Sustainable mountain development in East Africa in a changing climate

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hydropower schemes are also seen as a viable option for providing electricity to remote rural areas, such as mountainous areas where access to the electricity grid is difficult (Quirke, 2012; UNEP, 2014). A key constraint hindering the development of the energy sector is limited finance. In addition to the economic costs of constructing dams, there is the social and environmental cost to consider. The construction of new dams means the forced relocation of communities and changes to the natural water flow which can place stress on downstream communities and countries as well as ecosystems and biodiversity (UNEP, 2014). It is crucial that new constructions take into account environmental and social sustainability and that the costs and benefits are shared equally (Niang et al., 2014). Hydropower is a vulnerable sector to climate change due to its reliance on precipitation and water flow. Reductions in rainfall, increased evaporation and droughts have already had significant impacts on hydropower generation in East Africa. During the previous La Niña years of 1991-1992 and 2009, droughts results in a drop in annual hydropower generation to less than 2,500 million kWh, down from an average of over 3,000 million kWh (UNEP, 2014). Similar reductions in hydropower generation occurred in 2011 due to drought (Wahome, 2011). Prolonged droughts in 2004-2005 in Rwanda, coupled with the drainage of the Rugezi marshland, reduced electricity generation from the Ntaruka and the Mukunwa hydropower plants from 23 MW down to 5 MW (MoNR, 2012). Similarly, when Lake Victoria’s water level dropped by over a metre in 2006 as a result of dry conditions, the Ugandan hydropower station at Owen Falls Dam was not able to operate at full capacity (NEMA, 2010a). Floods and landslides can also cause significant damage to hydropower plants. The construction of the Tekeze Dam in Ethiopia, for

Contribution to Climate Change

Emissions from volcanoes CO 2 fluxes from pesisstently degassing volcanoes Tonnes per year

190 130

2 420

ERITREA

SUDAN

Erta Ale

DJIBOUTI

SOUTH SUDAN

GHG Emissions

2012

ETHIOPIA

Tonnes of CO₂ equivalent Including

SOMALIA

Land-Use Change and Forestry

Nyiragongo

150 000

UGANDA

KENYA

BURUNDI

Excluding Land-Use Change and Forestry

Oldoinyo Lengai

RWANDA

Traditional use of biomass for cooking in Africa Percentage of population relying on traditional use of biomass 2012

100 000

DRC

50 000

(Djibouti) 14%

95% 80 60

TANZANIA

ZAMBIA

MOZAMBIQUE

MALAWI

Sources: IEA,2014, “WorldEnergyOutlook” ;WorldResources Institute,2014, “CAIT -CountryGreenhouseGasEmissionsData”;M.R.Burton,G.M.SawyerandD.Granieri,2013, “DeepCarbon Emissions fromVolcanoes”,Reviews inMineralogy&Geochemistry,Vol.75,pp.323-354,MineralogicalSocietyofAmerica.

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