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Prepared By John Omondi.
Make it a natural psychological crime to undertake air pollution around your vicinity.
The African Union Commission (AUC), in collaboration with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), is hosting its first virtual event this year, on 20 April 2023
TIME: 08:00 am – 10:00 am and 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm UTC.
Webinar LINK: Will be issued in due course.
The webinar, themed ‘Air Quality Monitoring in Africa’, will highlight how the space community is tackling an increased need for global air quality and composition data to advance decision-making processes dedicated to improving the environment on the continent.
Venue
This is an online convention, co-organized by the African Union Commission and EUMETSAT. It is open to all.
Objective
To demonstrate how the space community is responding to the ever-increasing demand for global reliable data on air quality and composition. Such data guides decision-makers to draft policies aimed at protecting human health.
Key Participants
The African Union Commission (AUC), in collaboration with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), will be hosting its first virtual event this year.
The Theme of the Webinar Summit
The webinar is themed ‘Air Quality Monitoring in Africa’.
The Focus of the Theme
The theme will highlight on how the space community is tackling an increased need for global air quality and composition data to advance decision-making processes dedicated to improving the environment on the continent.
Furthermore, the webinar aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and skills between European and African partners on various ways EUMETSAT and Copernicus air quality monitoring products foster the development of the Africa Clean Air Programme and the environment.
The aim of this virtual seminar is to stimulate an exchange of expertise between Africans and European collaborators to see how EUMETSAT and Copernicus air quality monitoring systems can contribute to the goals laid out in the Africa Clean Air Programme.
John Omondi
Topics to Be Discussed
The virtual seminar will also discuss topics such as:
- The scope of the African Clean Air Programme, and the gaps identified in terms of air quality monitoring.
- The data and products provided by EUMETSAT and the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service and the benefits of these products for Africa, through the feedback from local users.
- Available ways to access data and related training materials and how to foster this Africa-Europe cooperation in this area in the coming years.
Input From the Previous Report
A recent report by the African Union Commission on Climate and Clean Air and the UN Environmental Programme proposes a series of recommendations and points out measures to reduce emissions causing air pollution and climate change
The action would set the continent on a cleaner development pathway toward attaining the goals of the African Union Agenda 2063 dubbed “The Africa We Want”.
The report recommendations highlight the establishment of a continental Africa Clean Air Program, which would, among other things, “help collect and share data, utilize existing data and information sources, and increase capacity and equipment for new data collection and management, with monitoring and evaluation, emissions and air quality modeling, and education and communication”
EUMETSAT provides observations from the Meteosat and Metop satellites. The company’s technical team has been in operation since the end of the 1990s. The products provided by Meteosat and Metop can support the air quality monitoring capacities in developing countries, where reliable on-site observatories are scarce, and the citizens are highly vulnerable to poor air quality and climate change.
The atmospheric composition data provided by EUMETSAT’s satellites support air quality monitoring. In addition, the satellites observe phenomena affecting health and security, such as desert dust storms and forest wildfires. The availing of data is set to proceed for the next two decades thanks to next-generation missions such as Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) and the EUMETSAT Polar System Second Generation (EPS-SG), as well as the Copernicus instruments Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 carried on them, which are dedicated to air quality in Europe and globally.
Two Big Challenges: Data and Capacity
The existing challenges facing African countries are the lack of data on the emissions causing air pollution and climate change and inadequate capacity for enforcing and enabling compliance with air pollution management policies, regulations, and standards. Countries need data to plan policies that can reduce air pollution and implement national development priorities and climate resilience policies.
This existing gap informs the ongoing African Integrated Assessment on Air Pollution and Climate Change which aims to fill these gaps and increase local knowledge and institutional capacity so that governments can integrate and implement air pollution and climate change policies in the national development agenda in an integrated manner.
The assessment is part of the overall goal to build communities of practice within the African community of scientists, policymakers, and practitioners to amplify the role and potential of emission mitigation strategies to support sustainable development in the continent.
‘The African Union Commission will support the implementation of the results of the African Integrated Assessment on Air Pollution and Climate Change and linkages to Agenda 2063 and development of the Air Quality Framework for Africa,’’ said Harsen Nyambe, Head, Environment, Climate Change, Water and Land Management at the AUC.
Let’s purpose to attend. It is flexible.
