Digital Press Briefing on U.S. Environmental Efforts on the African Continent

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MODERATOR:  Good afternoon to everyone from the U.S. Department of State’s Africa Regional Media Hub.  I welcome our participants logging in from across the continent and thank all of you for joining this discussion on the topic of U.S. environmental efforts on the African continent.  Today, we are very pleased to be joined by the U.S. Department of State’s Acting Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, J.R. Littlejohn, who is visiting Ghana and traveling on to the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi.  Acting Assistant Secretary Littlejohn will discuss how the United States is working with partners across the continent to address key environmental issues like air quality, deforestation, nature crimes, plastic pollution, and promoting a sustainable blue economy.  She will also discuss the United States’ work to build partnerships on science and space exploration with countries in Africa, as well as U.S. efforts to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

We will begin today’s briefing with opening remarks from Acting Assistant Secretary Littlejohn and then we will take your questions.  We will try to get to as many of them as we can during the briefing.

As a reminder, today’s call is on the record.  And with that, I will turn it over to Acting Assistant Secretary Littlejohn for her opening remarks.

ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY LITTLEJOHN:  Thank you so much, and good morning, everyone.

I’m actually thrilled to connect with you from Accra, Ghana, and to share the tremendous progress we’re making together on environmental and scientific cooperation across Africa.

I’d say the main message I want to share with you today is that the United States is partnering with Ghana and countries across Africa to address the major challenges of our time – this includes addressing the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, and the pollution crisis.  We are working together to protect the ocean and the environment – for the benefit of all people all over the world.

Now, let me start I think best with a few observations from my time here in Ghana.

Yesterday, I visited a major harbor and spoke with community members about efforts to protect the fisheries industry that supports their livelihoods and provides a vital source of food.  Unfortunately, like in many places around the world, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is threatening the sustainability of fisheries there – and I’d say we’re proud to be working with Ghana on efforts to combat IUU fishing, as well as the crimes often associated with it.

Today, I will meet with partners in the Ghanaian Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation and the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development.  I will also speak to students at the University of Ghana, where we have supported important work that monitors air quality.

Ghana is a great example of environmental ambition, and I’d like to take a moment to talk about several of the environmental projects we are working on here in Ghana.

Ghana’s commitment to forest conservation is translating into tangible outcomes, with initiatives like the LEAF Coalition and Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, a coalition of 32 governments working to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030.  Under LEAF, the Emissions Reduction Payment Agreement will make up 50 – or up to 50 million available for Ghana’s efforts to protect forests and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Ghana also has shown strong leadership as co-chair with the United States of the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership, a global coalition working to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 while delivering sustainable development and inclusive rural transformation.  The United States was a key partner on the “Resilient Ghana” country package announced at COP28 to help support Ghana’s forest and climate goals.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is supporting access to clean energy in Ghana through initiatives like supporting smallholder farmers to install solar-powered irrigation.  In addition, USAID provided technical assistance to the Bui Power hydro-solar plant.  The plant, the first of its kind in West Africa, will put Ghana on track to cut its power sector greenhouse gas emissions by 235,000 tons per year.

These are groundbreaking moves.

Since 2018, we have worked with Ghana to address the health risks created by mercury use in artisanal small-scale gold mining.  Similar projects are in motion in Mali, the DRC, Guinea, Senegal, and Burkina Faso – a collaborative effort that’s evolving and adapting.

Journalists like you play a key role in exposing crimes like illegal logging and wildlife trade.  Last year, we inaugurated a program to train journalists in Ghana on how to report on nature crimes, and I am grateful to the 21 Ghanaian journalists who graduated from this program last December – oops, nope: September, if I’m corrected.  Right?

I mentioned earlier my visit later today to the University of Ghana.  Since 2018, we’ve worked with experts at the university on projects related to air quality.  And just last month, they teamed up with colleagues at Columbia University to train 100 scientists, engineers, and policy makers from across West Africa on best practices for air quality management.  This is what it looks like to empower experts across a region to tackle air pollution.

And of course, other countries across Africa are taking similar steps to protect nature and the health and livelihoods of all the people who depend on it.  I’m looking forward to discussions on a breadth of environmental topics of importance to the African continent in Nairobi, where I am headed next to lead the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Environmental Assembly.  Air quality will be a key focus for the United States at UNEA.  At that meeting, we will advocate for increased regional cooperation on air pollution.  Because, as we all know, air pollution doesn’t stop at international borders, so supporting collaboration across national borders is key to solving this problem.

Now, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, or IUU fishing for short, is another challenge we’re actively working on with partners across the continent.  This is a critical issue in Africa, and the United States recognizes regions in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean coasts of Africa as priority regions in the fight against IUU fishing activity.  In too many places, large foreign fishing fleets and some local bad actors are bringing in catches well above sustainable limits and are endangering the health of essential fish stocks and the livelihoods of those who rely on those stocks.  Through cooperative enforcement, information sharing, and working to implement the global Port State Measures Agreement, we have powerful tools to keep IUU-caught fish out of ports and markets, but more work, again, remains to be done.

In partnership with our Department of Defense colleagues, last year 18 nations participated in the Obangame Express exercise to combat IUU fishing.  USAID is providing $17.8 million over five years to reduce fishing overcapacity and improve fisheries management in West Africa.  Now, it does so by working in small fishing villages and fish landing sites along the coasts.

More broadly, we are also working with African countries through the new Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation that launched last fall.  The partnership is a platform for Atlantic coastal states to address common challenges and promote healthy, sustainable, and resilient Atlantic resources for generations to come.  It currently has 38 Atlantic member states.  Sixteen of those members are African countries, including Ghana.

Next, I think I’d like to talk a little bit, if you’ll allow, about space.  Nigeria, Rwanda, Angola are all among the 35 countries around the world that have signed on to the Artemis Accords, committing to make the space environment safer and more predictable.  As African countries develop their space policy and capabilities, we also strongly encourage them to consider joining the Outer Space Treaty – the basis for international space law and for the Artemis Accords.

Space exploration isn’t just for a select group of players; from our perspective, it’s for everyone willing to play fair.  And every country in the world, whether or not they have a space program, can reap benefits from space exploration and activity.  We already collaborate with African nations on multiple space-related issues like earth observation, helping to provide data to support decision making on forest conservation and water management.

Now, back on Earth, we must make sure that all people – men and women, Indigenous people, and other marginalized communities – have a voice in our discussions and solutions.  These are the ones who have often felt the brunt of climate change and environmental degradation.  This means that the need to make sure that women have the same opportunities as their brothers to work in STEM fields – that is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  In the United States and around the world, barriers have made this difficult.  The only way to address the challenges of our time is through scientific discovery and innovation.  We want the best and the brightest working on these solutions, and that includes – it must include – women.

OES is helping to build connections through our Embassy Science Fellows program to bring government scientists to serve at our overseas embassies.  Just in the past eight years, the State Department has built partnerships for 18 government scientists to work across West Africa, including two in Ghana.  As one example of this program, the State Department brought a U.S. expert on biotechnology to Accra to connect with Ghanaian companies on mentorship for young women on research in agricultural sciences.

Now, as you can see, we have made a lot of progress by working collaboratively.  We are already making a difference, but we have, as I said earlier, so much work to do.  The United States will continue to be a steadfast partner to countries across Africa on environmental and scientific issues.  And of course, as President Biden said at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, “the United States is all in on Africa and all in with Africa.”

I want to thank you, and I’m eagerly awaiting your questions.

MODERATOR:  Thank you, Acting Assistant Secretary Littlejohn.  We will now begin the question-and-answer portion of today’s briefing.  Our first question, since you raised IUU fishing:  “What is the – what is driving the growth of illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing, and what are the consequences for biodiversity and for people?  What can we do about this problem?”  

ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY LITTLEJOHN:  Thank you.  That’s a really, really good question.  I think the way I’d answer that is by stating something that we all know, and that’s that global demand for seafood, as it continues to grow, there are more and bigger fishing vessels than ever before working to feed this market.  And as a result of that, we now see increased pressure on the fish stocks from fleets that fish around the world both on the high seas and in areas under national jurisdiction.  And of course, we know that the lucrative but competitive global fisheries market also spurs vessels to try to avoid the operational costs associated with sustainable fisheries management by engaging again in IUU fishing.  

So fisheries subsidies can lead in many instances to overcapacity, overfishing, and artificially reduced prices.  And subsidies, I would say, and forced labor practices, perhaps, reduce the cost of fishing, making it cheaper for boats to be out on the water through support for operational or capital costs.  That’s how I would kind of frame the initial part of what’s driving this.

Now, in terms of the consequences, I think we’ve all seen them and experienced them in some level.  Maybe I’d say that the 2019 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity Ecosystem Services – it’s a mouthful, but it’s important – this report on global biodiversity concluded that fishing has had the greatest impact on marine biodiversity in the past 50 years, which is exacerbated by IUU fishing.  So IUU fishing can result in overfishing, which damages ocean biodiversity, and additionally, the use of prohibited gear can result in bycatch of non-target species, causing yet even greater harm to biodiversity.

So IUU fishing may also degrade, I would say, marine ecosystems such as corals and sea mounds with negative consequences for the marine species that depend on these habitats.  So we can see from that a range of challenges that emerge.  

And in terms of – I think you – if I heard the question correctly, you asked in addition to the consequences.  I would also flag one other thing, or two, perhaps – because, again, I mentioned that the consequences are quite vast.  IUU fishing costs the world about tens of billions of dollars each year, and according to a recent report that I have reviewed from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, IUU fishing may in fact represent up to 26 million tons of fish caught annually.  And in the United States alone, that could translate into seafood imports worth as much as two and a half billion a year, or – if we translated that – nearly 11 percent of the U.S. market derived from IUU fishing, according to a U.S. International Trade Commission report.  

Now, as both a major harvester and a top market for fishing products, the United States has, I would say, long emphasized working with other countries to improve fisheries governance and enforcement to prevent IUU-sourced fish and fish products from entering our markets, and I know that that is the same for markets around the globe.  

So that gets at, I think, the consequences.  If we talk about consequences, then I suspect that it’s really important that we also talk about some of the tools that are associated with that.  At least I’d like to flag a few that we’re noticing that we are using to combat this around the world.

So speaking from the U.S. perspective, the United States is a leader in promoting sustainable fisheries internationally through effective, science-based fisheries management and cooperative tools to combat IUU fishing, including strong monitoring, control, and surveillance measures.  

Now, the United States promotes the implementation of the Port State Measures Agreement, a groundbreaking treaty designed to ensure catches from IUU fishing vessels cannot be offloaded in ports and then, of course, enter the global market.  

Now, one other thing we did is we also helped launch, through the FAO, the Global Record of Fishing Vessels – it’s Refrigerated Transport Vessels and Supply Vessels.  This innovative, publicly accessible record of the world’s fishing vessels increases transparency in international fisheries and enhances the ability of countries and markets to verify fishing’s identity.  

I suppose for that I’ll stop and I – and there may be additional questions, but I did want to give you a sense of the breadth and depth of the tools that we have at our disposal, the consequences of not acting, and, of course, a little bit about what it is.  

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Our next question is from Ms. Sarah Mawerere of the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, in Uganda.  Her question is:  “Kaveera – or polythene bags – control has become a nightmare in Uganda.  What is your take on this?”

ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY LITTLEJOHN:  So plastic pollution is just a scourge on society, period.  And we applaud Uganda for its work to combat plastic pollution, and I believe it’s been since 2009, if I recall correctly, and we also recognize that it takes time to create the momentum among a range of stakeholders from really private sector, civil society, and subnational governments for successful implementation of those actions.  

So we would want to work with Uganda and other countries to end plastic pollution, which will require action throughout the lifecycle of plastic, from upstream to downstream.  And of course, this is why we’re advocating for a new global agreement on plastic pollution that would encourage and support local and national efforts like Uganda’s to reduce plastic bags entering into the environment.  

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Our next question comes from Mr. Emmanuel Igunza of the Associated Press/Freelance, in Kenya.  He asks:  “How can the U.S. lead global commitments for climate financing for the least polluters, but who are really bearing brunt of the climate crisis?”

ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY LITTLEJOHN:  Okay.  So this is what I think is an excellent question.  I’ll start there.  And I would say on this, Kenya is one of the United States’ strongest partners in Africa, and we appreciate that Kenya has joined on to the multilateral climate initiatives like, I would say, the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate – AIM4C – and the global pathways to net zero.  

We know that Kenya is already experiencing, like others, firsthand the impact of climate change and is dealing with significant food security challenges brought on by severe drought, in the larger, I’d say, Horn of Africa region – across the region.  And so from the U.S. perspective, we have committed $2 billion in humanitarian assistance to respond to the drought in the Horn of Africa.  This would include about $356 million, if I have my numbers correct, specifically for Kenya in the past year.  We also allocated $45 million, including $20 million in supplemental funding, and this was funding development assistance to help Kenya address the current food security crisis in I believe it was Fiscal Year 2022.  I’d have to double-check, but I believe that’s correct. 

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  We’re going to take a question from the Q&A next, also from Sarah Mawerere of the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, in Uganda.  She asks:  “Ugandans are breathing badly due to air pollution, which causes respiratory diseases.  How would you advise Uganda as a country?” 

ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY LITTLEJOHN:  First I’d say that that is a very accurate and a very timely question.  Air pollution more broadly is the fourth leading cause of premature death worldwide, and it’s responsible for nearly 7 million premature deaths, about $5 trillion in economic welfare losses, and $200 billion in productivity losses each year.  

And I’d also add that transboundary air pollution cannot be addressed without international cooperation and policy coordination.  We are looking for – at least on the U.S. side, we’re looking for opportunities to get countries talking to each other about air pollution.  And frankly, every time I have a conversation with colleagues, they share our view on this.  It is a critical issue, and one of the critical issues of our time.  

And one of the things that we’ve done about this is the United States has proposed an air quality resolution for UNEA-6 and submitted the zero draft on I believe it was December 18th.  And our goal is to elevate the need to address air pollution due to the risks to human health and the environment and leverage the expertise in existing regional bodies that take a regional cooperation approach to addressing air pollution.

So that’s what I would say on that, and I hope that’s helpful.  

MODERATOR:  Thanks for that.  We have time for one last question.  The last question goes to Mr. Pedro Alonso of the Spanish News Agency EFE, in Kenya.  He asks:  “What will the U.S. advocate for in the United Nations Environment Assembly 6?”

ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY LITTLEJOHN:  Well, again, a wonderful question because it allows me to emphasize what I think is a key point.  Just as I had mentioned in the last comment, air quality is going to be one of the primary objectives.  Again, we know air pollution is the leading environmental risk to human health, as I mentioned, and that is why we’re introducing a resolution on air quality.  This resolution, again, aims to leverage expertise in existing regional cooperation bodies for addressing air pollution, and build on UNEA resolutions 1/7 and 3/8.  And the goal is to re-energize the intention of these prior resolutions and to provide a platform to operationalize and drive multi-stakeholder actions that target the causes of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.  

So those – that’s one of the key overarching objectives.  And frankly, another area that we will focus on will be nature crimes.  And we’ll be launching something called the Nature Crime Alliance at UNEA, which I think will be something that we hope that you all will follow quite closely going forward.  

I’m told my time is wrapping up, and so I will stop there. 

MODERATOR:  Great, thank you.  Acting Assistant Secretary J.R. Littlejohn, do you have any final words before we close?  

ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY LITTLEJOHN:  I just want to thank everyone for joining this call.  These are critical issues.  And I mentioned sort of the triple threat of the crises of biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate change, and it is so important that these stories are told – that the narratives get out there with accuracy, based on the science.  And we need you to help do that.  And so I thank you very much for joining this call.  I thank you for asking really, really sharp questions, and I look forward to hearing or reading your stories.  

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  That concludes today’s briefing.  I want to thank the U.S. Department of State’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, J.R. Littlejohn, for joining us today.  Thank you to all the journalists for participating.  A recording and transcript of today’s briefing will be distributed to participating journalists as soon as we can produce them.  If you have any questions about today’s briefing, you may contact the Africa Regional Media Hub at AFMediaHub@state.gov.  I would also like to invite everyone to follow us on Twitter at our handle @AfricaMediaHub.  Thank you.

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