Africa faces changing climate
Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga calls for sober negotiations during the UN climate conference.
Climate change effects are already wrecking lives in Africa, AFP writes in a report from the continent.
Currently, around 23 million people face starvation across east Africa as failed rainy seasons have reduced crops, livestock and devastated livelihoods. Experts say the east African drought is the worst in decades.
The agency lists other recent changes reported by scientists. A US study revealed that snow caps on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, are rapidly melting and could vanish completely in 20 years mainly due to climate change.
Climate change is blamed for altering the border between Uganda and the DR Congo. The border is marked by a river that is changing its course over the years reportedly due to melting ice caps in the mountains. And rising sea temperatures off South Africa’s coast have disrupted the annual sardine migration, which leads to smaller numbers of sardines, scientists say.
The African continent emits four percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions but consequences of global warming appear harsh here. That is the reason why African nations want developed countries to commit to huge emissions cuts and provide billions of dollars in funding for developing countries to adapt to climate change.
However, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, head of an African Union panel representing the continent at the UN climate conference in December, is not expecting firm decisions at the Copenhagen conference, reports the AFP.
Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga calls for sober negotiations.
“We really should not go to Copenhagen and play the hard ball and the blame game,” he tells AFP.
“This issue is so crucial that it requires full cooperation because if the North does not cooperate with the South it means all of us are going to be victims. All of us are going to be losers.”
