Ssascal Deals With Climate Change

2 Feb 2024

Climate change is greatly affecting developing countries, but it also brings out efforts to deal with it. A regional institution with its head office in Namibia has over the past decade worked hard to initiate research projects in this regard. 

The Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) was established in 2012. It is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), in order to respond to the challenges of global change as well as to create scientific results and socio-economic benefits for the whole southern African region in the long run.

SASSCAL not only collects rainfall data and provides forecasts on its website, but has implemented nine projects to the tune of N$60 million in Namibia.

The programme coordinator, Panduleni Hamukwaya informed the media at the end of Janaury 2024, that most of the projects were implemented at community level to help communities deal with the impact of climate change. 

"Most of the projects are looking at food security and water challenges that are facing Namibia and issues of forestry," he emphasised.

 

 Dr Jane Olwoch, the CEO of SSASCAL.
Photo: SASSCAL

 

The Executive Director of SASSCAL, Dr Jane Olwoch, emphasised the important role science and research plays in dealing with climate change.

"Research is the basis for any country's development; without it, there is no innovation or participation in international dialogues. We have increased research funding to N$23 million in 2018, N$10 million for climate change research and N$40 million for the recent green hydrogen atlas and others." she said.

The first Green Hydrogen Atlas of Southern Africa provides evidence-based information on different resources for the production of green hydrogen, and can be viewed on the SSASCAL website.

This information includes water resources, land availability, renewable energy resources, the levelised cost of hydrogen production and other key indicators like social, policy, export and transport, and political and energy regulatory frameworks.

“We do not want to compete with research institutions and universities but rather strengthen the regional capacity in the three scientific areas of research management, capacity building and service provision,” she added.

SASSCAL has six member countries - Angola, Botswana, Germany, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia.

The regional secretariat is hosted by Namibia and SASSCAL has national nodes (branches) in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia.

Brigitte Weidlich

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