Togo joined the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) in 2014 and has been an integral partner since then, not only in tackling domestic sources of short-lived climate pollutants but also helping to coordinate and heighten the ambition of regional actions on climate and clean air across West Africa Contact online >>
Togo joined the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) in 2014 and has been an integral partner since then, not only in tackling domestic sources of short-lived climate pollutants but also helping to coordinate and heighten the ambition of regional actions on climate and clean air across West Africa.
Togo is home to almost 8 million people and all of them are exposed to the increasing vulnerabilities of living in a climate changed world. In addition to the impact on ecosystems, crop yields, and extreme weather events, a significant portion of the country''s population is consistently exposed to levels of indoor and outdoor air pollution that exceed Worth Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. In 2013 alone it was estimated that this exposure was responsible for over 3,448 premature deaths, primarily from the energy, transport, waste, and agriculture sectors.
Government leaders noted that the country was experiencing exponential growth of cars and motorcycles. According to a study on sustainable low-emission transport, the numbers went from 371,346 in 2005 to 1,011,925 in 2016, an annual growth rate of 6 percent for cars and 13 percent for motorcycles. This problem has been made worse by the fact that these vehicles are often old and imported from abroad and therefore use low-quality, high-polluting fuels. Since 2014, Togo has been working to address these problems through a variety of policy changes and legislation.
Togo''s most ambitious effort, however, is the National Plan for the Reduction of Air Pollution and Short-Lived Climate Pollutants which was adopted by the Minister of Environment, Sustainable Development, and Natural Protection in 2020. This policy will implement priority measures and actions which will significantly reduce SLCPs which will reap the multiple benefits of improving air quality, fighting climate change, and realizing co-benefits like improved health and agricultural productivity. Fully implementing it will result in a 67 percent reduction in black carbon, a 70 percent reduction in fine particulate matter, and a 56 percent methane reduction by 2040.
Ministry of the Environment and Forest Resources, BP 4825Lome,Togo
The University of Lomé and the Stockholm Environment Institute have supported Togo’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to adopt a more ambitious climate change target. In this perspective, Chris Malley explains that the key was identifying the additional benefits that climate actions would achieve.
This piece was originally published by The Conversation.
Like many African cities, Lomé, the capital of Togo, has a pollution problem.
Its ambient (outdoor) air pollution levels exceed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for human health protection. Air pollution is the world''s largest environmental health risk. In Togo, a country of 8 million people, it contributes to 6,700 premature deaths per year.
Air pollutant emissions and emissions that contribute to climate change come largely from the same sources. They include fuel combustion in households, transport, industry, and burning of agricultural and municipal waste. Some pollutants, like black carbon and methane, contribute to both climate warming and air pollution.
To do so, the government of Togo has developed a climate change plan, called its Nationally Determined Contribution, which describes its climate change commitment. It has also developed a National Action Plan to Reduce Air Pollutants, which outlines actions to reduce air pollution.
To inform the development of these plans, we evaluated the impact that implementing ten mitigation measures in Togo would have on reducing air pollutants and climate pollutants simultaneously.
Togo is not the only West African country using climate change plans as public health improvement strategies. Before the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in 2021, Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d''Ivoire submitted climate change plans.
If fully implemented, these plans could reduce thousands of premature deaths every year by improving air quality.
If all countries followed climate change plans like these, the global health benefit would be substantial. Over one million premature deaths could be avoided annually by 2050 because of air quality improvements.
We quantified the emissions for Togo and Grand Lomé from all major source sectors for the years between 2010 and 2018. Togo emitted an estimated 21 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018, predominantly from the energy, agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors. These emissions are projected to increase 42% to 30 million tonnes in 2030 if nothing is done. Without intervention air pollution is also expected to worsen, with emissions estimated to increase by between 16% and 60% across different air pollutants.
We found a large overlap in the major emission sources of gases and particles contributing to both climate change and degraded air quality in Togo. The overlap provides a substantial opportunity to design integrated strategies that simultaneously improve air quality and mitigate climate change.
Our assessment modelled how implementing ten mitigation measures in these overlapping sources would affect emissions.
We showed that fully implementing Togo''s two plans would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% in 2030 compared to a baseline scenario, and lead to a reduction of between 25% and 78% in emissions of various health-damaging air pollutants.
Our paper provides a clear pathway for Togo to reduce its already small contribution to climate change while simultaneously achieving local benefits for air quality and human health.
The 10 mitigation measures we assessed, which are now included in Togo''s air pollution and climate change plans, included the following:
Reducing the rate of deforestation was the mitigation action that would make the largest difference to Togo''s contribution to climate change. Switching to cleaner fuels for cooking in Togo would achieve the largest reduction in air pollutant emissions.
These measures are closely linked. Currently, wood and charcoal are the fuels most commonly used for cooking in Togo. They contribute to poor air quality and to deforestation. Therefore, switching to cleaner fuels, or more efficient biomass stoves, is not only the most effective action to reduce air pollution in Togo, but also simultaneously helps achieve the largest climate change benefit through reduced deforestation.
This first assessment provides the basis for future routine updates of integrated air pollution and climate change mitigation. It can be used to monitor how Togo''s plans and strategies are being put into practice. And it can be adjusted as the situation changes.
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In Togo, the West African Development Bank (BOAD) is supporting two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) specializing in waste management. The two organizations, African Science and Technology for Sustainable Development (STADD) and Clean Natural Ecosystem (ENPRO), are receiving a grant of 47 million CFA francs (about 78,000 euros).
This funding is provided by the BOAD within the framework of the Support Program for Sustainable Waste Management in the municipalities of the city of Lomé in Togo. Serges Ekué, President of BOAD, said that the support provided by the sub-regional financial institution to the two NGOs will contribute to the protection of the urban environment through the strengthening of waste collection and sorting systems (solid, liquid, biomedical, etc.) and recycling.
The amounts allocated to STADD and ENPRO will be necessary to strengthen the organizational, technical and material capacities of waste collectors. Also, the two NGOs will be able to improve the conditions of collection, sorting and treatment, as well as the systems related to waste recycling.
The program to support sustainable waste management in the communes of Lomé is part of the BOAD’s 2021-2025 Strategic Plan (Plan Djoliba), which aims to support sustainable development through job creation and access to food and energy resources in West Africa.
In 2008, the municipality of Lomé, which is home to a quarter of Togo’s population (1.8 million inhabitants in 2020), launched the Lomé Urban Environment Project (PEUL I and II) with the support of the French Development Agency (AFD) to group all the waste produced in the municipality into a single circuit. This circuit includes pre-collection or direct collection at the household level, collection from consolidation centers, transportation and landfill.
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