Africa: Scientists Converge for Inaugural Africa Green Chemistry Congress
By Eric Sande
An inaugural congress focused on a concept known as “green chemistry” with major potential to promote sustainable development for Africa is underway in Addis Ababa. The three day congress which started on Monday 15th November was organized by the Pan Africa Chemistry Network.
Scientists across the continent, among them leading African chemical scientists are currently panel beating to seek developing innovative solutions to the continent’s development challenges.
The concept of Green Science and Technology is still at its early stages in most African countries. Vastly abundant in natural resources and richness Africa offers valuable opportunities to pursue novel routes to sustainable processes and products. It has placed responsibility and sustainability at the top of the scientific agenda, placing a premium on reducing the input of materials and energy and minimizing waste and harmful outputs that could have a negative environmental impact.
Focusing on the search for such routes, and expanding on their benefits, is an exciting challenge that can render African countries extremely competitive at international levels. Sustainable chemistry will contribute to the spreading of knowledge in such a frontier area of chemistry.
Ahead of the conference, David Phillips - President of the Royal Society of Chemistry said, “The potential future applications of green chemistry are astonishingly varied. The science may be cutting edge and practiced by the brightest of our scientific thinkers, but it will affect all of us, not least in Africa.”
The scientists currently at the Addis Ababa congress anticipate that the concept of green chemistry will have a dramatic impact on the continent’s development by helping solve many of its challenges. Among these include enabling a green revolution in agriculture that massively increases crop yields, and ultimately the prosperity of the 70 per cent of Africans who depend on agriculture to support themselves and their families.
Mitigation on the impact of climate change on communities by, among others, improving security of water supply, facilitating the development of new vaccines and medicines that reduce mortality from preventable and treatable diseases, tackling the problem of finite non-renewable energy resources by encouraging the development of renewables such as solar energy and biofuels, among others are issues in discussion.
The first Pan Africa Chemistry Network (PACN) was founded in 2007 by a partnership of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Syngenta. Leading African scientists who are collaborating with colleagues from across the world to tackle issues such as the substitution of renewable raw materials for scarce natural resources and designing products that require less energy to produce are taking charge of the initiative.