-
US, African gov’ts to partner for just energy transition, ecosystem conservation
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The US government will partner with African governments to advance a just transition to a clean energy economy that both saves the planet and fosters inclusive economic opportunity, the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken has said. The US top diplomat made the commitment during the Conservation, Climate Adaptation, and…
-
New single-dose oral treatment raises hope for elimination of sleeping sickness in Africa
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin A new single dose oral medicine, the acoziborole has raised hopes for elimination of the sleeping sickness on the African continent. A new study by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and Sanofi indicate that there is a success rates of up to 95% from a Phase II/III study investigating…
-
PACJA, Ban Ki –moon Centre sign pact to support climate change adaptation in Africa
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance and the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens (BKMC) have signed a collaborative pact to support climate change adaptation efforts by women, the youth and the smallholder farmers around Africa. Mithika Mwenda, the executive Director PACJA said the pact commits the two parties to focus…
-
Northern Uganda farmers get simplified food standards manual.
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The Uganda National Bureau of Standards has simplified food standards into easy-to-use guidelines and translated them to local languages in Alur and Acholi to ease uptake and implementation of standards by Micro Small and Medium Enterprises. With support from Advance Afrika under the Action for Livelihood Enhancement in Northern Uganda (ALENU)…
-
COPs flop due to deliberate delay and obstruction
By Reverend Fletcher Harper Since early 2020, the world’s richest countries have shown that they have the money and capacity to act when they decide to, spending $14 trillion on COVID stimulus packages and $80 billion to counter Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. , These recent, massive commitments are jarring when juxtaposed with the lethally…
-
COP27 falls short of practical solutions – Slow Foods
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The Slow Foods, a worldwide network of local communities to counteract the disappearance of local food traditions has warned that the COP27 that was meant to be the “Implementation COP”, has fallen short of the expectations and that, existing pledges and national plans remain insufficient to reach the Paris agreement 1.5-degree…
-
Faith based activists protest fossil fuel financing at COP27
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin A group of religious activists from five continents have rebuked the developed nations for stalling negotiations at COP27 over nonproliferation of fossil fuels. During a demonstration at COP27 the activists called out the Coal, Oil, and Gas corporations for the ills they have brought to their communities, and called for a Fossil Fuel…
-
COP27: Leaders Boost Sustainable Forest Management
The world leaders have launched the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP), which aims to unite action by governments, businesses and community leaders. The global leaders says the launch makes an important progress on sustainable forest management and conservation. A document from the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh with the launch says…
-
World Meteorological Organisation urges countries to double clean energy by 2030
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The World Meteorological Organisation has asked governments and multinationals engaging in energy sector to ensure that supply of electricity from clean energy sources must double within the next eight years to limit global temperature increase. “Otherwise, there is a risk that climate change, more extreme weather and water stress will undermine…
-
Slow Food asks COP27 to turn away from false solutions regarding food systems
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin Slow Food, a worldwide network of local communities to counteract the disappearance of local food traditions and the spread of fast food culture has raised the alarm about the serious lack of progress toward tackling the impact of food and agriculture on climate and building a resilient food system. A Slow…
-
Global experts call for more financing for Nature-Based Solutions
Ezaruku Draku Franklin Global conservation experts have called for tripling of finances for nature based solutions by the year 2030, highlighting the crucial role of nature-based solutions called for vastly increased funding for such approaches. Nature-based solutions are actions to protect natural ecosystems that benefit people whilst contributing to tackling climate change and protecting biodiversity.…
-
COP27: World Actors set to Share COP implementation Progress
Ezaruku Draku Franklin A number of global leaders and actors are set to update the world on the progress of implementation of previous climate change resolutions during the ongoing COP27 at Sharm el-Sheikh city in Egypt. Among the key speakers include the COP26 president Nigel Topping, COP27 President Sameh Shoukry, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, Executive Director…
-
Cop27: Africa needs justice in climate financing
Samuel Obedgiu The United Nations Climate Change Conference 2022 or COP27 is underway in Egypt. For the first time, presence of African countries larger than ever before. President Museveni won’t be in attendance personally, but he sent a delegation headed by First Deputy Prime Minister, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, and the Water, Environment and Energy ministers.…
-
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres launches Early Warnings for All Action Plan
Ezaruku Draku Franklin The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres today launched a plan at COP27 designed to reach everyone on earth with early warning system against increasingly extreme and dangerous weather. Mr Guterres announced the plan at a meeting of government and UN organization leaders, financing agencies, Big Tech companies and the private sector…
-
COP27: World must make concrete action plans to combat climate change, UN Secretary General
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres has warned that concrete and time bound actions must be put in place to mitigate the impacts of climate change. While opening the COP27 at the Egyptian City of Sharm El-Sheikh, Guterres said the clock is ticking and that actions must be taken now…
-
COP27: Devastating natural disasters, need to fully implement the Paris Agreement shape opening discussions
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The highly anticipated United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 opened yesterday in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh with the key aim of ensuring full implementation of the Paris Agreement. The COP27 comes at a time when the end of a year that has seen devastating floods and unprecedented heat waves, severe…
-
Growing Food Insecurity – An African Existential Threat Government Must Plan for.
Samuel Obedgiu The food and agricultural organization (FAO) estimates that since the global population will be 9 billion by the year 2050, we need 70% more food production by 2050 than we have now. Most of the global population by 2050 will certainly be in Africa. But when one analyses our current strategic planning objectives,…
-
Uganda’s wildlife court sentences ivory dealer to life imprisonment
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The Standards, Utilities and Wildlife Court sitting in Kampala has convicted and sentenced a Ugandan ivory dealer to life imprisonment. Pascal Ochiba, a resident of Namuwongo zone in Kampala City was sentenced on Thursday October 20,2022 for unlawful possession of protected species. Court documents indicate that Ochiba was arrested on January…
-
How the Strong Dollar Increases Starvation in Africa.
Samuel Obedigiu At the height of the demise of the now defunct Bretton-woods monetary system, former U.S President Richard Nixon’s treasury secretary John Connally said, “The dollar is our currency but it’s your problem.” The current strengthening of the dollar has indeed made this statement relevant again, manifesting itself through increased food prices. In just…
-
Parliament will support you, Tayebwa tells Kiira Motors
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa has pledged Parliament’s support to the Kiira Motors Corporation in its effort to produce carbon free cars in Uganda. The corporation is currently constructing plants at Jinja Industrial Park to produce hybrid cars for both domestic and international markets. The plant that sits on…
-
NEMA orders developer out of Bugolobi wetland
Part of Nakivubo Wetlands that was being backfilled by a developer in Bugolobi, Kampala
-
US Treasury Department Sanctions notorious Malaysian Wildlife Traffickers
An African Elephant Grazing inside Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. Teo Boon Ching has been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department fr illegal trafficking of wildlife species and products from Africa
-
ADB boss asks CSOs to take play key role in Africa’s climate change resilience,
APO The President of the African Development Bank Group) Dr Akinwumi Adesina says civil society organizations are essential partners in the Bank’s effort to build the continent’s resilience to climate change. Addressing the opening plenary of the 2022 Civil Society Forum on Thursday in the Ivorian economic capital, Abidjan, Adesina highlighted the African Development Fund’s…
-
Forest Stewardship Council Certifies three National Parks in Uganda
Part of Mountain Rwenzori National Park that received FSC certification. Photo/ Ezaruku Draku Franklin
-
Weather experts warn of dry spells
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin Weather experts from a number of bodies have advised farmers to use the current rains to plant short maturing crops that will sustain them during the next three months, warning that the next three months will likely be dry. While the months of October to December are normally wet in most…
-
Let’s ride on this “EACOP noise” to call for adjustment in EACOP agreements
By Samuel Obedgiu I don’t want to sound like a broken record by reiterating the fact that the European MEPs passed a resolution condemning the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) for human rights abuses. This won’t be the first action taken against oil sector agreements. Before the word EACOP even made it to our…
-
Zoonotic diseases: why it is a bad idea to eat bush meat.
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin At Lawns Lounge in Kololo, an upscale city restaurant, a billboard advertising game meat delicacy stands huge, emitting neon lights. Every lunch hour and dinner time, high end vehicles stream in, neatly parked with elegantly dressed men and women seated, munching the delicacy accompanied by glasses of finely refined wines, whiskeys,…
-
Ndejje SSS student wins inaugural national essay competition
Winners of the national essay competition after the awards
-
UNOC CEO Proscovia Nabbanja, EACOP nominated for African Energy Awards
Proscovia Nabbanja, the CEO of Uganda National Oil Company Nominated for the CEO of the year award by Africa Energy Chambers
-
US gov’t set to admit 125,000 refugees in 2023
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The United States government will in the next financial year 2023 admit a total of 125,000 refugees as it steps up its humanitarian efforts to save the suffering global population. A statement from the US state department says the country is, and will continue to be, a global leader in international…
-
Selfish World Trade Organization geo-politics failing Africans ability to feed themselves
Samuel Obedgiu, an Agricultural Biotehnologist addresses the question of unfair WTO trade policies
-
Rotary International President set to Launch Shs2.95 billion Ambulances Project in Uganda
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The new Rotary International President, Dr. Jennifer Jones is scheduled to launch a Shillings 2.95 billion maternal village ambulance project, on her visit to Uganda slated for September this year. Dr Jones, the first female President Rotary International took office in July replacing Shekhar Mehta. Mehta visited the country in September…
-
NEMA starts restoration of Lubigi wetland system
NEMA enforcement officials clearing sugar cane planted in Lubiji wetlands. The exercise saw three people arrested
-
108 years of darkness, what next for West Nile region?
The Nyagak power dam that has become a point of contention in the West Nile Region
-
UBA launches the Inaugural National Essay Competition.
Students with officials from UBA and education ministry during the launch of National Essay Competition.
-
Ray of hope as Mount Elgon National Park frontier communities embrace conservation
Bosco Kasaali, community monitor from Sironko district explaining Eco based system adaptation towards sustainable livelihoods
-
CDC Director lauds US, Uganda health partnership
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Rochelle Walensky, has lauded the partnership between the US government and Uganda in health and other medical fields, noting that it has benefitted the people of Uganda. Dr Walnesky who has been on official visit Uganda from July…
-
Parliament tasks to gov’t speed up rescue operations
Floods that ravaged Mbale town last week
-
Ugandan Crypto foundation launches fundraising drive for Karamoja food donations
Poster of feed Karamoja Campaign. The region is in food crisis with more than 900 people confirmed dead due to hunger related illnesses
-
EACOP must stop!
Michael Northrop Adapted from Environmental Finance How is it possible that a project like the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) could be under serious consideration in 2022, asks Michael Northrop Spitting distance from the headwaters of the Nile River and Lake Albert, inside two of Uganda’s most important national parks, 400 oil wells will soon…
-
Restore Africa Programme sets targets to plant1.9 million hectares of trees.
Officials of Restore Africa Programme adrdessing a press conference in Kampala
-
-
Dr Ruparelia donates ambulance, money to support health facilities
Dr Sudhir Ruparelia addressing Rotarians during the installation of Kigoye Yusuf as President of Rotary Club of Nsangi
-
EACOP Project: Climate activists take the war over pipeline construction to financiers, insurers
The EACOP Route from Tilenga in Uganda to Tanga in Tanzania
-
Inside the Shs628 Billion environment budget, will it save the tattered environment?
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin Environmentalist are back again to the “crying board” after government allocated a paltry Shs65.84 billion to the key institutions charged with the responsibilities of protecting the environment and tame climate change that is threatening livelihoods of millions of Ugandans. While reading the budget last week, the minister of finance, planning…
-
Uganda’s forest cover, wildlife numbers up – Nema
Mountain Rwenzori National Park. Because of efforts to conserve forest cover, tree cover, wildlife numbers have increased in Uganda in the last last decade. Photo By Ezaruku Draku Franklin
-
Uganda’s National Environment Management Authority suspends SINO iron ore mining company over pollution
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has suspended the operations of SINO iron ore mining company in Kabale district over dumping of iron ore waste into a wetland and discharging effluent into River Kiruruma. The suspension follows an inspection of the facility on Tuesday May 17, 2022, spearheaded by the NEMA…
-
African cities embrace clean air targets
In Kampala, one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities, a rapid rise in population is prompting growing concerns over the climate crisis and air pollution. Research shows that urbanization is one of the main drivers of environmental change, and cities, in particular, are hotspots for air pollution. A recent report released by AirQo, a Makerere University project…
-
African civil societies demand urgent action on climate loss, damage, finance
Ezaruku Draku Franklin A number of African Civil Society Organisations under Pan African Climate Justice have expressed their deep concerns at the slow pace of addressing the loss, damage and Climate Financing, demanding that urgent intervention and frank negotiations, given the evidence already provided. A recent report by the IPCC, stated that Africa is more…
-
COVID-19, climate change threaten last refuge of the mountain gorilla
UNEP The Greater Virunga landscape, a mountainous area straddling the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, is the last refuge of mountain gorillas in the world. For years, the national parks and protected areas in the region have provided sanctuary to the great apes, which are among the most endangered creatures on Earth. But…
-
UN Environment body recommends regulation of sand mining
Sand mining in Lwera Wetlands in Uganda. UN Environment body says such mining activities should be regulated because of the negative environmental consequences
-
A new taxation systems gives hope to Africa, sets ground to collect taxes on online sales
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin What you need to know Companies in the extractives and regulated financial services sectors are excluded. Currently, it is estimated that US$100 billion to US$240 billion (Shs355 – 850 trillion) — 4% to 10% of global corporate income taxes in revenue is lost each year because MNEs take advantage of gaps…
-
Ugandan women embrace climate-smart energy saving stoves
Nyai Women making eco-friendly stovs to save forests. Photo/Taibot Markot
-
Uganda to record increased investor appetite for oil and gas exploration and production
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin A new quarterly report by the African Energy Chamber’s (AEC) Q1 2022 Outlook indicates that cumulative capital expenditure from Africa has seen an increase of $23 billion. The quarterly outlook says new projects and Greenfield investments in emerging oil and gas producing countries such as Uganda will increase capital spending in…
-
Oil and gas sector CSOs register increasing attacks by security forces
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The sharp increase of foreign investment in the Ugandan extractive sector has given rise to numerous human rights and environmental abuses, a policy brief by civil society organisations states. The CSOs say their outcry at these violations has in turn exposed the members to recurrent retaliatory measures by state authorities. The…
-
UN climate change negotiating bloc ejects Russia over Ukraine invasion
By Climate Change News As the international community seeks to cut off Russia from the global economy, there are moves to isolate Moscow diplomatically in the climate space. The Umbrella Group, a negotiating bloc of non-EU developed countries including Australia, Canada, Japan, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Ukraine and the US, announced that Russia and…
-
Earth Hour 2022: Environmentalists pile pressure on plastic manufacturers over single use plastics
Environmental activists holding placards, calling for rethink on plastics
-
Retired Civil Servant finds gold in water hyacinth
Engineer Justus Sande at his factory where he turns water hyacinth into animal feeds
-
UK-Uganda Green Growth Conference opens new investment opportunities in green economy
The British High Commissioner to Uganda Kate Airey during the opening of the UK-Uganda Green Growth Conference in Kampala.
-
COP27: African Civil Society Organisations demand space for African solutions
Members of Civil Society Organisations during the AU meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
-
Living in harmony with nature: Frontier park communities embrace agriculture to earn incomes
A bee hive near Queen Elizabeth National Park
-
123 pre university students start internship at Equity Bank
Beneficiaries of the Equity Leaders Programme during the launch at Julian High School in Gayaza.
-
NEMA suspends Nytil operations over water pollution.
By Ezaruku Draku Franklin The National Environment Management Authority of Uganda (NEMA) has suspended all activities at Nyanza Textile Industries Limited (NYTIL) that generate waste water. The suspension follows an inspection of the facility in Jinja, after public outcry on social media over alleged contamination of River Nile by the facility. A statement from the…
-
Operation Thunder 2021 strikes wildlife and timber trafficking networks
CITES A worldwide enforcement operation against wildlife and timber crime coordinated by the World Customs Organization (WCO) and INTERPOL has disrupted crime networks and seen hundreds of arrests worldwide. Codenamed Thunder 2021, the month-long (1-31 October) operation involved Customs, Police, financial intelligence units and wildlife and forestry enforcement agencies in 118 countries, the largest number…
-
Access to clean energy: solar power lights up Kasese, Rubirizi district
39 KW solar panels installed at Kasenyi Landing Side in Kasese District
Africa Planet Watch 