German govt grants €10mn to South African countries to fight climate change

The South African countries are set to set a gigantic amount of 10 million euro grant (which stands USD 11.1 million) from the government of Germany to assist in combating the effect of climate change.

The Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) will implement and manage the grant which covers Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, which have been hit hard by the effects of climate change from drought, floods and cyclones.

A statement released by SASSCAL on May 19 in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek revealed that the grant came from Germany in response to the challenges of global change. “SASSCAL has secured funding of 10 million euros from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for research in climate change. This will be implemented under SASSCAL’s second phase of the Research and Capacity Development Portfolio, SASSCAL II. SASSCAL II will build on the successes of SASSCAL,” the statement reads, as reported by CTGN Africa.

SASSCAL also included that under its first phase, a total of 23.8 million euros was availed in 2012 to support 88 research projects. Focused on five themes: climate, water, forestry agriculture, and biodiversity, the research projects were designed to integrate research and capacity development, according to SASSCAL.

Over 500 individuals and more than 80 academic, governmental and non-governmental institutions are involved in the research tasks of SASSCAL in various nations till date.

Also Read: Imminent fertilizer plant worth Rwf33bn in Rwanda’s Bugesera to save import cost