Africa Adaptation Project – Lesotho AAP Lesotho focuses on:- Climate Change and Energy

1. Africa Adaptation Project – Lesotho AAP Lesotho focuses on:- Climate Change and Energy Climate Change and Health The objective was to develop strategies/policies for dealing with CC in each of these sectors. For this presentation let us focus on the Energy Sector

2. The Energy Sector Strategy for developing renewable energy policy AAP Lesotho was originally expected to develop a renewable energy policy, more or less as a stand alone activity. We recruited consultants and they presented a report – the report was rejected by the Department of Energy. We have now taken an alternative approach – this involves a more “informed” evidence-based approach to policy development

3. Strategy for Developing a Renewable Energy Policy Creating the data and the capacity to use it Wind and solar measuring devices installed collect data to assess of the potential for wind and solar power for Lesotho’s rural electrification program Train staff to analyse the data Currently developing GIS based, wind and solar atlases to identify areas of greatest potential for the application of wind or solar electricity generation.

4. The Energy Sector Creating the Strategy and Policy The policy has not yet been developed – there has not been time. This may not be a good outcome?? However, in one sense, it has been the right “approach”. By getting the information/data on the energy potential sorted first the policy will eventually be informed by the data and will be much more effective and sustainable

5. Bringing it all together – the data and the policies . While the project is mainly targeted at the Energy Sector and the Health Sector, it also got involved with the development of the Climate Change Chapter of the National Strategic Development Plan. This introduce AAP Lesotho to the economic dimensions of Climate Change. Lesotho participated in the IRTSC sponsored training workshop on the economic impact of CC on the agriculture sector. Subsequently, AAP Lesotho follow-up on this with a national workshop on Economics of Adaptation and the impact of CC on poverty.

6. Bringing it all together – the data and the policies It introduced a High Performance Computer capable of modelling aspects Lesotho’s climate and trained the staff to run these models AAP Lesotho is currently using the systems developed for modelling both the climate and the economy to analyse the economic impact CC on the agriculture sector and on poverty in Lesotho – the data developed will feed into NSDP’s model of the entire economy and inform the national planning process.

7. Creating the Links Between Climate, the Forecasters, and the Early Warning Systems. Connecting the Technology to the People High performance computer Disaster mapping Early warning messaging

8. Ministry of Agriculture Ministry of Forestry Ministry of Health Other Line Ministries Wireless connection sharing information between Ministries Disaster Management Authority Improved Forecasting Capacity Training on Climate Modeling Lesotho Meteorological Services Sending Warnings to Disaster Management Teams High Performance Computer generating complex climate models Local Data is generated and shared with relevant Ministries, to document what is happening at the village and district levels

9. / Lessons Learned Evidence based decisions depend on access to data Data is often not shared Lesotho has the people capable of doing the work – but they need the mandate to work with other stakeholders/organizations We need high level leadership to drive the Climate agenda in order to overcome these petty organizational problems

10. / Thank You