As Mount Holyoke students were wrapping up their summer travel, internships, and community service, incoming president Lynn Pasquerella was honoring a volunteer commitment of her own. With a team that included the Africa Center for Engineering Social Solutions (ACESS) and Mount Holyoke students Hilda Barasa ’12 and Yiting Wang ’11, Pasquerella traveled to Kenya’s West Lake District projects aimed at providing access to clean water and promoting “microbusinesses.”
“The overall objective has been to empower women in the communities and create sustainable businesses,” Pasquerella said.
One project involved testing a press used for molding clay water purification pots. Collaborating with the ACESS team, community members were able formulate a more efficient process using local materials.
Fish farming also promises to expand local business opportunities, but the team is still looking for ways to prevent predation by monitor lizards and transport fish effectively in areas lacking infrastructure. “I hope to work with the Center for the Environment at Mount Holyoke to try to address these issues,” Pasquerella noted, adding that this is the first time Mount Holyoke has been involved in the project.
Her involvement with the group began during her time at URI, when she met Clarice Odhiambo, an ACESS worker performing graduate work at Brown University. Odhiambo, a former Coca-Cola Africa executive, asked if university personnel could partner with the group to identify engineering solutions to communities lacking clean water.
Wang found out about the project while interning with the United Nations Environmental Program in Nairobi, Kenya. She contacted Pasquerella, who put her in touch with Odhiambo.
“The encounter was very much unexpected,” said Wang, “but I felt very fortunate to join Lynn and her wonderful team with Clarice.” Wang added that after her week-long trip with the team, the organization seemed to her based on a development model she had never experienced herself.
“It stood away from the usual political diplomacy of official development assistance from the West and approached it from a civic and institutional angle,” she said. When three engineering students from the University of Hartford taught the workers at the local construction company how to assemble the press and make the mold for the ceramic filter, she was inspired to watch the workers alter the plan with locally available materials.
Wang will continue to assist Pasquerella and her team at Mount Holyoke in designing academic and experiential programs involving ACESS.
Pasquerella’s engagement in social issues predates her ethical studies—she described working alongside her mother in a light switch factory.
“I saw women working on the assembly line, trying to make quota and knowing that if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to feed their children at the end of the day. There were no men … Class and gender issues became apparent to me then.”
The Kenya Project is now in its third year, and Pasquerella expects it to continue beyond its initial five-year commitment.
“We stay in same communities. There are challenges involved, so it’s important that we keep our commitment in terms of their evolving needs,” she said. Already struggling with poverty and high rates of HIV/AIDS, the community’s well apparatus broke, so finding other ways to access clean water has been vitally important.
Despite the challenges, Pasquerella said that the new constitution, passed at the end of August, has offered locals hope. “There is a great deal of optimism, and there wasn’t as much optimism two years ago, especially because of post-election violence.” Among other changes, the new constitution will allow women to enjoy the same rights as male citizens of the country. Many Kenyans have been disappointed, though, with the Obama administration’s failure to bring them additional resources. Citizens continue to struggle with rampant corruption, but they hope the new constitution will introduce a greater degree of transparency.
In the meantime, Pasquerella said she hopes Mount Holyoke will continue to fund students’ participation in similar projects in Kenya and other countries and provide mentors for these students. Having extensively presented her work abroad, she believes travel is a critical means of building social awareness. “I think the more that we get to know other cultures and how people live their lives, the better we’re able to think critically about complex issues in a world that’s increasingly globally independent… First and foremost, we come to understand we are not the center of the universe, and that there’s suffering we don’t hear about because we think there are parts of the world that don’t matter.”
(Allafrica.com) Nairobi — The government is boosting efforts to tap wind energy, the latest attempt towards reducing over-reliance on hydro-power and costly diesel-powered generators.
The Ministry of Energy says it will facilitate investments in wind and other sources of renewable power by negotiating deals on behalf of private investors with local governments.
Frustrated by drought-induced power shortages and rising global oil prices, the government is seeking to attract more investments in renewable energy to stabilise supply and reduce the cost of doing business.
"I assure any investor who wants to help us to exploit our untapped potential in wind energy and other sources of renewable energy such as solar that we will help them to negotiate with the counties and even the landowners," Mr Kiraitu Murungi, the Energy minister, said after commissioning KenGen's 5.1 megawatt wind mill at Ngong Hills, west of Nairobi.
The wind farm is being financed through a Sh1.1 billion (11 million euro) loan and will have a capacity of 25.4MW once complete in 2012.
KenGen managing director Eddy Njoroge said the project was part of the company's five-year plan to inject 500MW into the national grid by 2013.
Mr Murungi said talks were under way with the county council of Marsabit in connection with wind and solar energy projects.
To create a database and market opportunities in the wind sector to potential investors, the government plans to instal 33 (40-metre high) wind masts and data loggers across the country by November this year.
The data will complement the Kenya Country Wind Atlas, a profile of areas with adequate wind for power generation.
The Energy ministry has also floated a tender to instal 20 wind masts and data loggers while KenGen is researching in 12 locations.
"Our wind power potential is enormous but its exploitation has been minimal. Unlike electricity generated by fossil fuels, wind-generated energy can provide electricity without pollution or depleting natural resources," Mr Murungi said.
The farm, near Lake Turkana, will generate a quarter of the country's current installed power when complete in 2012.
The Kenyan economy realised national energy savings of Sh24.2 billion in 2009 due to consumers embracing efficiency, conservative and cleaner technologies to reduce expenditure.
Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra) said the savings from all energy forms was achieved at a time when electricity was being rationed while oil products prices had escalated.
Energy Consumption Patterns Study done by the public researcher shows that key drivers were energy saving devices like fluorescent bulbs, switching off gadgets not in use, opting for alternative cheaper fuels to cook and light as well as good maintenance of appliances.
Households had the highest efficiency and conservation savings of Sh22.1 billion. Other sectors with major savings were manufacturing, agriculture, trade, community and social institutions respectively.
Kippra head of infrastructure and economic services division Eric Aligula said the highest efficiency and conservation savings in fuel usage were in petrol and diesel amounting to about Sh11 billion.
Dr Aligula said major energy savings were also noted in the use of liquefied petroleum gas and wood while savings in the electricity sub-sector were estimated Sh2 billion.
“Energy as used by households and enterprises may make a large difference if measures are employed towards efficiency and conservation,” he said.
The study found out that 26 per cent of electricity consumers did not apply any efficient or conservation methods in its use while 28 per cent utilised energy saving appliances and devices.
Did not apply any efficiency
“Fifty per cent of fuel wood users did not apply any efficiency measures as opposed to 27 per cent of charcoal users who did not use any efficiency measures,” said the report.
It called for a policy shift to ensure availability, secure affordable energy as Kenya’s usage of fuel products is expected to rise to 10.5 million tonnes by the year 2030 from the 3.7 million tonnes last year.
Kippra says Kenya needs policies to facilitate investment in a mix of renewable power to meet future demand for energy and prospecting firms given incentives to intensify oil exploration.
By John Lindt Sierra2theSea News Service Published July 26, 2010
California's Tulare County produces about 26 percent of the state's milk supply and 55 percent of its oranges, and is one of the few places in the world where giant Sequoias reproduce. What it doesn’t seem to do is produce anywhere near enough electric power to meet its needs.
While the county has a few generating facilities – mostly small hydroelectric plants dating from the early 20th century – altogether they produce only about 50 megawatts of power. That compares to demand countywide of about 1,000 mw, says Doug Carter, principal with SolarGenUSA, which hopes to build a score of new solar farms in the county.
MAP CREDIT: SOLAR HOME & BUSINESS JOURNAL
"To us it makes more sense to build relatively small 20-mw power facilities close to where the power is needed rather than seeking permits for large utility-size solar plants that need to wheel power long distance," argues Mr. Carter.
SolarGenUSA and a handful of other developers, some from around the world, are proposing several dozen solar projects from the mini to the mega scale in Tulare and Kings counties in Central California, a region renowned as one of the world's major producers of fruit, nuts and other agricultural products.
Many Californians might be surprised to learn that the state’s (and the nation's) two largest utility companies, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co., got their starts in Tulare County harnessing power on the Kaweah and Tule rivers many decades ago. Together these hydro facilities still produce about 10 mw when the water flows are high – enough to light up about 600 homes.
But neither the big utility companies nor anyone else had ever shown much additional interest in developing power in Tulare County – until now.
Next door in Kings County, a company called GWF Energy has built two new natural-gas power plants in the modern era. These have been used as "peaker" power plants – fired up to provide power for the grid when demand rises, as on hot summer days. Although expansion plans are under way, the power produced is a fraction of what people in Kings County need every day.
This part of the Central Valley may have been ignored by energy developers for most of the past century, but in 2010 it is suddenly ground zero for the solar transformation of California.
The megawatts being proposed run the gamut from a 1-mw system to be installed at the Tulare wastewater plant later this year to 5,000 mw of photovoltaic power proposed in Kings County by Westlands Holdings. The largest nuclear power plant complex in the United States, the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona, has a net capacity of about 3,900 mw.
Also in the mega category, the company Canergy is working on a 20-mw project called KingSolar in Kings County and a much larger, utility-scale 500-mw solar farm along Interstate 5 on the southern edge of the county.
Chesley Chao, project developer for Canergy, says KingSolar “has been filed with the California System Operator and is in their queue,” noting that the location for now is confidential. The company’s website says the much bigger 500-megawatt project is being proposed in Quay Valley, a 20-square-mile "new town" project proposed south of Kettleman City along I-5. Mr. Chao declined to provide more details except to say the project is the planning stage.
A third large project in Kings County would be a potential 2,900-acre solar farm on land owned by Naval Air Station Lemoore. The U.S. Navy has gone through the first step in soliciting developer interest in a contract to set up a solar project there on leased land. A Navy spokesman said further news could come in a few months.
The lack of water for farming on the west side of the Central Valley is a driving factor for developers to look at installing solar panels on this former farmland – a development that requires little or no water.
Why is this area of the Valley suddenly on the solar energy radar screen? It’s not just because the sun shines brightly in these parts, although it does.
Energy planners say western Kings County sits along the most important transmission lines connecting populous California's north and south. As the state moves to increase the amount of renewable energy it produces to 33 percent of its energy mix by 2020, developers are in a race to site solar and wind farms up and down California, preferably where hookup costs are lower.
Before this year, the highly prized territories tended to be in the desert areas of the state, where plenty of renewables, both solar and wind, are already installed. But environmental opposition to the use of desert land has increasingly led planners to look elsewhere for large utility-size projects that would have less environmental impact.
Energy planners are concerned over the cost of adding transmission lines to move renewable power from rural areas where it is expected to be generated to urban areas where it is needed.
“They could build 1,000 megawatts of solar power in Westlands right now without adding any new transmission capacity,” says Sierra Club spokesman Carl Zichella, who advises state officials on transmission issues. Mr. Zichella strongly supports the idea of placing utility-size solar on retired farmlands like the Westlands acreage. The lands are tainted by high salinity and contamination of the soil, and unlike more natural areas, attract little wildlife.
“I see plenty of reasons to do the Westlands solar project and no reasons why not,” Mr. Zichella says.
Meanwhile, some other large solar projects around the state are being scaled back or dropped altogether. A proposal to build hundreds of megawatts in the Owens Valley on an ancient lakebed was put on hold by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which planned to use the power, when tests showed that “if solar panel platforms were placed at the southern end of the nearly dry 110-square-mile Owens Lake, they would sink as much as several inches into extremely corrosive soil," the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month.
Plans to build a 400-mw solar farm in San Benito County on 5,000 acres of farmland were scaled back recently after local opposition arose. A long-planned solar-and-biomass project near Coalinga, called San Joaquin Solar 1 & 2, was dropped suddenly, reportedly because of neighbors' concerns about truck traffic from waste hauling for the biomass part of the project.
Mr. Kim says an environmental impact report on the mammoth solar electricity project – the largest of its kind ever proposed in the world – could start in three months. Supporters say that while many other solar projects statewide would have environmental impacts, utility-scale solar power plants in a place like Westlands, combined with urban utility-size solar, plus residential and distributed PV projects, could allow the state to meet its 33 percent renewable energy target for 2020 with virtually no environmental impact.
“This is the best place in the state to do this,” Mr. Kim says.
One continuing theme in the estimate of how much large-scale solar California will need in the future appears to be a moving target, with a smaller need anticipated than even a year ago for large-scale solar projects as more "distributed energy" — typically smaller in scale and close to the energy demand — is built.
If the Central Valley is the best place to generate renewable electricity to send to the cities, it also may be the best place to generate power for local needs, argues SolarGenUSA’s Doug Carter.
Mr. Carter says his company is working on 280 mw of power in the Central Valley – all of it "distributed" generation from medium-sized solar power plants that would be built on parcels leased from owners.
"We locate them close to the substations, so connection is easy," he says.
SolarGenUSA scouts the area for sites near a power substation. The company has seven pending projects and more in the works in Tulare County, totaling 120 mw. In Kings County, Mr. Carter says the company is working on two projects totaling 30 mw near Avenal on the west side of the Kettleman Hills.
Mr. Carter suggests this approach makes sense from the all-important financing angle, noting that a 20-mw deal requires much less financing than a huge project for which costs could run in the billions – with a "b."
"Scaling up to more 20-mw projects can be done quickly if you need more," he says.
Farmland Tax Break?
PHOTO CREDIT: SOLAR HOME & BUSINESS JOURNAL The California Farm Bureau Federation and local farm bureaus have questioned whether an agricultural tax break ought to be allowed in the case of solar development.
One cloud hanging over the solar projects in Tulare and Kings is whether the county in each case would allow the landowner to continue to claim a special agricultural tax advantage, called a Williamson Act tax break.
The California Farm Bureau Federation and local farm bureaus have questioned whether the tax break ought to be allowed in the case of solar development. Each county board of supervisors makes the decision, and Kings County's board has already approved several solar projects on Williamson Act land.
Some landowners argue that for now, the farmland doesn’t have a water supply, and that sometime in the future it could return to farming use once a solar lease expires. In Tulare County, an advisory committee is looking into a point system that would be based on whether the land is considered prime agricultural property.
A number of pending applications for solar farms in Tulare County are in the western part of the county, not on prime land. Likewise in Kings County, where some farmers say they don’t have water to farm all their acreage but could use the income from solar to continue farming on the rest of their land.
Following is a list of pending solar applications or known negotiations in the two-county area:
SolarGenUSA: This company now has seven projects filed in Tulare County. One is near the Rector substation east of Visalia and another is near Terra Bella, with three more filed near Alpaugh, totaling 120 mw. Spokesman Doug Carter says he hopes to have all entitlements in place to move forward by the end of this year. SolarGenUSA, based in Colorado, says it is developing more than 280 megawatts of distributed photovoltaic electricity from installations to be located primarily within California's Central Valley.
SolarGenUSA’s focus is the development of smaller sites compatible with leased agricultural property. Each facility can generate typically 20 megawatts of solar power and is located where energy demand exists and transmission is less impeded. The company says it is working with Southern California Edison on agreements to buy the power in Tulare County. It has two proposed projects in Kings County, in Avenal.
DTE Energy: Based in Detroit, the company is working on one 20-mw project in the Angiola Water District in southwest Tulare County. It has applied for a permit.
Solar Project Solutions (SPS): A joint venture between Samsung (South Korea) and Enco Utility Services, it has five proposed projects in southwest Tulare County near Alpaugh and near Corcoran in Kings County, totaling 130 megawatts. The venture has power purchase agreements with PG&E. The Corcoran project is 40 mw and is in the Corcoran Irrigation District. The firm has applied for permits in both counties.
Recurrent Energy: This San Francisco-based company with permits pending in Kern County is also said to be negotiating in Kings County for several hundred acres with Westlake Farms.
EnXco : This France-based company is said to be working on a project in Corcoran and on other sites in Tulare County.
Eurus: A Japanese company with three projects near Avenal in Kings County (west of the Kettleman Hills), it is in the process of receiving permits from Kings County. The capacity of the projects totals 48 mw. Eurus has a public hearing scheduled this week on approval of a power purchase agreement with PG&E. It is scheduled to deliver power in May 2011. It also is reported to be negotiating for several hundred acres with Westlake Farms in Kings County. The firm has received approval from Kings County for some permits.
Canergy: This U.S. company with China links is working with the Kings County Economic Development Corp. on projects in Kings County. They include the proposed KingSolar 20-mw solar plant.
The company's website says the KingSolar PV project would be the first utility-scale PV power generation facility in the U.S. developed by Canergy. It would be located on previously disturbed agricultural land about one mile from an existing substation.
KingSolar has a land lease contract, the site says, and is undergoing interconnection and transmission studies by the California Independent System Operator, the agency that manages the electricity grid, and environmental permitting. The project is under negotiation with a major utility company in California and is expected to complete a power purchase agreement soon. Construction is planned to start in late 2010 and the project is anticipated to be on line in the second half of 2011, says the Canergy website.
Canergy also is planning to build a 500-mw solar farm in Kings County. According to the company website, it has chosen Quay Valley along Interstate 5 south of Kettleman City as the location.
“Located in Quay Valley, Central California with access to the best solar resources, the 500 mw solar farm is in development to power a new green city which will be the similar size of Manhattan. The green city will contain 50,000 people and will be 100 percent powered by renewable energy, mainly solar PV and geothermal, upon completion," the site says.
The 500-mw project is planned as part of a strategic cooperation agreement that includes a memorandum of understanding between the state government of California and the Jiangsu provincial government in China to promote renewable energy, energy efficiency and environment protection. A formal agreement is expected to be signed at the end of 2010.
Quay Valley developer Quay Davis said he could not comment on plans for the project on the site of his mothballed "new town" project. That project, when proposed, included a major solar component. But the project has been on hold for nearly two years, after the recession halted development interest and because of water issues.
Westlands solar project: Supported by the California Energy Commission, which designated the area as a special renewable energy zone, and by some environmental groups, this 30,000-acre project could unfold in the next few years on retired farmland in the Westlands Water District. The project would likely be built in phases over a decade or longer and could eventually total 5,000 megawatts.
Solargen Energy: Not to be confused with the Colorado company with a similar name, Solargen Energy, based in Cupertino, Calif., has been working on a permit for a 420-mw PV solar farm in the Panoche Valley in San Benito County west of Interstate 5. The county planning department recently recommended that the project be scaled back to 120 mw.
Kings River Conservation District: Work is said to be ongoing for an 80-mw solar farm in Kings or Fresno counties.
City of Tulare: The city is building a 1-mw solar farm next to its wastewater treatment plant that will generate about 30 percent of its power needs. Construction is expected to be under way this fall.
Besides all the renewable projects vying for approval, there is one big new power plant using fossil fuel that is seeking a final permit to build. Avenal Power is awaiting approval for its permit to build a 600-mw natural-gas-fired plant east of Interstate 5 in Kings County. No power purchase agreement is in place. The location is close to the main north-south high-voltage power lines.
Two other GWF Power conventional energy projects could expand as well. The company has natural-gas plants in Lemoore and Hanford, but with utilities focusing on solar energy, no power purchase agreement is yet in place. Each plant has 95 mw of capacity and is seeking to add 25 mw. The planned upgrades would turn the plants into more efficient "combined cycle" power operations that use both gas turbines and steam systems to generate electricity.
As more renewable electricity is put into place, the importance of natural-gas-fired power plants increases. Production from a solar power plant can drop dramatically when a thick cloud passes overhead. The ability of natural-gas plants to rapidly ramp up generation when needed offers one way to mitigate the intermittency of solar or wind energy. The use of electric energy storage systems is another way to even out power generation from solar or wind.
You're young. You may have just started or returned to college for fall semester; maybe you're starting senior year in high school; maybe you finished college last spring but haven't been able to find a job yet; maybe you already have a job; maybe you have nothing to do with college or a job and you are just trying to figure things out... or so many other scenarios that I don't know about.
The world in front of you does not seem very bright right now -- the economy has tanked; BP's criminal spill must have impacted you emotionally; the climate bill failed; ongoing war in Afghanistan... the list goes on and on. I bet you're disheartened (or worse disgusted) with politics and politicians. Possibly you're thinking of not even voting this year.
I'm writing this letter to you with all that in mind.
During the past decade, I gave lectures at the United Nations and at Universities of all sizes and reputation across the country. But I'm not a motivational speaker. And I sure am no Rilke. But I'll try my best to inspire you to start a clean energy revolution -- yes I'm talking about a revolution.
During my childhood in India, I had no interest in politics or election. I loved cinema. Each time I could save 75 paisa (about 2 cents) by selling my fish (guppies and mollies) at the Sunday market, I'd go see a film made by such directors as Mrinal Sen, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, and others. Through these films I began to learn about storytelling and about social justice.
In 2004, I became a U.S. citizen. I've been fighting for ecological and human rights justice in the American Arctic for nearly a decade.
Now I'm concerned about your future, as well as the future of all young people all over the world, and all the birds and animals. Why? I'll tell you.
This year, you've watched, read, and heard about: tragic flood in Pakistan; deadly fires in Russia; BP's criminal oil-and-methane spill in the Gulf of Mexico... and the list goes on. All these disasters are devastating for human communities as well as the ecology of each of these regions. They're also very costly to deal with. These disasters will increase both in frequency and intensity if we continue our addiction to oil-and-coal and fail to address climate change.
You maybe asking "how does any of that relate to me?" Let me explain.
Energy experts are now worried about the increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from China and India. I'll update that scenario for you. China is now the largest emitter of GHG, U.S. is #2, and India is #3. However, per capita GHG emission goes like this -- U.S. is about 4 times more than China, and about 12 times more than India.
If we don't move away from burning fossil fuels in short order, China, U.S., and India - just these three countries together will put so much carbon in the atmosphere over the next several decades, that you will find yourself in a planet that may not seem very healthy or habitable for you and for much of life that inhabit our earth. You're young and you must shape and define the future of the planet that you'll continue to inhabit long after I'm gone.
Henry Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience -- it was powerful and profoundly influenced among others Gandhi, Tolstoy, and Dr. King. Then came Howard Zinn and he wrote The Problem Is Civil Obedience. A few years ago Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove, co-edited the influential book Voices of a People's History of the United States. I was honored when in 2005 Anthony asked me to perform Howard's The Problem Is Civil Obedience at the Seattle Art Museum. We did readings from the book two days in a row. Howard Zinn passed away earlier this year, but it is his words that ring true in my ears.
Barbara Freese in her thoroughly researched book Coal: A Human History details how Big Coal was actually more influential than even Big Oil in getting George W. Bush elected as the U.S. President. After the climate bill failed this past July, Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in The Hill, "too many Senators are more concerned about short-term oil and coal profits". What I'm trying to say is that many politicians are obedient to the corporations that helped them get elected. You don't have to be obedient to anyone.
Recently I read in The New York Times that fewer young voters see themselves as Democrats this year. Fortunately, there was a nice critique of that piece in The Huffington Post. Its also true that recent polls are showing that Republicans maybe taking over either or both chambers of Congress. My allegiance is not to any particular party, but to the issue of clean energy economy and a healthier planet for all life. We squandered our chance to pass a comprehensive climate and energy bill during the 111th Congress. Now if the Republicans do indeed take over either or both chambers of Congress, what worries me is that Big Oil and Big Coal will be rejoicing and the clean energy economy in the U.S. will have to wait. All these don't bode well either for you or for our earth.
China will continue to burn coal-and-oil for some time to come, no doubt about that, but they've also started unprecedented investment in clean energy technology. They know that in 10 or 20 years there will be an enormous global market for clean energy and they sure would like to be the leader of the pack. Where will U.S. be then?
I'm urging you to start a clean energy revolution in the U.S.
Between now and the November election I'd suggest few simple things that you can do:
* Local -- Do research to find out which organization(s) in your city/town/state working on clean energy economy and find out how you can get involved. To give you an example, in my home state of New Mexico we have a wonderful organization called New Energy Economy (NEE). I recently testified at a climate hearing on their behalf in front of our Environmental Improvement Board that is considering NEE's proposal to cut GHG emission in New Mexico by 25% below the 1990 level by 2020.
* Global -- Check out 10-10-10 Global Work Party that 350.org will make happen next month. I bet they're doing something in your neighborhood. Find out where and participate for sure. With just one act that October day, you'll feel part of a global movement, that dissolves all borders of race, class, gender, age, and economic status, with only one common global concern - climate change.
* Beltway -- Do research to find out who are running for office in your district and in your state for U.S. Congress and what their positions and past records are on clean energy and climate change.
* Friends and Family -- Tell everyone what you learned with your research and action. If they're younger tell them you're working to help secure a better future for them. If they are older tell them they must join you to secure a better future for you.
* Stories -- If you need stories for inspiration, to know that what you're fighting for is worth every bit, you can visit anytime ClimateStoryTellers.org that I founded last month.
You're young. Your future is in your hands. Start your climate revolution now. Come November you must vote and you must vote with climate in your mind.
It'll be the beginning of a long journey for you just like it has been for me since I saw my first Mrinal Sen film when I was a little kid in India. In the process you'll secure a better future for yourself and for so many others.
Do you really think about buildings, roads and all other concrete projects that surround you? Do you ever try to judge them wondering why some are good and others are downright horrible?
Has it ever crossed your mind that all the monstrous structures mushrooming in our cities and all the shacks filling up open spaces, uglifying our surrounding and killing our cities with overcrowding has something to do with planning?
Though building and construction has in the recent past been one of the robust sectors driving the country’s economic recovery, planning and design of structures has left many questions than answers.
In fact poor planning has remained an achilles’ heel of many towns, killing the sustainable growth dream envisaged by the United Nations agency, Habitat.
The UN body along with its sister agency Unep, are warning of an impending urban decay in some of Africa’s major towns, if planning is not taken seriously, given the high urbanization growth rates.
According to Habitat, under two decades, more than half of the continent’s population will be living in urban centres, a trend that calls for proper planning.
“The major problem we have in many African cities like Nairobi and Mombasa is that planning has been taking place after development instead of the reverse,” says Steve Oundo, the Architectural Association of Kenya chairman.
Oundo says Africa can only be on the right path to sustainable development of cities, if planning was to come before development.
Building code
Take Kenya, for example, the building code, which regulates construction of buildings in cities, is almost a carbon copy of what United Kingdom used in the 1940s. The Kenya government adopted it after independence.
Nairobi, the capital city, is currently operating without a master plan, following its expiry in 2000, after 27 years in use.
Another example of the planning mess, was the demolition of two blocks of residential flats, worth Sh16 million each ($200,000), after it was discovered they were built on a road reserve. The new blocks, which were intended to house police officers in Nairobi, were hardly one year old.
In fact planning and strict regulation of the built environment, will even be more critical in future, as more people settle in cities and towns.
City residents and new migrants from rural areas, will all need better housing, schools, hospitals, water and sewerage systems electricity and roads. All will only be achieved with proper planning and adherence to regulations governing built environment.
In Kenya, the number of people living in urban areas has increased by 26 per cent from 9.9 million in 1999 to 12.5 million in 2009, a trend that has corresponded with increased demand for services, which has so far remained inadequate.
urbanization
According to Kwame Owino, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, high urbanization rates should not be viewed as a problem per se, if public facilities are well planned for and adequately provided.
“Public facilities are services that must be provided with or without population increase. It is only that when there is a high population growth it puts pressure on governments to provide them,” says Owino.
It is why planning is important as it can help governments handle the pressure.
In fact urbanization scholars believe proper planning and adherence to built environment regulations has the potential of addressing issues such as inadequate shelter, land tenure irregularities, urban poverty, delinquency, pollution and sanitation currently chocking the big cities in the continent.
A good built environment, be it public or private structures, residential or commercial buildings, is like a good suit made of quality materials, cut to size and well tailored. The result, always must the clients requirements and at its best, the requirements of the neighbourhood, the city and not forgetting the culture.
However, despite its importance, it is one fact many governments in Africa have failed to implement resulting in haphazard development that UN is concerned about.
“Majority of cities in Africa, are of poor standard because governments have failed to plan them properly,” says Mairura Omwenga secretary of the architectural association of Kenya.
Omwenga says unless African governments shape up sustainable development of cities will remain a pipe dream.
To rectify some of the problems, the Kenya government, for example, has crafted a Bill that will reign in on rogue contractors , partly to blame for the mess in cities. The National Construction Authority Bill will be tabled in parliament before the end of the year
According to the ministry’s works secretary, Dr Gideon Mulyungi, the
Bill is expected to inject professionalism in the sector by registering and regulating contractors.
“Rogue contractors have thrived because of loopholes in our laws and it is time we limited their operations and options,” says Mulyungi.
Shoddy contractors
Indeed shoddy contractors, with the help of poor government planning, have continued to make a kill, colluding with unscrupulous public officials to win tenders worth billions of shillings, which they incapable of handling.
Currently, Mulyungi says, a rogue or a briefcase contractor can win a tender in one of the ministries, for example, Public Works, do a shoddy job and move to another , like Roads or Energy, bid and win another lucrative one.
“This happens because various ministries have their own register of contractors and if one is blacklisted in one ministry he can still operate in another,” he adds.
The bill, however, if passed by parliament, will bring the registration of contractors under one authority and only those who qualify will be considered. Thus, if the authority blacklists one, he or she will be barred from bidding or taking up public tenders. Winning private tenders will also be hard as the list of genuine contractors will be made public.
The Bill, has already received support from professionals of the built environment, who have described it as long overdue.
“Currently, even one who has managed a butchery for 10 years can still go and register a construction company, call himself an engineer , bid and win a tender,” says Oundo.
The AAK chairman says the Bill, if enacted, will require qualified engineers to sit on the board of the registered companies. The companies will also be expected to have workman compensation insurance and also a cover for the works, in case of a disaster.
In the past, structures under construction have collapsed, killing and maiming labours without compensating the victims, this will change if the law is enacted.
Oundo also calls for the review of the building code, based on the recommendations made by a committee set up to review the law.
The recommendations propose radical changes in planning and construction, among them, knocking down illegal or dangerous buildings, whose plans have not been approved by the relevant authorities.
“It also proposes the establishment of a planning and building authority to regulate planning and construction of buildings. It will be a one stop shop to end the blame game when buildings collapse because of poor planning and design,” Oundo adds.
All these issues and many more will be discussed at the forthcoming International Society of Regional Planners (ISOCARP) meeting to be held in Nairobi between the 19th and 23rd of this month.
Professionals from more than 80 countries will share experiences and make recommendations to government on transforming Africa’s urban centres into sustainable cities in view of the rapid urbanization.
Well, I'm getting to work a few weeks ahead of 10-10-10, and wanted to send along the story to get you fired up for the big day.
I'm trying to type this as the biodiesel van I'm sitting in bumps down the highway from the state of Maine on the east coast of the USA. We left tiny Unity College yesterday morning, bound for the White House with stops in Boston and New York -- and we're carrying a piece of history with us.
It's one of the solar panels that the American president Jimmy Carter installed on the roof of the White House in 1979, 31 long years ago. Here's what Carter said that day: "A generation from now this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people."
Sadly, the panels were taken down a few years later during the Reagan administration. Not because they stopped working -- but because we stopped thinking carefully about the future. The folks at Unity College salvaged them from a government warehouse and put them on the roof of their school cafeteria, where they still work fine.
But now they've agreed to donate one solar panel back to the White House, in the hope that it will spur Obama to pick up where Carter left off.
Our great hope, of course, is that on 10-10-10 President Obama will be up there on the roof, helping to put the panels in place. Our friends at the solar company Sungevity have even offered to donate a massive, brand new solar array for free. (Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, has already taken them up on the offer -- he'll be up on his roof on 10-10-10 hammering in a new set of panels).
But so far, there's no definitive answer from the White House. They say they're "interested", but that it's "complicated".
Here's how you can tip the balance: in the next 24 hours, we're going to get back on the phone with the White House and work to convince them to commit to taking action on 10-10-10. It would greatly strengthen our hand to say that hundreds of people have registered new work parties since we last called.
Note:There are actually members from AYICC-Kenya doing research on jatropha, the kind of crops planted for fuel mentioned in this article. This is always such a heated topic and dilemma in that the competition between fuel and food and the pressure on land are such particular issues, which I think, largely depends on local management and practice. There was just another article a week ago telling the story that biofuels won't compete with food security but rather generate income for the locals, if the crops are right and land is marginal (will find that one).
by East African (Kenya) 6 September 2010 The European Union has been urged to drop its pledge to produce 10 per cent of all transport fuels from biofuels by 2020 because of the effect this has had on the purchase of African land by multinational companies.
According to a report released on August 30 by a UK-based campaign group, Friends of the Earth, the amount of land being taken in Africa to meet the EU’s rising demand for biofuels “is underestimated and out of control.”
Its report echoes findings from another UK aid agency, Action Aid, which predicts that the EU biofuels target could result in up to 100 million more hungry people across the continent, increased food prices and landlessness.
The report’s findings are challenged by companies who argue that they typically farm land not destined or suitable for food crops.
It’s an argument rejected by the Friends of the Earth report, which argues that biofuel crops — including non-edible ones such as jatropha — “are competing directly with food crops for fertile land.
“The African continent is increasingly being targeted as a source of agricultural land and natural resources for the rest of the world.
“National governments, private companies and investment funds are buying up access to land across the continent to grow crops for food and fuel.”
The FoE report concentrates on 11 African countries, including Kenya and Tanzania, where it says that around 40 foreign owned companies have invested in agro-fuel developments.
It says that many of the activities are actually raising carbon emissions because virgin forests are being chopped down to make way for the crops.
This report looks in detail at the deals for agrofuels and questions the impacts on local communities and the environment.
It finds that although information is limited, there is growing evidence that significant levels of farmland are being acquired for fuel crops, in some cases without the consent of local communities and often without a full assessment of the impact on the local environment.
The FoE report estimates that a third of the land sold or acquired in Africa is intended for fuel crops — some 5 million hectares.
While some of this land is sold outright — to private companies, state companies or investment funds — most is leased and some is obtained through contracting with the farmer to grow specific crops (known as “outgrowing”).
Downsides
A number of, often small, EU companies are involved, sometimes with support or involvement from their national government.
Many are keen to vaunt the social and environmental benefits of their business, offering employment and the promise of development to rural areas.
But FoE says there is also a growing awareness of the downsides of this agrofuel boom. As scientists and international institutions challenge the climate benefits of this alternative fuel source, local communities and in some cases national governments are waking up to the impact of land grabs on the environment and on local livelihoods.
In Tanzania, Madagascar and Ghana, there have already been protests following land grabs by foreign companies.
Companies have been accused of providing misleading information to local farmers, of obtaining land from fraudulent community landowners and of bypassing environmental protection laws.
Agrofuels are competing with food crops for farmland, and agrofuel development companies are competing with farmers for access to that land.
And this appears to be as much the case for jatropha, as for other crops, despite the claim that it grows on non-agricultural land.
The result however is that because of losing their access to traditional land, local communities face growing food insecurity and hunger — “their human right to food is threatened,” the report says.
Pressure on farmland has led to forests being cleared to make way for agrofuel plantations, destroying valuable natural resources and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. In Ethiopia, land inside an elephant sanctuary was cleared to make way for agrofuels.
Farmers have found that the much vaunted wonder crop jatropha, rather than bringing a guaranteed income, in fact takes valuable water resources and needs expensive pesticides.
In some cases, food crops have been cleared to plant jatropha, leaving farmers with no income and no source of food.
But the Guardian quoted Sun Biofuels, a UK company named by Friends of the Earth, as saying the reports findings were “emotional and anecdotal.”
Chief executive Richard Morgan said that biofuel production offered “an opportunity to get investment into local communities in an ethical way.”
The FoE report however disagrees, saying that this is an issue which is likely to become fiercely political over the coming decade.
“While (African) politicians promise that agrofuels will bring locally sourced energy supplies to their countries, the reality is that most of the foreign companies are developing agrofuels to sell on the international market,” the report concludes.
“Just as African economies have seen fossil fuels and other natural resources exploited for the benefit of other countries, there is a risk that agrofuels will be exported abroad with minimal benefit for local communities and national economies. Countries will be left with depleted soils, rivers that have been drained and forests that have been destroyed.”
Just a blink of the eye, over three months have gone by but aha I am still in Kenya. A lot happened and a lot are still ongoing. I have about a little over five weeks left in this mad country. I am counting on days -- I know it will be heartbroken to leave but then home is calling on the other continent. Plus, the fact that everyone else is going back to school on the other other continent and I am still lingering on here made my internal balance tip over a little bit for a little while...
Some “big-deal” events during the past two months:
1. Received the new president of Mount Holyoke College in Nairobi and later embarked on a mind-boggling trip with her across Kenya
It was such an unexpected but definitely fortunate opportunity to join Lynn and her wonderful team (check out her blog that keeps the detail of the trip) including Clarice her partner, the founder and director of African Center for Engineering Social Solutions (ACESS). I knew Lynn’s coming to Kenya and her project from the campus email she sent. I contacted her and she put me in touch with Clarice, from which I learned more about ACESS and was very much inspired.
After having spent a week-long trip with the whole team, for me it really represents a development model I personally had never experienced myself. It stood away from the usual political diplomacy of official development assistance from the west and approached it from a civic and institutional angle. And what is most mind-boggling is that all players are all in somewhat equal positions because each single one of them contributes and empowers and inspires each other. I still couldn’t believe I had actually the “technology transfer” taking place right in front of eyes – when the three engineering students from Hartford taught the workers at the local construction materials company, and when the workers tried out themselves and offered that they had ideas how to make the same thing with locally available materials! Lynn's blog did a way better job detailing the trip.
2. Funded the Rural Energy Enterprises Network program under the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change -(AYICC-REEN)
My work with the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change - Rural Energy Enterprises Network (AYICC-REEN) has also made me able to offer valuable insights into ACESS’s engagement with youth groups in Kenya. This poses a whole different track of my time spent in Kenya and it goes back to my abroad semester in Denmark (sorry that this has gone into some sort of chronological confusion but life story is actually always continueous, yet sometimes parallel or it comes back to you later when you can never imagine).
I “lingered” on after the Copenhagen Climate Summit and studied at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad in Copenhagen the following spring semester. From both the courses and my involvement with Energy Crossroads Denmark Chapter – a youth organization focusing on energy issues -- I had the chance to learn more about the highly developed and efficient Danish energy supply system and its advancement in wind energy, and create value and opportunities for the society and youth themselves amidst the seemingly conflicting nature of climate change and development. One of the projects I was involved was about the financing and promotion of improved cook-stove in developing countries (Nepal, Uganda and Cameroon were the three countries we had activities). I made the commitment before I left Copenhagen for Kenya that I would start a chapter there.
So the final product, with the help from other AYICC colleagues, was REEN. We defined it as a program under AYICC-Kenya whose mandate is to serve as a network of energy initiatives of AYICC’s various local youth groups and with external partners and resources, to enhance local efforts in fostering sustainable enterprises that take care of both people and the environment. Our main interests center on energy efficiency and appropriate energy technologies to address social and environment issues and create values, namely the promotion of energy-efficiently biomass-burning cook-stove, biogas digesters, small scale biofuels production, solar, and other simple but appropriate renewable energy solutions. Right now we are still in the process of visiting youth organizations all over Kenya and engaging external partners such as GTZ Kenya and ACESS to enhance the local groups’ work, as well as that of our partners’. We have been able to identify nearly 10 organizations and actually went to visit and interviewed three, all of which were absolutely mind-boggling and inspiring. Later on we plan to host workshops/conferences for people to come to share their expertise and organize some leadership training. And now UNEP is very interested in what I am doing, at least articles will appear in UNEP's website and one of the youth publication –TUNZA (means care in Kiswahili)!Yah! Now we have included water project because of our involvement with ACESS. As ACESS is also keen on harnessing the local youth talents, we hope to generate some synergy in terms of introducing ACESS’s line of products to REEN’s member groups to expand the network and influence. In the meanwhile, the innovative model ACESS presents I think in many ways could be very instrumental and enlightening to these very talented and energetic young entrepreneurs who have been constantly amazed us during our visits. This track of work in Kenya is very important for me as I absolutely value the experience with grassroots organizations in delivering more tangible results on the ground, more so than just sitting in UN’s cool and comfortable offices and never really sure how the work could be measured in real sense (as opposed to number of visits to UNEP’s website, for one thing). I have long been interested in international development in the context of climate adaptation and mitigation. I have never really expected to have the opportunity to actually initiate something of my own. Capacity building of the rest of the team is also crucial now given I will have to leave in over a month and they need to be ones to carry the project on. 3. "what is ahead in China?"
Right now, besides UNEP and REEN, I am also helping with the organization and preparation of China Youth delegation to Cancun, so hopefully I will make it to Mexico in December. I will finish my work here in Kenya in middle October and go back to China to help with COP16.
For me I feel committed to this group of inspired and talented young Chinese and I want to continue to contribute my energy and efforts, building on top of experience of being part of the delegation to Copenhagen last year. You can read more about the story at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/news/stories/5681849. AA also has an article on this http://issuu.com/mhcalumnae/docs/2010_spring1.1 (The picture was involuntary tho…)
For the new COP 16 team as a whole (a new one actually with several participants from last year), although it is almost a default that nothing major will happen this time, but I think the process of learning and awareness raising among the wider young Chinese and communicating our message and actions to the international community are more important and need to be sustained.
4. "MoHos are like Chinese people, they are everywhere!"
Meanwhile other MH student and alums bubbled up like pop-corns in Nairobi. We met one alum working for UNICEF here in the same compouand I work and another is the director of Forum for African Women Educationalists. Both have expressed interests of joining the alumnae mentorship program and the later even setting up some MH student intern program. Another Mount Holyoke class of 13, Ujwala, her dad actually sits in the office next to mine...The three of us were actually to meet during COP 15 but we never made it and no one had thought we'd join each other here in the monkey-ful compound. Oh and not to mention Hilda the true Kenyan who was working for ACESS for the whole summer in Nairobi. And her fellow class-of-2012 who showed up during the dinner at the resturant called Carnivore...And I am definitely missing several more MoHos from Kenya who I havent had chance to meet yet. 5. The stage belongs to the animals living in the lion kingdom
During the month of August I had two free safaris to Maasai Mara, the wildlife heaven in Kenya. Gratis is the benefit from laboring in the UN and going to colleges like Mount Holyoke. But hey, anyway, just snap shots for your appetitie:
Until recently, Yu Qingtai was Beijing’s top climate negotiator. In a speech earlier this month, Yu argued that the developing world must continue to resist unfair demands from rich countries. Here, chinadialogue publishes a summary of his remarks.
On August 6, Yu Qingtai – until recently China’s special representative for climate change negotiations – made a speech at Peking University’s School of International Studies, in which he discussed the history and future prospects of climate-change negotiations. According to Yu, China played a decisive role at December’s global-warming summit in Copenhagen. He also said that, as all are born equal, China cannot commit to doing more than its historical responsibilities require and, during negotiations, it must put its own national interests first. This is a summary of his speech.
At the United Nations climate-change conference in Bali in 2007, a series of resolutions – collectively known as the Bali Roadmap – launched a two year negotiation process. The crux of the negotiations throughout has been whether or not to maintain the principle of nations having “common but differentiated responsibilities”.
At the United Nations climate-change conference in Bali in 2007, a series of resolutions – collectively known as the Bali Roadmap – launched a two year negotiation process. The crux of the negotiations throughout has been whether or not to maintain the principle of nations having “common but differentiated responsibilities”.
During negotiations, developed nations have done all they can to water down, reinterpret or refute this principle. Those developed nations are the cause of climate change as they have been releasing greenhouse gases for a long time, and the law dictates that they have a duty to cut emissions first and to provide the funds and technology for developing nations’ own emission cuts. While developed countries have made some efforts in this regard, they have done nowhere near as much as they claim.
The global financial crisis sent the developed world into recession. The cost of energy-saving and emissions-reduction measures has increased; the business and economic sectors have become increasingly opposed to the process; and attempts have been made to offload the problem onto developing nations – requiring them to make commitments that far exceeded both their historical responsibilities and their actual capabilities. This would sacrifice the interests of developing countries in order to maintain and further advance the developed world’s lead. Developing nations meanwhile naturally resist what they see as selfish and unreasonable demands.
Prior to Copenhagen, some rich nations came to believe compromise from major developing nations would bring other countries into line – and so they turned their attention to China. They hoped to achieve a breakthrough with the biggest greenhouse-gas emitter among developing nations, and to put pressure on China and India to do more.
The Copenhagen talks, in essence, were a continuation of the struggle over “common but differentiated responsibilities”. Developing nations ultimately withstood huge pressure from their developed counterparts, defended their own right to develop and achieved a positive, albeit intermediate, outcome from the conference.
I believe that the Chinese government remained positive and calm in the face of enormous pressure. First, by announcing programmes and targets for the coming decade prior to the talks, the government continued to show the world that China is a responsible nation. Those plans were unconditional, as we do not believe that the future of mankind should be used as a bargaining chip – a position that contrasts sharply with the stance of developed nations.
Second, the Chinese government made no concessions on the country’s right to develop. The European Union said that China’s emissions targets were actually set at levels that would be reached anyway and were equivalent to doing nothing. They did not consider that their proposed 30% cuts have a long list of conditions attached, yet when we aim to cut carbon-intensity by 40% they say we are doing nothing. Premier Wen Jiabao made it clear that China’s targets had been carefully determined and were not open to negotiation, firmly rebuffing developed-nation demands.
Third, the Copenhagen talks did not collapse. China made an active, important and decisive input. Wen Jiabao engaged in three days of constant diplomacy, telling all sides that the Copenhagen talks had reached a crucial stage – that it was necessary to seek common ground but accept differences, to bridge divides and to form a consensus on which to found future cooperation. Towards the end of the conference, as Wen was about to leave for the airport, he decided to stay for a final attempt at an agreement. He urgently contacted the heads of state of Brazil, India and South Africa, some of whom had to turn back from the airport. Five nations [including the United States] gathered…and got down to discussing the core problems.
The talks focused on two issues. One was long term goals. As disagreement over atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations and 2050 emissions targets was too great, these were not covered in the agreement, which specified only a goal of limiting any temperature increase to two degrees Celsius [above pre-industrial levels].
Second was the issue of “measurable, reportable and verifiable” cuts. Developed nations wanted to expand verification to every aspect of developing nations’ economies, including development plans and carbon pathways. What right do they have, I ask? These are plans that we will implement based on our own capabilities – what qualifies them to verify them? Who has given them this right? In the end a compromise – “international consultations and analysis” – was reached. China will report the measures it takes to the international community, and the international community is welcome to discuss them.
Yu went a long way to iterate, quite articulately, China's stance admist the mad maze of climate politics. Very well composed I want to say. But I personally still don't understand China's refusal to MRV. It almost tells the world that we are not confident enough in our carbon reduction methods and measurement, whereas the government probably wants to save its face as all cost...But as one observer said, if the international community cannot know for sure how much reduction China has actually achived, then how does it live up to the 2 degree temperature control?
