Africa most vulnerable to global warming effects, U.N. says
Africa is among 'the continents least responsible for climate change and is also least able to afford the costs of adaptation,' says an official at an environment conference.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Africa produces a tiny fraction of the world's greenhouse gases but is particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming, U.N. environmental experts said at a conference of African environment ministers here today.
Some of those present had harsh words for the developed world, in particular the United States, the largest producer of greenhouse gases. They complained that industrialized nations are pressing Africans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while not doing enough to clean up their own act.
"Computer models project major changes in precipitation patterns on the continent, which could lead to food shortages and increased desertification," says a report by the United Nations Environment Program released at the conference. "Yet on the whole, African nations lack the resources and technology to address such changes."
Africa, which produces less than 4% of global greenhouses gases, has seen glaciers shrink and lakes evaporate. Poor environmental practices on the continent, including dramatic deforestation in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, are complicating the environmental challenges Africa will face as global warming undermines agriculture and leads to further desertification and erosion.
"Africa is one of the continents least responsible for climate change and is also least able to afford the costs of adaptation," said South African Environment Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk. "Africa will remain vulnerable even if, globally, emissions peak and decline in the next 10 to 15 years."
He said developed countries should not demand that Africa reduce greenhouse emissions by 50% by 2020, as many have done, unless they are willing to commit themselves to cutting their own emissions by 25% to 40% over the same period.
"As African countries, we must not allow developed countries to get away with this," Van Schalkwyk said.
The United Nations Environment Program Africa Atlas report released today provides before and after satellite images from across the continent illustrating the dramatic environmental degradation that has taken place in recent decades.
Glaciers on Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and the Rwenzori mountains in Uganda have shrunk by 50% since the late 1980s. Scientists estimate the Rwenzori glaciers, which feed water systems, will be gone in 20 years.
