is a chance for them to build a new image around their moral standing of being the lowest polluters.
Africa is also the home of the United Nations Environment Programme and the UN Centre for Human Settlements. They should use these institutions to brand themselves as custodians of the living planet and start to define their relations with the rest of the world in those terms. They can do it because most of the technologies needed to get started are already available.
But … they will need to build strong intellectual property protection institutions. This will help to position them as future innovators themselves. There is a lot more they can do and I would strongly recommend that they build on the Copenhagen Accord. Most of the elements needed to transition toward a more sustainable world are contained in that seemingly modest document. To start from scratch would set the clock even further back and slow down the prospects of technological leapfrogging.
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We are now facing a new phenomenon in the climate debate: the attack on science. We would not have come this far in our understanding of the threat without the concerted effects of the scientific community to grapple with one of the most complex issues that humanity has ever faced. But it may also be a time to shift our attention from "climate science" to "climate technology". Engineers and business people around the world are coming up with a wide range of solutions to address the problem. Some of these are regularly featured by the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers programme (of which I serve on the selection committee).
Climate science has helped us to understand better the character and scale of the problem; the emerging field of "climate technology" offers us the tools needed to start solving the problem. It is also human nature to deny the existence of a problem unless a solution is available. We have asked science to provide answers to some fundamental questions. Science has delivered on this. We now need to complement this by turning to engineers and the business community with different questions: What solutions are available that can be used to solve the problem? How can we leverage all fields of knowledge (especially the social sciences) to ensure that emerging technologies can be fully deployed to solve climate change challenges? How do we reduce the risks associated with the use of new technologies?
