As discussions at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku over how to finance climate action remain gridlocked, Southern Africans are learning that some “renewable energy” might not be renewable after all in an age of climate age.

This year, Zambia and Zimbabwe experienced a major drought that devastated both countries. It destroyed harvests and sent the Zambezi River’s water flows to an historic low.

For decades, the Kariba Dam on the River had provided the bulk of electricity consumed in Zambia and Zimbabwe. However, in September, Zambian officials signalled that, owing to desperately low water levels, only one out of six turbines on its side of the lake could continue to operate.

Entire cities have been deprived of electricity, sometimes for days on end. Sporadic access to power has become the norm since, in 2022, record low rainfall led to a glaring imbalance between the water intake level at Lake Kariba – the world’s biggest dam reservoir – and water consumption by Zimbabweans and Zambians. This has hit hard urban households, 75 percent of which normally have access to electricity.

Rural areas, too, are suffering from the dramatic reduction in precipitation. Zambia is experiencing its driest agricultural season in more than four decades. The worst-affected provinces usually produce half of the annual maize output and are home to more than three-quarters of Zambia’s livestock population, which is reeling from scorched pastures and water scarcity.

Crop failure and livestock losses are fuelling food inflation. UNICEF has reported that more than 50,000 Zambian children under the age of five are at risk........

© Al Jazeera