Mr President, climate goals are not Western agenda

Dear Mr President, it is uncommon that we, African Bazukulus, see our leaders in ‘the mouth.’ However, I would like to inform you, since you are a signatory to the 2015 PARIS agreement, that Climate goals are not a Western agenda as you seem to allege in your Op-Ed published in the Wall Street Journal of October 24. 

It is true that we need to take gradual steps towards having fully renewable power sources, but it is unwise or rather deadly to encourage or boost the use of fossils in this age, where climate change is no longer a myth but a reality. We have already witnessed the impacts - the droughts, the locusts that colonised northern Uganda, the now annual flash floods and landslides in the Rwenzori and Elgon regions, and the recession of the Rwenzori glacier which is costing our tourism industry. Science has attributed a great share of these to anthropogenic contributions, more so the use of fossil fuels and land use. 

You highlight that the Western world relied on fossil fuels for their take off. That’s true, and it is the very reason mother earth is where it is in terms of climate change. We don’t have to repeat the same mistakes. We, Africans, are lucky that we can learn from mistakes of the Western world to forge a better and sustainable future.  Mr President we are the most vulnerable to climate change, I mean Africa. We have more to lose as we have already seen.  Yes, we have contributed less to this problem, but we lose so much in the event of any disaster arising from the impacts of climate change. You clearly saw the cries and abandonment of properties, hotels, posh residentials on the shores of Lake Victoria when its levels rose. People lose everything when such happens, and it is worse for Africa. This is not the case in the Western world as they have already developed better adaptation and mitigation strategies. They are not as vulnerable as we are. They may suffer enormous economic losses in such events, but they are more resilient and usually recover much quicker. 

Anyway, you seem to suggest that renewable sources are currently not reliable in Africa. This is factually inconsistent. Africa has the greatest potential of green energy. We only need to grow our economic and technical capability, and perhaps set our priorities right as well. As I noted earlier, we are lucky, we have elsewhere to benchmark, and our take-off has come at a time of super advancement in science and technology. It is, therefore, possible, feasible and reliable to sustainably survive without further exploration of fossils. What if we exploit a synergy among all the renewable options? Uganda alone has great potential of the three main renewable sources of solar, wind and hydropower. I am glad as a country we have taken a little step into the solar world. We may then think of a hybrid mix of renewable power sources.  We could potentially pioneer this and sell it to the entire continent. Imagine if we established a renewable power pool for Africa! The West would have a thing to learn from us – a good one to be specific. Every region on the continent can focus on and develop their most feasible renewable option, and mobile this into a pool to be shared across the continent. Will this stiill be unreliable? By the way, it would be a short cut to achieving the one Africa that you so desire - that has even delayed your retirement.  

I hope you reconsider calling climate goals a Western agenda. Climate change is real and our continued reliance on fossil fuels presents more harm than good. Let us employ the more reliable and sustainable renewable options at our disposal but not further extend our reliance on fossils.

Mr Faluku Nakulopa  is a WASH engineer at Sustainable & Greener World, Uganda, and a PhD researcher at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Germany