The UN Environment Program (UNEP) has just released “The Environmental Food Crisis” report, launched at the 17th session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development held in New York from May 4-15, discussing food security based on better management of natural resources.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said that one element to obtaining food security, although not mentioned in the report, is the “enormous opportunity to diversify livelihoods and incomes via the emerging carbon markets – this includes sectors such as renewable energy, but also the growing prospect of farmers earning an income by conserving forests, soil, and vegetation cover to sequester carbon."
Clean energy projects – such as wind, off-river hydro, and solar power – are on the rise in Africa from with an estimated 100 projects in over 20 countries up and running or in the pipeline.
Steiner pointed to Kenya, where several hundred megawatts of geothermal electricity are now being installed in the Rift Valley as representing development, poverty-reduction, and alternative employment prospects for people.
"Kenya has plans to generate 1,300 MW of geothermal electricity by around 2020. But this is only scratching the surface. Kenya is also a windy country – in Turkana, in the north of the country, a private consortium is developing an initial 300 MW of wind energy, following the Government’s introduction of new legislation – equal to around 25% of Kenya’s current installed energy capacity," he said.
"By some rough estimates, the country might have enough windy sites to produce over 30 GW of wind energy for domestic consumption and export – again alternative livelihoods, new and innovative sectors and employment prospects," Steiner added.
The UNEP and the Global Environment Facility ( GEF ) announced the launch of the Carbon Benefits Project in Kenya’s Lake Victoria area, and is already being implemented in communities in Niger, Nigeria, and China, where scientists are developing a system for measuring, monitoring, and managing carbon in a diverse range of landscapes.
This may open up the prospect for farmers and agro-foresters to be paid for not only producing crops, but "farming" carbon back into vegetation and soils. “Farming carbon alongside farming crops is just one of the tantalizing prospects emerging as a result of the world’s urgent need to combat climate change,” said Steiner. “Some industrialized countries are considering investing tens of billions of dollars in capturing carbon off the smoke stacks of power stations and burying underground."