Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in developing renewable energy projects with initiatives aimed at producing clean and ‘green’ energy remaining largely under-exploited, warned a new report released today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

A UNEP assessment noted that the entire continent has just over 120 carbon market projects up and running or in the pipeline in areas ranging from wind power to forestry schemes, and harvesting methane gas from landfills to fuel electricity generation makes up 20 per cent of all such initiatives.

Larger economies in Africa such as Egypt and South Africa are home to the lion’s share of the schemes, with 32 and 13 projects respectively, while Zambia, Madagascar, Cameroon and Mali only have one or two projects each and several countries have none, according to the report.

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By Charlotte Webster*
A simple but effective solar kit is helping to bring light to homes in the less-industrialised world without the choking side-effects of kerosene lamps.

About 14 per cent of Kenya is electrified, Tanzania even less at 11 and Malawi a pitiful seven. These statistics correspond directly to poverty and development.

The extensive off-grid rural areas of Africa are literally ‘burning what they earn’ on kerosene, the fuel dominates every household bringing expense and smoke.

As the world deliberates on its fossil fuel dependence, there is reason to have hope. Hope that renewable energy business will flourish where it’s needed most. In North West Kenya a solar energy revolution is starting and it’s not the western world that’s pocketing the profits but the locals. Mini solar power has become a must-have product. Continue reading…

By Wayne Visser*

Last week, I was hosted by Ufadhili Trust to deliver a 2 day workshop on CSR in Nairobi, Kenya. As I was last in Kenya 20 years ago when I attended an AIESEC African Leadership Development Seminar, it was wonderful to return and compare my impressions.

The biggest changes have been political. In 1990, Daniel Arap Moi was still president (from 1978 to 2002) and ruled a one-party state with an iron hand. My impression back then was of relative stability, but no great sense of prosperity or advancement.

I recall that the hotel we stayed at on the coast in Mombasa had a water-cut and the security guard carried a bow and arrow. Also, it took 9 hours to drive the 440 km of pot-hole ridden road between Nairobi and Mombasa.

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By Naomi Antony

Spending more on climate change research could put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk by stripping away precious global health funding, Bill Gates has said.

In his 2010 Annual Letter — the second of its kind, released last week by the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation — the philanthropist warned that aid budgets may shrink not only because of recession-related shortfalls but because of a shift towards research targeted at dealing with climate change.

He highlighted the climate accord of last year’s Copenhagen conference, in which rich countries pledged to give developing countries US$10 billion annually over the next three years, and as much as US$100 billion per year by 2020.

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By Nnaemeka Meribe

If nothing is done soon to combat climate change, the number of armed conflicts raging in Africa is likely to increase, and this may swell the number of deaths from war, according to a new report.

Climate change, according to Wikipaedia, is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years.

It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average (for example, greater or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth.

In the study, the researchers from the University of California, United States, first combined historical data on civil wars in sub-Saharan Africa with rainfall and temperature records across the continent.

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