Israel Launches Mobile Climate Lab in Kenya to Improve Africa’s Data Collection for Environmental Policy

Israel’s Ambassador to Kenya has announced an initiative to deploy a mobile climate laboratory to grow data collection in the African nation, an effort to provide real-time information so policymakers can pursue solutions as temperatures continue to rise across the continent.

“There is a huge gap in climate data and climate knowledge in Africa, and the work of this laboratory helps us close this gap,” Gideon Behar said on Saturday while visiting the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) site in Kapiti, the current home of the mobile lab. He said that the plan would allow political leaders “to make better policy decisions based on real and accurate science.”

Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science has spearheaded and operated the project. In December, the institute described the project’s importance, explaining that “Africa’s landscapes are transforming faster than almost anywhere else on earth, yet the continent remains one of the world’s largest blind spots in climate observations.”

The institute said that following a months-long journey around the African continent by sea, the “fully equipped Biosphere–Atmosphere Research Mobile Lab is about to roll onto African soil, launching an ambitious campaign to measure how land-use change is reshaping the region’s carbon, water, and energy cycles.”

ILRI’s Director General Appolinaire Djikeng described the importance of the project for not only Kenya but also the entire African continent.

“We are in a society where we need data to make decisions,” Djikeng said. “The pressure from the climate crisis requires precision. This facility allows us to generate the evidence needed to guide sustainable food production and environmental management.”

Academics leading the research team include Dan Yakir, professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, staff scientist Eyal Rotenberg, and post-doctoral researcher Dan Elhanati. Rotenberg said that climate models in Africa today “are not well calibrated because there has been very little measurement. This initiative will provide the data needed to validate and improve those models.”

The mobile unit features more than 30 scientific instruments set to measure carbon exchanges, levels of solar radiation, water usage, and these factors’ impact on changes in vegetation. The lab’s ability to move enables much broader and more diverse data collection in a variety of ecosystems, according to the researchers.

“I’ve been working in this field for 25 years, studying vegetation – atmosphere interactions,” Rotenberg told Kenya’s Capital FM. “Not only how vegetation affects the atmosphere, but how the atmosphere affects vegetation.”

“That is my core motivation — to come to Africa,” he added. “Unlike in Europe, the United States, Japan or China, there is very little measurement here. But climate is global. We must understand it everywhere, especially in Africa.”

Behar — who also serves as Ambassador-Designated to Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, and Seychelles and Permanent Representative of UNEP and UN HABITAT (UNON) — said “the measurements and scientific work being conducted here will serve the global fight against climate change.”

Rotenberg emphasized, “If vegetation uses most of the water, there is less available for human use … We need to understand that balance.”

The project plans to operate for three years before relocating to Mount Kenya and other regions. Weizmann then plans to expand to Tanzania, South Africa, and other countries.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) State of the Climate in Africa 2024 report, “extreme weather and climate change are intensifying hunger, insecurity, and displacement across Africa, impacting every facet of socio-economic development.” Depending on the data set, 2024 was either the warmest or second warmest year in Africa on record, and the previous decade was the warmest ever recorded.

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said the organization’s report “reveals a stark pattern of extreme weather events, with some countries grappling with exceptional flooding caused by excessive rainfall and others enduring persistent droughts and water scarcity.”

The effort in Kenya comes as Israel has expanded efforts in Africa to counter the impacts of climate change and the widespread droughts that have followed.

In February, officials and workers from Somaliland’s National Water Authority arrived in Israel for a course developed to train them on Israeli technology and techniques for water preservation and treatment. The trip came two months following Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, located in the Horn, as an independent, sovereign state.