Hello, and welcome to this latest edition of From a Climate Correspondent, a newsletter exploring the climate crisis around the globe.
We are four environmental journalists who have, for various reasons, found ourselves working in regions outside our home continent.
We will be sharing personal reflections on the fight against climate change, highlighting key science and policy developments, as well as some of the best local and international environmental journalism from the regions where we live – namely Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and South Asia.
Thanks for reading!
From a Climate Correspondent team - India, Jocelyn, Lou and Mat
Camels and clean transport
Letter no.12 by Mat Hope, Nairobi, Kenya
Image: Camels blocking the road North out of Nairobi. Credit: Mat Hope
It’s a sign of how varied Kenya’s road users can be... Two camels nonchalantly stroll down a back street, at the height of rush hour, leaving traffic trailing 500 metres behind them. They’re heading for the centre of town, and try as people might, they will not be rushed.
“Camels!”, I yell from the back of the motorbike ferrying me to the office, abandoning whatever remnants of cool I mistakenly believed I held. “Yuh huh,” mumbles the driver, who has seen this and plenty more before. He humours me sufficiently to pause and let me snap a blurry picture, and on we go.Kenya’s roads are home to all sorts. Few as low carbon (or slow moving) as those dromedary commuters. It’s a major challenge for which there are many proposed solutions, but so far very little action.
Pedal power
On the days when I am feeling brave and uncharacteristically sprightly, I'll take the same route by non-motor bike. I often tell visitors I wish to con onto my spare mountain bike that it’s not really that different to cycling in central London. That’s a lie.
While the fear levels are similar as the traffic is normally moving slowly enough to avoid the absolute worst case scenario, there is next to no infrastructure to keep you safe.
This is disputed by a Nairobian friend of mine in the pub one day, who incredulously asks “what are you talking about?” when I bemoan the lack of Nairobi’s cycle lanes. “There are plenty of bike paths in Nairobi,” he says -- a statement met with much mirth by his European companions, who long ago abandoned the idea of cycling in the city.
“So, the problem is just that no-one uses them?”, I counter, gesturing at the jammed road outside with a hand clasped around a Tusker.
“No. The problem is everyone uses them,” he clarifies.
And he’s right. I’ve started a new game on my trips around town: spot the cycle lane. There are loads. The trick is to abandon the preconception that there will be bicycles on them.
Pedestrians; yes. But that’s an issue familiar in most towns. Motorbike taxis (known as bodas, and famed for their bravery or stupidity, depending on your perspective); many. Small minibuses, known as matatus, which form the bulk of Kenya’s cabal-operated public transport system; loads.
The fundamental problem is that the city’s road infrastructure has for so long been at breaking point that any marginally usable strip of tarmac is quickly annexed by those reliant on moving around the city at pace for a living. It is common to see a 30%-completed highway being used as a main thoroughfare by bodas, matatus, Ubers, and all manner of ICE-driven traffic, rubble flying from tyres as the vehicles weave between the token traffic cones.
In this trafficular wild-west, attempts to assert any form of green order seem fanciful.
Clean safari
But that’s not the case in the more controlled environment of Kenya’s national parks. Here, rules apply and are strictly enforced. Poachers can be shot on sight. In these realms of martial justice, there is hope for the EV.
Recently, there has been much excitement about the Swedish government-backed company Opibus, which unveiled its first electric safari vehicle last year. One of the company’s retrofitted Land Cruisers is in use in Ol Pejeta park, about a 5-hour drive from Nairobi, home to the world’s last remaining two Northern White Rhinos, and one of the most forward-thinking conservancies in the region.
The benefits of converting brutal ICE Land Cruisers to silent, clean, EVs in this setting are obvious. They are less intrusive to the animals, allowing visitors to get a closer look. They are less polluting amid the grandeur of the equally impressive fauna. And they can be financially supported by outside sources keen to compensate the developing world for the damage potentially done by tourists from richer parts.
Safaris were seen as a “quick win” and an entry point into the market for Opibus. But their model is one they claim can work back in the real world.
Opibus wants to electrify matatus and bodas in Nairobi. The benefits aren’t just environmental; operators could also save on burdensome fuel costs, and the vehicles require less maintenance as an EV has fewer moving parts than an ICE equivalent, they argue. Opibus’ retrofitting model could completely transform Kenya’s transport sector, the company claims.
The Kenyan government also seems keen, cutting the duty on EVs in the 2019 budget. Analysts hope these financial incentives will lead to a belated boom in clean transport investment.
Stuck in the thickening fug of exhaust fumes behind the meandering camels, I feel viscerally that the day can’t come soon enough.
Must reads from the region
It's eating season in Turkana as Tullow’s billions feed the elite, Paul Wafula and Allan Olingo, Daily Nation Drilling contractors, the security sector, and transport providers have all benefited from British company Tullow Oil’s efforts to extract fossil fuels from Kenya’s Lake Turkana. But the community the project imposes upon feels cheated, with the exploration creating “overnight millionaires while widening the gap between the rich and the poor in Turkana County.”
African countries need rich nations to take the lead on ambition at Cop26, Tanguy Gahouma-Bekale, Climate Home News The President of Gabon’s special advisor and chair of the African Group of Negotiators on climate change, which represents 25% of countries at the negotiations, says COP26 is the moment richer countries must step up and lead by example.
Zimbabwe’s Unprecedented Misfortune: The Perils of Climate Change, Sisir Devkota, Modern Diplomacy Zimbabwe is facing a food crisis after climatic changes drove unseasonable weather events and destroyed planting seasons. “Zimbabwe’s misery is the world’s harshest lesson,” Devkota writes, “it is the modern-day non-fiction of nature’s curse on humanity."
Plan to drain Congo peat bog for oil could release vast amount of carbon, Phoebe Weston, Guardian There’s a battle going on to preserve Congo’s Cuvette Centrale peatlands, which are the size of England and store 30 billion tonnes of carbon. Congolese company Petroleum Exploration and Production Africa (Pepa) announced last year that there were hundreds of millions of barrels of oil under the Cuvette Centrale; a claim disputed by NGOs.
What else I've been reading
Straight-talking Yorkshireman who has lived to 111 has his say on Brexit [...and climate change], Daily Mirror Need something a bit more light-hearted? Try this interview with the world's oldest man -111 year's old! - who is from Yorkshire, speaks Japanese and thinks climate activism is a great thing. “It’s good to see young people taking an interest. All power to Greta Thunberg," he says. Go for the quotes, stay for the amazing photos. Thank you, Bob.
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