A Geoengineering wheeze, on Climate Change – in Africa David Stephen Researcher Stephen[at] trpns.com May 2013.

A Geoengineering wheeze, on Climate Change – in Africa

David Stephen

Researcher

Stephen[at] trpns.com

May 2013

Outline

• The Real Climate Change in Africa

• The Global Geoengineering Thinking

• The Geoengineering That Africa Wants

The Real Climate Change in Africa

Drought in Africa. Photo Credit: CBC.ca

Floods occur more often in Africa – of late.

Erosion has also been recurrent in Africa.

• The climate change that Africa knows include Floods, Erosion, drought, extreme temperatures, rain storm, etc. Global warming in Africa can be defined by these. Adults recognize the shift in magnitude of weather events from previous years – and believe that something may be responsible.

• Africa knows about low-energy light bulbs, and are using them because of the cheap cost, on electricity bills – than for the ‘energy saving’ objective. Africa is adopting wind energy, solar energy, inverters and stronger batteries, for cost effectiveness and privilege of access – by a few.

• Africa’s business is not exactly mitigation of emissions, it is adaptation to the severe climate. Africa is concerned about world’s action on mitigating emissions, but not on mitigating its relatively low emissions – so fast.

• Africa’s other issues include poverty, insurgency, poor infrastructure, instability and corruption. Solving these are at the fore than climate change. Building infrastructure could be part of Africa’s objective towards climate change adaptation, but what Africa knows to be climate change is extreme weather.

The Global Geoengineering Thinking

• Geoengineering, climate engineering or climate remediation is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climatic system with the aim of reducing global warming. It is seen as an alternative to prevent the average temperature of the earth from reaching a tipping point – or point of no return – due to accumulation of greenhouse gases in the troposphere.

• Types of geoengineering include carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM). CDR involves removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while SRM involves increasing the reflectivity of the earth’s atmosphere or surface to reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth or absorbed by it.

• Geoengineering is still a growing subject, with possibilities and controversies, but it is being studied – with tests, policy and governance concerns to prepare it for mainstream discussion in international and local meetings.

• Geoengineering is Plan B, if decision makers cannot agree to collectively cut greenhouse emissions – globally. CDR is seen as safe – relative to SRM, and SRM is cheaper – per year – than mitigation, but deployment of these technologies, their appropriateness and under what regulations, keeps geoengineering on a low-profile globally.

The Geoengineering That Africa Wants

• If the option to save the earth is geoengineering, Africa would have to cooperate, despite effects it may have on the continent. It would involve commitments and assurances – to Africa – given the failure for collaborated mitigation. In future, or at present, Geoengineering is not what Africa would embrace.

• Africa wants geoengineering that can control floods, geoengineering that would taper erosion, that can regulate rainfall, droughts, river surge and harmattan. Majority of Africa facing these challenges would not refuse technology solutions to these events – if proposed.

• The poor, weak and dispossessed, have to recurrently grapple with these conditions whenever they beckon. Governments have little, research and innovation isn’t popular, disaster relief takes time, and risks – annually – are higher. Technology solution is what the educated and non-educated would welcome, for things they see and don’t want.

• It starts from ‘erosion, flood or drought-geoengineering’, for Africa to have an inkling of artificial solution to nature’s vis major. Africa can further deploy them, if global geoengineering would be used, not fearing extreme effects.

• The first step is for the academe in Africa, to call for papers, for plausible and ‘implausible’ theories to find workable and realistic solutions to these issues. They should be supported by foundations, grants, governments, corporations or international partners.

• Accumulating previous works on flood control, erosion, etc. and finding new ways to make academic work vendible to local authorities should be sought. Study of international geoengineering technologies should also proceed in Africa by climatic science pundits, to have them qualify to recommend genuine concerns to Africans on geoengineering.

• International support to Africa, can come as assistance in research, grants for climate change adaptation, technology transfer, knowledge sharing, and development of scientific network for scientists and interested persons.

• If geoengineering were to be deployed today, Africa would fight it. Africa wants action on climate mitigation. Africa’s displeasure has not been enough reason for global climate action, and hope with projections is slim. Wheeze is what geoengineering to Africa is, it would take the academe, foundations, individuals and the international community to introduce remediation to Africa – with local benefits. And if this doesn’t happen geoengineering would remain foreign to Africa and, a waiting disaster.

Further Reading• Long. J, and Rademaker. S, et al, (2011), Taskforce on Climate

Remediation Report. Bipartisan Policy Center, Washington, DC. http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/sites/default/files/BPC%20Climate%20Remediation%20Final%20Report.pdf

• Stephen, D, (2012), Geoengineering Policies and Africa, Draft Document http://trpns.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Geoengineering-Policies-and-Africa.pptx

• Parson. E, and Keith. D.W., (2013), End the Deadlock on Governance of Geoengineering Research Science. SCIENCE Vol. 339 no. 6125 pp. 1278-1279, DOI: 10.1126/science.1232527 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6125/1278

• Haywood. J.M. Jones. A, Bellouin. N, Stephenson. D, (2013), Asymmetric forcing from stratospheric aerosols impacts Sahelian rainfall. NATURE doi:10.1038/nclimate1857 http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1857.html

• SRMGI (2012), Solar Geoengineering: Research, Governance, and African Involvement Workshop. http://www.srmgi.org/events/solar-geoengineering-research-governance-and-african-involvement/