Increased charcoal burning biggest threat to climate change in Uganda

Environmental scare. With lacking co-ordination in the communication of climate change information in the country, reports indicate there is an extremely small window of opportunity to deal with the global hazard.

Once a fortnight, Moses Sserwada travels from the capital, Kampala, to northern Uganda to pick up a truckload of charcoal destined for the popular Owino Market.

“I have been in this trade for three years; we get our supply from northern Uganda because the charcoal produced there is of good quality and in high demand,” Mr Sserwada says.
The charcoal trade, referred to as “black gold” by Kampala traders, has become more profitable than the forests where trees are being indiscriminately cut down for charcoal-burning. For the rural population, charcoal trade is an opportunity to earn an income.

However, because of this lucrative trade, Uganda loses close to 73,000 hectares of forest cover annually, which has crippled the country’s climate.

New findings show that the average temperatures in Uganda have increased to as high as 1.4 degrees Celsius since the 1960s compared to an average of 0.5 degrees in the East African region over the last century.

The experts are now warning that: “Looking further ahead, up to 4.30C, change in average temperatures by the 2080s is possible. A temperature rise of that magnitude would have disastrous consequences for Uganda.”

To put these numbers in perspective, there is a general consensus among politicians that if the most dangerous effects of climate change are to be avoided, average global temperatures should not rise by more than 20C.

In a new report titled: ‘Hidden Heat: Communicating climate change in Uganda: Challenges and Opportunities,’ the researcher notes that there is an extremely small window of opportunity to get to grips with climate change.

“Unless urgent action is taken, climate change will cause a range of serious problems in Uganda,” the report cautions.
The Ugandan government has presented tentative evidence that the number of droughts per decade is already increasing, with the period 1991-2000 especially drought-prone.

The surface area of the ice cap on the Rwenzori Mountains has reduced from six square kilometers in 1906 to 0.86 square kilometres today.

“We may not be able to say with certainty that a particular extreme weather event is directly linked to climate change, but we know that extreme weather events will become more frequent and more severe as the global climate warms. An increase in drought is completely consistent with scientists’ predictions about how climate change will impact on lives and livelihoods in Uganda. Climate change is becoming a reality in Uganda,” the report says.

According to the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, all of Africa is likely to warm during this century, and at a faster rate than the global average. But Africa is also the continent that is least likely to be able to cope with its effects.

African nations are highly dependent on climate sensitive industries like farming and food production and yet Africa lacks the financial and technological resources to adapt to a changing climate.

“Among the crops to be affected in Uganda will be tea. The temperatures will be so high and will scorch the tea leaves, bringing down production, if not drying out the whole plant,” the senior agricultural officer and head of the tea unit in the ministry of agriculture, animal industries and fisheries, Ms Daisy Eresu, warns.

“We shall then have to grow our tea at altitudes of 2,000 above sea level and abandon the low laying areas. Alternatively, if Uganda is to remain growing tea in the low-lying areas, we have to encourage the farmers to plant trees for shade that are compatible with tea and we are beginning to encourage farmers to adopt this method through our extension services,” Ms Eresu says.

According to the executive director of Nature Uganda, Mr Achilles Byaruhanga, there is need for a firm commitment from development partners on the issue of financing for mitigation or adaptation to climate change impacts.