ACSA envisions that traditional biomass energy use has serious environmental drawbacks. The indoor air pollution from unvented biofuel cooking stoves is a major contributor to respiratory illnesses in highland areas of sub- Saharan Africa. Reliance on biomass (especially in the form of charcoal) also encourages land degradation. In some areas, for example around major cities like Lusaka, Zambia Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, charcoal demand appears to contribute to degradation of the surrounding woodlands and forests.
We acknowledge the fact that, Renewable energy technologies (RETs) provide attractive environmentally sound technology options for Africa’s electricity industry. RETs could offset a significant proportion of foreign exchange that is used for importing oil for electricity generation in most countries. In addition, renewables are modular and are well suited for meeting decentralized rural energy demand.
In terms of energy used per system, small-scale traditional bio-energy systems appear marginal, but their importance lies in the very large number of end-users that these systems serve. Bio-fuelled cookstoves meet the bulk of cooking, heating, and lighting needs of most rural households in Uganda.
Charcoal is an important household fuel and to a lesser extent, industrial fuel. It is mainly used in the urban areas where its ease of storage, high-energy content, and lower levels of smoke emissions, make it more attractive than wood fuel.
We are concerned that traditional charcoal production, a major source of employment for the rural poor, relies on the traditional and rudimentary earth kiln which is considered to be a contributor to land degradation in many peri urban regions of sub Saharan Africa. Efforts to improve and modernise small-scale biomass energy constitute an important component of national energy strategies in many sub-Saharan African countries and could potentially yield major benefits to both the urban and rural poor.
Another small-scale biomass energy technology that has attracted considerable attention over the last three decades is biogas. Conceptually, biogas technology appears deceptively simple and straightforward. The raw material is animal dung, which is plentiful in many rural areas of sub Saharan Africa: the technology appears not to be overly complicated; and it requires a relatively limited level of investment. The technical viability of biogas technology has been repeatedly proven in many field tests and pilot projects, but numerous problems arose as soon as mass dissemination was attempted.
ACSA believes that water is a source of life and affects almost every area of human coexistence. It is precisely because of its indispensability that good water management and access to water are of tremendous value. This significance of water is mirrored in international politics: Access to clean water has meanwhile been listed among the so-called “third generation of human rights” and is moreover pursued as one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Failure to address this question of water supply triggers repercussions that go far beyond ensuring the availability of drinking water and that may pose threats to the areas of health, economy, and social justice. Blessed with abundant precipitation and natural water reservoirs, the East African country Uganda seems unaffected by these challenges. Nonetheless, a closer look reveals inclusive challenges in access to clean water and to sanitation facilities.
ACSA has embarked on oil, gas, and other mineral resources, as some of the opportunities available to transform the country to middle-income status by 2030.it is important to understand that the Albertine Graben is the most prolific area for petroleum exploration in Uganda. Uganda first discovered commercial quantities of hydrocarbons in the Albertine Graben in 2006. Government is considering a basin wide development concept for oil production but when not used in a transparent and accountable manner, natural resources such as oil and gas have the potential to aggravate existing inequalities and exacerbate vulnerabilities among the host communities in form of loss of livelihoods, conflicts, displacements, and loss of biodiversity.
ACSA main objective in this program is to influence extractives policies so that they work for citizens and promote national and regional development.
ACSA seeks to contribute efforts to realize a transparent, inclusive, and prosperous and development that is people-driven especially by the poor and vulnerable as envisioned by Uganda’s National Development Plan III, Vision 2040, the Africa Mining Vision, African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
ACSA Seeks to work for access to information, public participation, access to justice, gender equality and environmental conservation in addition to undertaking research and advocacy to realize the objective of this programme.
Climate change can be seen and felt everywhere, but ACSA’s effects are greater in some parts of the world than others. In addition, some groups of people are more vulnerable to, for example, drought or flooding, than others. They have often contributed least to climate change and have fewer resources to arm themselves against its consequences. National and international climate policy should therefore focuses on mitigating further climate change and on helping especially the poorest and most vulnerable groups to adapt to the consequences.
The threat of climate change is another classic collective problem as it affects both the developed and developing countries. The sources of the problem are widespread and are ingrained in everyday practices of production and consumption. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began in 1991 and was concluded at the Rio Summit in 1992. The Kyoto Protocol negotiations proposed a set of legally binding targets to reduce GHG emissions. The Protocol also set up an emission trading scheme and created a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Africa contributes only about 3% of global GHG emissions, and as such, can derive great benefits from such mechanisms.
Climate variability and change has emerged as a major challenge to development efforts, with a high risk that it could undermine past and complicate ongoing development efforts, increase social problems, and threaten environmental sustainability. The interaction of development interventions with the physical and ecological environment may result in such unintended consequences as loss or degradation of natural and cultural resources and assets and biodiversity; unsustainable production and consumption energy; and increased vulnerability to climate change and climate variability. Therefore, ACSA requires an assessment of vulnerability to climate change as part of the environmental and social assessment process for its public and private sector operations; any adaptive and mitigating measures that result from that assessment shall include in the operation with measures that result from the larger environmental and social assessment itself.
ACSA’s Main objective on climate change is to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts as it is envisioned that planetary warming continued in 2016, setting a record of about 1.1 degrees centigrade above the pre-industrial period. The extent of global sea ice fell to 4.14 million square kilometers in 2016, the second lowest on record. ACSA does understand that Mitigating climate change and its impacts requires building on the momentum achieved by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. In addition, stronger efforts are needed to build resilience and limit climate-related hazards and natural disasters.
The Natural Resource Governance Programme at ACSA Provides effectiveness and equity of governance processes critically determine both the extent to which ecosystems contribute to human wellbeing and the long-term prospects for successful conservation of nature. Securing rights and sharing power and responsibilities through strengthened natural resource governance benefits both people and biodiversity. This governance at ACSA is necessary because we value and conserve nature and thus contributes to the achievement of the global sustainable development goals.
ACSA undertakes to implement the natural Resource Governance Framework that seeks to provide a robust, inclusive, and credible approach to assessing and strengthening natural resource governance, at multiple levels and in diverse contexts. The overarching goal for Natural resource Governance is to: set standards and guidance for decision-makers at all levels to make better and more just decisions on the use of natural resources and the distribution of nature’s benefits, following good governance principles, such that improved governance will enhance the contributions of ecosystems and biodiversity to equity and sustainability.
Hoima City cherishes Sustainable and inclusive industrialization which provides opportunities for developing synergies, such as decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, while at the same time creating employment and fostering clean energy innovation. The City shall benefit from the role of industries in local economic development through job creation and income generation.
The Objectives of this programme shall offer critical solutions towards limiting the carbon intensity of growth, considering the impacts of its activities as an energy consumer (and in some cases energy producer). The city will promote efficiency and clean energy technologies and solutions, preserve of green cover, and implement sustainable initiatives. Hoima shall be a sustainable city to serve the best interests of industry as it benefits from the efficient and peaceful functioning of its host Communities.
ACSA Understands Biodiversity as a global public good, which involves environmental services of global Importance, such as carbon sequestration in forests, the potential use of biodiversity, from which humanity derives key inputs to its agricultural, medicinal, and industrial enterprise, and the resilience and stability of ecosystems. Biological diversity is crucial for evolution and for maintaining life-sustaining systems of the biosphere.
ACSA recognizes that project activities, equipment, and infrastructure can increase community exposure to risks and impacts. In addition, communities that are already Subjected to impacts from climate change may also experience an acceleration or intensification of impacts due to project activities. We therefore intend going forward to addresses the health, safety, and security risks and impacts on project-affected communities and the corresponding responsibility of the different players in order to avoid or minimize such risks and impacts, with particular attention to people who, because of their particular circumstances, may be vulnerable
ACSA Conserving a prestine eco-system.
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