2 December 2007
analysis
Washington, DC — Climate change is not just in the future. It is already having serious effects, says the latest UNDP Human Development Report.
Africa "has the lightest carbon footprint but is likely to pay the heaviest price in the coming century for human-induced climate change." Meanwhile, Texas, with a population of 23 million, produces more carbon emissions than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, with 720 million people.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a brief summary of the new report, from http://allafrica.com, and excerpts from two short notes provided by the UNDP, one a summary on Africa and the other a note on Mozambique's forward-looking disaster planning.
The entire report, as well as numerous shorter press releases and case studies, is available on-line at
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/press
Another AfricaFocus Bulletin sent out today contains excerpts from the Africa chapter of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Both reports were released last month in time for the UN Climate Change Conference, scheduled for Bali, Indonesia, 3-14 December 2007. Both reports stress the need not only to slow climate change but only to prepare for the effects that are already visible and certain to increase.
Previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on climate change issues include:
Africa: Neglecting Agriculture, 2
http://www.africafocus.org/docs07/ag0710b.php
Sahel: Beyond Any Drought?
http://www.africafocus.org/docs07/sah0709.php
Africa: Up in Smoke?
http://www.africafocus.org/docs06/clim0611.php
Africa: Economics of Climate Change
http://www.africafocus.org/docs06/ster0611.php
Africa: Environmental Threats/Opportunities
http://www.africafocus.org/docs06/unep0609.php
Africa: Africa's Lakes
http://www.africafocus.org/docs06/lake0609.php
East Africa: Dams and Lake Victoria
http://www.africafocus.org/docs06/vic0602.php
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"No Easy Victories" Conversation and Celebration
Washington, DC, Busboys & Poets, December 8, 2007, 5:30 - 7 p.m.
Sponsored by Busboys & Poets, TransAfrica Forum, AFSC Africa Program, Africa World Press, and the editors of No Easy Victories.
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For more details:
http://www.noeasyvictories.org/nev_events.php
To read excerpts or to order book:
http://www.noeasyvictories.org
Climate Change Threatens Continent
27 November 2007
By John Allen Cape Town
The carbon emissions of developed countries threaten to devastate sub-Saharan Africa in the coming decades, says a major United Nations report issued today.
This year's Human Development Report, commissioned by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), says if the world does not act against climate change within 10 years, a two-degree Celsius temperature increase could:
generate massive agricultural losses, of up to U.S. $26 million by 2060, a figure higher than all the bilateral aid to the region in 2005;
make an extra 600 million people go hungry; and
spark new and more frequent epidemics of mosquito-born diseases such as malaria and Rift Valley Fever.
"The poor those with the lightest carbon footprint and the least means to protect themselves are the first victims of developed countries' energy-rich lifestyle," says Kevin Watkins, lead author of the report, in a press release issued with the report.
In the short term, the effects of climate change could be "apocalyptic" for the world's poorest people, say Kemal Dervis, administrator of the UNDP, and Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme.
And in the long term, the phenomenon is "a massive threat to human development In some places it is already undermining the international community's efforts to reduce extreme poverty."
The report, entitled "Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world," cites specific examples of how climate change affects Africans.
In rich countries, people react to its effects by "adjusting thermostats, dealing with longer, hotter summers, and observing seasonal shifts." In the Horn of Africa, it says, "crops fail and people go hungry, or women and young girls spend more hours collecting water."
Children born during droughts are more likely to be malnourished or their growth stunted. In Ethiopia and Kenya respectively, children aged five and under are 36 and 50 percent more likely to be malnourished; in Niger children aged two or less were 72 more likely to be stunted.
Rising sea levels might be countered in cities such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen and New York, the report continues, but "coastal flood defences will not save the livelihoods or the homes of hundreds of millions living in the Niger or Nile deltas."
The report notes that Texas in the United States, with a population of 23 million, produces more carbon emissions than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, with 720 million people.
Africa, it says, "has the lightest carbon footprint but is likely to pay the heaviest price in the coming century for human-induced climate change."
The report says action on climate change needs to start with developed countries, but also makes suggestions for Africa's governments:
Expand meteorological monitoring networks to give farmers better information about climate patterns;
Improve social insurance to protect farmers and poor urban residents from the worst effects of climate-related disasters. The report cites a Zambian pilot project which pays $6 a month to families in the bottom 10 percent of the economy;
Invest in early-warning systems, such as Mozambique's early warning and rapid-response mechanisms following floods in 2000; and
Countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, which have high rainfall concentrated in a few weeks of the year, should invest in water-storage or "water harvesting" facilities.
Developed countries must cut emissions, invest in adaptation to prevent human development reversals
UNDP Human Development Report
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/press
Press Release 27 November 2007
[excerpts]
Wealthy countries' carbon footprint threatens to stamp out progress in Africa, but the 2007/2008 Human Development Report proposes a way forward
Brasilia, 27 November 2007 - The heavy carbon footprint of developed countries threatens to stamp out and then reverse advances in health, education and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa unless critical steps are taken to cut emissions and invest in "climate-proofing" the livelihoods of the poor, according to the 2007/2008 Human Development Report (HDR) on climate change launched here today.
Building on the recently-released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Synthesis Report, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) HDR, entitled Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world, sets out a pathway for climate change negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, and stresses that a narrow 10-year window of opportunity remains to put it into practice. ...
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My name is Kenneth Schustereit. I live in Victoria, Texas. I am frankly puzzled about this article talking about Texas having more carbon emmissions than all of subSaharan Africa! Have you ever considered that Texas alone produces more gross national product than all of subSaharan Africa? Have you ever considered that Texas produces more food stuffs for export that all of subSaharan Africa? More private aid dollars have come from Texas to the continent of Africa than any other state and most other countries! My own church has sent more real material aid to Tanzania than any other church in… [Read Full Text]
The debate is over; all we now see is propaganda articles. Political propaganda is NOT science. UK court says Gore is a fraud. August 2007 Update: Man-made Catastrophic Global Warming Not True. Unfortunately, Hansen is a political hack of George Soros. Further, flawed NASA Global Warming data paid for by George Soros. In order to be an intelligent reader you must have a basic knowledge. Please do your own homework; a starting point http://www.InteliOrg.com/ Remember CONSENSUS is NEVER science it’s always a POLITICAL STATEMENT (Party Line).