Binyam Tamene
8 April 2008
Addis Ababa — Nearly all of the impacts of climate change in Africa are intensified by inappropriate policy choices, often a short-sighted view of what is best for some definition of economic development, Executive Director of African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) said on Monday.
Executive Director Prof William Lyakurwa made the statement officially opening the three-day seminar which brought an estimated 70 African Policy Makers and advisors from the highest levels of government and representing 25 countries in the continent.
According to the head of the Nairobi-based such bad choices arise from "they-did-it-why-can't-we' syndrome affecting the policy makers in most countries.
The three-day seminar is underway with a theme Climate Change and Development.
The Executive Director said together with the syndrome, the idea that business may suffer if controls are in place also another attribution for jumping into inappropriate policy choices surfaces.
He said failure to recognize the importance of sound urbanization, population, agriculture, land use and water policies in over all economic development efforts also the main factors for the constrained views in policy making Although Africa contributes only about 3.8% of total greenhouse gas emissions, the continent is among the most vulnerable in the world.
"Climate change will result in increased frequency and severity of droughts, floods and other extreme weather events, negatively impacting sub-Saharan African economies that depend heavily on sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism," Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Lalla Ben Barka, on her part, addressed to the seminar.
He added that vulnerability derives from the heavy reliance of the economies of most African countries on climate-sensitive sectors.
The Deputy Executive Secretary UNECA further underscored that a warming by another 0.4°C on current temperatures would result in a shortening of crop growing period by more than 20% in the Sahel by 2020, and a reduction of yields from rain-fed agriculture by up to 50% in many African countries, by IPCC's climate change modelling results He said that decreasing water resources as a result of climate change was heavily affecting water levels of major rivers, and lakes in Africa.
Concerning the economy, although comprehensive estimations of the economic impacts of climate change in Africa are hard to find, the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change indicates that delaying response to the challenge could result in losses of up to 20% of GDP, the Deputy Executive Secretary pointed out.
He said Africa must do its best to face up to the challenge. Yet, as the continent is more on the receiving side of the negative externalities of the global phenomenon of climate change, fairness in treatment would call for commensurate compensation mechanisms.
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