On this page, Future Climate – Engineering Solutions members publish articles regarding climate change, linked to our vision and work.
Universal renewable energy possible in Uganda by 2050
Uganda could attain universal renewable energy coverage by 2050 because the country is endowed with immense potential energy sources such as wind, biomass and the sun, says the energy report for Uganda.
According to the report, more than 90 per cent of Ugandans rely on unclean biomass energy sources such as firewood and inefficient technologies including three-stone firewood stoves.
The report was published by the Uganda office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and was released during the climate change conference held in Paris, France on 30 November-12 December 2015. Researchers analysed studies in Sub-Saharan Africa and Ugandan government publications on energy, and used a software for energy policy analysis to estimate the country’s energy scenario for 2050, with2010 as a baseline year.
The findings show that by adopting renewable energy, Uganda can gain immense benefits such as enhanced quality of life, minimizing pollution-related health problems, improving household income by cutting wasteful energy expenditures and aiding children’s education with access to clean light for studying.
Ibrahim Mutebi, WWF renewable energy manager, said that researchers obtained some of the data through consultative meetings with energy and environmental experts in Uganda. The report calls for Uganda to modernize the use of biomass energy, expand its clean grid-based electricity, encourage development of off-grid electricity infrastructure and build an energy-efficient transport sector.
The report indicates the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of renewable energy. “By reducing the use of unsustainable wood and moving towards a more efficient system relying on higher value fuels, the renewable energy scenario in Uganda could save up to US$12.4 billion in 2050,” the report explains.
It sets out a roadmap that would enable the country achieve universal renewable energy use by 2050.
Isaiah Owiunji, energy and climate program coordinator of WWF Uganda, attributes the challenge of transitioning from unclean and inefficient technology to clean and efficient renewable energy to low investment in energy-efficient technologies. Modernising the biomass energy sector by investing in energy-efficient technologies could reduce Uganda’s annual biomass harvest from 44 to 26 million tonnes, translating into reduced deforestation.
Uganda’s energy policy aspires to diversify clean energy sources through strategies such as adopting energy regulatory measures that facilitate investment in rural energy projects, exploring schemes to enable consumers buy relevant appliances, intensifying consumer awareness of energy conservation and partnering with financial institutions to establish sustainable energy financing.
published September 2016
Overview of National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) in Uganda
“The NAPA provide a quick process for LDCs to identify priority activities that respond to their urgent and immediate needs to adapt to climate change – those for which further delay would increase vulnerability and/or costs at a later stage”. Read more.
published July 2016
Background Adaptation to Climate Change in Uganda
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges affecting the world today. As the world’s climate changes and continues to change at rates unprecedented in recent human history, it is true that the impacts and risks related with these changes are existent.
Also in Uganda these changes are already influencing many systems essential for human livelihood, including water resources, food security and health. This causes a great challenge for sustainability of life, ecosystems, livelihoods and indeed the development of the economy in Uganda. Accordingly there is need to adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change as well as to facilitate the development of techniques that can assist increase resilience to the climate change impacts.
Uganda is one of the countries that are greatly vulnerable to climate change impacts, in respect of climate variability including increasing temperatures, increased frequency and intensity of rainfall, heat waves, droughts, floods and storms. The regions and ecosystems across the country, like the mountain regions, the lowlands and the cattle corridor, differ in their vulnerability and adaptive capacity. In general the sectors most vulnerable to climate change impacts are agriculture, water supply, health, transport, housing and personal safety and security.
The economy and the well being of the people of Uganda are tightly bound to climate, especially because over 80% of the population is rural and depending on rain fed agriculture, that is prone to impacts of climate variability. The climate change and variability in the coming century will inflate the frequency and intensity of extreme weathers events and has the potential to halt or reverse the country’s development trajectory. In particular this will reveal in increased food insecurity, shift in the spread of diseases like malaria, soil erosion and land degradation followed by landslides, flood damage to infrastructure as well as settlement and in lower productivity of agriculture and natural resources. The events of the past years clearly illustrated the magnitude of the problem. In Uganda the frequency of droughts has increased. An increase in intensities and frequency of heavy rains, floods and landslides as well as outbreaks of associated waterborne diseases with the floods were also observed. It will be the poor and vulnerable who will feel the increase of these impacts the hardest.
In line with the need of the country to address these impacts and the international commitments of Uganda the government addresses the problem and developed adaptation activities and programmes. The more active Uganda will be, the less it will cost and the better equipped Uganda will be to cope with future changes. Successful forward planning – not just responding to emergency situations – will ensure life and development sustainability. Hence adaptation needs to be integrated into good development practice so that development and adaption actions become mutually reinforcing.
published July 2016
Uganda: The global Climate Agreement
Gerald Sekiti writes about his country’s “national pledge made through its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) towards the UN global climate talks which were held in Paris in December 2015 and its reaction towards the global climate agreement (the Paris Agreement) set for April 2016”. Read more about this interesting article here.
published April 2016
Uganda’s Energy Consumption
Uganda is one of the lowest energy consumers in the world with biomass as the most important source of energy to the majority of the population. “Uganda has a long way to go if it has to key into the ‘sustainable Energy for all’ Initiative of the United Nations (SE4ALL) and to also achieve the millennium development goals (MDG) by 2030”. Uganda’s Energy consumption is a very elaborate article with deeply researched information that you wouldn’t want to miss reading. Get the full article as developed by Gerald Sekiti here.
published March 2016