Data - ‘key to the fight against climate change’

19 February 2016

 

The apparent reluctance by certain government departments to share data timeously continues to thwart efforts by African mega cities to combat greenhouse gas emissions and come up with effective strategies to fight climate change.

 

This was one of the observations made at a C40 Cities “Reporting and Adaptation” workshop at the Parktonian Hotel in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, this week.

C40 Cities is a global network of mega cities committed to fighting climate change and sharing best practice in climate data management. The organisation has a membership of 452 cities globally, 52 of which are in Africa. However, only three cities on the continent – Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town – are fully compliant with the stringent membership requirements of the organisation.

African cities represented at the workshop included Accra in Ghana, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Lagos in Nigeria and Windhoek in Namibia. The South American city of Buenos Aires in Argentina was also represented.

The City of Johannesburg was represented by officials from Johannesburg City Parks & Zoo, Pikitup and Metrobus. The challenge regarding data collection was raised by Michael Bankole of the Lagos Ministry of Environment, a sentiment shared by most of the delegates.

“There is a need for national governments to commit to sharing data with cities willingly,” he said.

The main objective of the workshop was to provide training on the planning, acquisition, reporting and management of climate data. The workshop also sought to introduce Climate Risk and Adaptation Framework and Taxonomy (CRAFT) as a tool to assess progress in adaptation planning, identify areas for improvement and advocate for resources to support their adaptation efforts.

Johannesburg is the first city on the continent to adopt this methodology, which is supported by the World Bank. But more than anything else, the workshop sought to create an opportunity for networking and knowledge exchange with other C40 cities. In typical workshop style, delegates were given practical exercises on planning and data acquisition.

There were also discussions on data quality overview and understanding the reporting process, as well as what could go wrong and how each city collected data.