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{{African ministers in charge of meteorology on Friday adopted a plan to fast-track the continent’s move to the implementation of bold solutions in tackling the consequences of climate change.}}

The implementation plan for the Integrated African Strategy on Meteorology (Weather and Climate Services) maps out ways for programmes and initiatives which position management of climate-related disasters as a priority in sustainable development policies.

The strategy is a key operational document of AMCOMET, a body set up jointly by the African Union and the World Meteorological Organisation to serve as a framework for cooperation and guidance on climate issues across Africa.

The plan agreed on in Harare sets out broad objectives by outlining a number of flagship programmes to be rolled out in time.

A key feature of the proposals underlines the need to integrate weather and climate services into development policies at regional and national levels.

The document agrees on a damning fact: climate change is here to stay. The way to tackle its consequences is not to vainly try to prevent them but to adapt to them, which raises a number of questions: How to live with the prospects of tsunamis in the Indian Ocean?

How to survive droughts and floods? How can doctors make use of weather and climate data to mitigate outbreaks of certain diseases? How can the skies be made safer for air traffic?

Experts who worked on the plan say adequate adaptation requires the strengthening of weather and climate institutions — national meteorological authorities. That would enable them to deliver appropriate services for the use of various sectors such as the aviation, the marine, agriculture and health.

Speaking shortly after the plan was endorsed, the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation, Michel Jarraud, hailed the outcome of the deliberations.

“The adoption of the plan is an important achievement,” he said. “As early as the next meeting of AMCOMET, the first progress assessment will be in order.”

With this ambitious plan, Africa has made headways on an issue that has proved to be a bone of contention at the international stage. But the main challenge is getting the money to roll out the plan.

“33 out of the 54 African countries are classified as least-developed countries with limited financial resources and with competing needs,” the document says.

To make up for this obvious scarcity of funding sources, the implementation plan comes complete with a clear outline for how to find the money and to get the job done.

It proposes for efforts to be targeted at government funding through national budget allocations, regional and multi-level development financing mechanisms.

Another path to funding is what the plan calls “climate financing instruments”, a reference to special trusts that can come to be known under different denominations — Adaptation Fund, Climate Investment Funds, Global Environment Facility, Green Climate Fund.

At the start of the discussions, Saviour Kasukuwere, Zimbabwean Minister of Environment, Water and Climate who chaired the conference, stressed the need for domestic and innovative sources for both the sustainability of AMCOMET and the implementation of the Integrated African Strategy.

“Resource mobilisation should begin with internal or domestic sources. After all, there is a donor fatigue. We should discourage donor dependency as this usually attracts conditionalities, some of which are not related to the aspirations and objectives of AMCOMET,” Saviour Kasukuwere said.

Africa has been experiencing firsthand the consequences of disasters resulting from climate change. The Sahel region is plagued with recurrent droughts. Rising levels of the sea has been threatening the small islands in the Indian Ocean. Agricultural seasons are on a cycle of disruptions in East and Horn of Africa.

“Those who are still debating whether climate change is an issue or not, don’t experience it firsthand,” said Dominique Kontuic, who is in charge of climate disaster management for the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). “In Africa, we no longer debate over the issue, because the consequences of climate change are a reality for us.”

Experts from the African Union and the World Meteorological Organisation say a better understanding of weather and climate-phenomena through ground and air observation schemes offers a key to empowering populations to adapt.

For the sake of optimising the gathering of meteorological data, and of reducing dependency on current foreign providers of such data, the AMCOMET conference approved a draft African Space Programme that will be discussed at the third meeting of African Ministers in charge of meteorology.

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