FOCUS-Africa x Earth Day 2021

Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Today, Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and create global, national and local policy changes. Now, the fight for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more and more apparent every day.

EARTH DAY WEBSITE

FOCUS-Africa project will join the movement through its own campaign #FOCUSAfricaEarthDay.

Our objectives are to share information on our case studies to the general public and raise awareness on climate services in the SADC region. While the use of climate information is growing rapidly worldwide, the majority of the countries in Africa still lack the infrastructural, technical, human and institutional capacities to provide high quality climate services.

Our project coordinator Roberta Boscolo, Climate & Energy Science Officer at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) presents the project:

We have identified eight case studies in the energy, food security, water and infrastructure sectors of the SADC region – to provide a range of examples where climate service delivery can be successfully implemented.

The resulting tailored climate services cover the full value-chain, whereby each case study is contributed by a research partner, a service provider partner and an end-user. Learn more on each case study through a video presentation and a complete infographic.

Case Study 1

Food Security in South Africa

Climate variability in the region exposes agricultural activities to periodic occurrence of multi-year droughts that leads to severe losses to farmers and bankruptcy of investors. In the recent years (e.g. 2015, 2016 and 2018) very hot conditions during summer and sporadic rainfall resulted in significant negative impacts to crop production.

Trevor Lumsden, Senior researcher at CSIR:

You can click on the picture to see the full infographic

Case Study 2

Food Security in Malawi

With much of the agricultural production coming from smallholder rain-fed systems, climatic shocks such as floods and droughts have a significant impact on population livelihood and on the country’s economy. Projected increase in temperature will have strong implications for agricultural planning.

Sara Octenjak, Social scientist and Dr Dragana Bojovic, Environmental Social Scientist at BSC:

You can click on the picture to see the full infographic

Case Study 3

Food Security in Mozambique

Mozambique ranks third among African countries most exposed to weather-related hazards, suffering from periodic cyclones, droughts, and floods (GFDDR 2017 report on Mozambique). Such occurrences especially affect rural and marginal areas, exacerbating food security issues in smallholder farming communities.

Matteo Dell’Acqua, Assistant Professor at Sant’Anna Pisa:

You can click on the picture to see the full infographic

Case Study 4

Food Security in Tanzania

Over the last few decades, shifts in rainfall seasonality and prolonged dryspells, accompanied by outbreaks of pests and diseases, have caused significant impacts on agricultural productivity. Increasing frequency and severity of droughts have been affecting socio-economic development activities including crop production and electricity generation.

Sara Octenjak, Social scientist and Dr Dragana Bojovic, Environmental Social Scientist at BSC:

You can click on the picture to see the full infographic

Case Study 5

Infrastructure in Tanzania

The infrastructure sector is extremely vulnerable to extreme events such as heavy rainfall and heatwaves. For railway lines, high air temperatures can trigger: heat damage and deterioration of structures, thermal expansion of bridge joints, fire risk, overheating of electrical equipment, increased corrosion risks in coastal areas, health and safety of users and staff, and changes in pattern of usage, e.g. tourism patterns change.

Dr Nicolas Fournier, Science Manager at Met Office:

You can click on the picture to see the full infographic

Case Study 6

Energy in Tanzania

While hydropower is currently the largest source of renewable electricity, solar and wind power are projected to provide significant generation capacity to support the country’s economic development. There are significant climate challenges with developing additional renewable energy capacity.

Dr Nicolas Fournier, Science Manager at Met Office:

You can click on the picture to see the full infographic

Case Study 7

Energy & Water in Malawi

The country heavily relies on hydropower, which is projected to be increasingly exposed to large climate fluctuations. Électricité de France (EDF), our end-user seeks to better characterise the impacts of climate variability and future change on hydropower generation in Lake Malawi and the Shire river basin.

Dr Hiba Omrani, Climate Researcher, Dr Katy Pol-Tireau, Climate researcher and Dr Lila Collet, Hydro-Climate Researcher at EDF

You can click on the picture to see the full infographic

Case Study 8

Water in Mauritius

The Water Sector in Mauritius relies on the monitoring of water collected in different reservoirs at different times of the year and for allocating the commodity for different competing social and economic activities. Over the past decades, observed rainfall suggests that the pattern of rainfall has changed over Mauritius.

Dr Mohau Mateyisi, researcher at CSIR:

You can click on the picture to see the full infographic