And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love; Here’s hoping your festive was full of LOVE.
We continue to show you our love for the climate through this column.
We trust our articles are driving desired Climate Action in your communities.
Our last article for 2022 interrogated Carbon Footprint Measurement and Reporting and how it can be used as a tool for Climate Action.
It is our strong conviction that measurement and reporting of Greenhouse Gases will be the next big thing to drive Climate Acton.
Throughout this series of articles we will continue to refer to carbon footprint and how it can be integrated in various Climate Change Management and interventions.
The Carbon War Room (CWR) is an international a Not-For Profit Organisation) and think tank researching for market-based interventions and solutions to climate change. Market based interventions
are likely to find effective solutions to Climate Change given that the market itself can realign and re-engineer business processes that can save the planet.
The Carbon War room through the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) have invested a lot in Climate Research and Development.
Through research in disruptive innovation, The RMI has managed to unlock ideas from academics and entrepreneurs across the world to drive a clean energy future.
However, there is need for “courage, diligence, and tools to enable these innovations to surface and compete against powerful incumbents” – unquote.
Here are some of the few market based interventions of the Carbon War Room.
- Project incubation of Climate Resilient Technologies and businesses and provision of growth capital to support the same. Their current project pipeline requires 3Trillion and so far they have been able to implement about 15% of this requirement .
- Capacity building that will enable economies to achieve best
practices in electricity grid design and integration of renewable energy in power grids. They are also assisting utilities with decarbonisation pathways as well as supporting regulators. They are bringing
Governments and utilities together and helping them in the design and funding of Green Power Pools.
- China emits 27% of Global Greenhouse Gas emission. The RMI have embarked on a project the will ensure that China will produce 1200 Gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030 and achieve neutral emission by 2060. Similarly, they have a project with India to build 450 Gigawatts of power through a capital injection of US$266m.
- The Global investment required to achieve a net Zero emission by
2050 is US$125T and 70% of this is expected to come from the private sector. To this end, The Rocky Mountain Foundation is accelerating the Global Financial Sector’s Transition to Climate Alignment and
the Financing of a Just, Equitable, and Secure Net Zero Future. They are also creating working groups within carbon and energy intensive groups to collaborate and achieve economies of scale for a net Zero Planet .
- Access to open-source data platforms is key to carbon management. Currently data is taking two years to filter to public data platforms. At this stage, the information will be obsolete. RMI is working on taping artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies for improved access to data. This move will help real time access to data so that corrective Climate Action can be taken instantly with measurable results!
Now, after the deep dive into the Carbon War Room, I would like to take you back to our article from four weeks ago where we discussed whether the world will be able to achieve fair decarbonisation or map a fair pathway to clean energy.
Do you think the Carbon War Room can be used to map pathways for the decarbonisation of Africa? We would like to hear from you. Write to us on the email at the end of this article.
We now look at a few local efforts that are having positive Climate impact on Africa and Zimbabwe in particular.
According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Zimbabwe is ranked third after Mozambique and Bahamas.
The implications are that we need Climate Action and urgent interventions!
The majority of Climate Action Programs in Zimbabwe are currently targeting Vulnerable Groups.
A lot of these efforts have been centered on Women and Children.
‘Children are the least responsible for climate change yet bear the most significant burden of its impact.
Hence, climate change response needs to prioritize children, empowering them as actors of change.’ – UNICEF.
Most climate action programmes are focused on reducing energy poverty by using
renewable energy to provide access to health, education, clean water, sanitation, and hygiene especially to marginalised communities.
I am sure most of you as you travelled to your rural home over the festive season, you might have noticed that most schools, Hospitals, Clinics and boreholes have been solarised.
In some areas small Solar mini Grids have been erected.
All these efforts are meant to create Climate Resilient Communities!
Next week we will take a deep dive into Energy Security, Energy Access, and Energy Poverty and what impact they have on Climate Change.
We are also working on an interactive website where you can view our publications.
The website will also have a Research portal where you can get important links to journals etc.
You will also be able to post your own articles on Climate and Energy for free.
We believe this interactive research portal, will yield invaluable information exchange and peer reviews that will help Zimbabwe map its pathway for a just energy transition.
Mike Eric Juru is the Chairman of the Green Building Council of Zimbabwe. He writes in his
personal capacity. You can reach us on mejuru@intpro.co.zw with comments, peer reviews or
suggestions on any hot topics on Climate Change that you would want us to feature in the column.
