In November, the world will again be gathering in Egypt at the 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a meeting to deliberate on global climate change issues and their resultant impact on humans and the environment.
This conference will be the 27th since the world started placing issues of climate change at the centre of global discussions and African countries have continued to actively participate in the meetings.
One big question for African countries now is: How will they justify continuous attendance to this conference, without significant impacts on their citizens who suffer grievously from the impact of climate change?
This question requires a deep analysis because climate change is a serious threat to the continent and the fact that Africa is classified as “the most vulnerable continent on Earth” to the effect and impact of climate change even makes it more alarming.
Africa’s vulnerability is driven by a range of factors: weak adaptive capacity, high dependence on ecosystem goods for livelihoods, and less developed agricultural production systems. The risks of climate change on agricultural production, food security, water resources and ecosystem services will likely severely affect lives and sustainable development prospects in Africa.
With high confidence, it was projected by the IPCC in 2007 that agricultural production and food security would probably be severely compromised by climate change and climate variability in many African countries and regions. Managing this risk requires the integration of mitigation and adaptation strategies in the management of ecosystem goods and services, and the agriculture production systems in Africa.
Today, Africa is warming faster than the rest of the world on average. Large portions of the continent may become uninhabitable as a result of the rapid effects of climate change, which would have disastrous effects on human health, food security, and poverty.
Regional effects on rainfall in the tropics are expected to be much more spatially variable and the sign of change at any one location is often less certain, although changes are expected. Consistent with this, observed surface temperatures have generally increased over Africa from the late 19th century to the early 21st century by about 1 °C, but locally as much as 3 °C for minimum temperature in the Sahel at the end of the dry season.
Africa’s contribution to the climate change quagmire is insignificant when compared to other continents. But she is bearing the burnt for the sins she did not commit.
Over the years, the debate at the conference is divided between the developed and non-developed countries. Africa which falls under the non-developed countries is seen at the conference as a beggar who comes cap in hand looking for droppings from the rich tables. But African governments have not learnt any lessons from the tossing, and back and forth of developed countries in the last 27 years.
Most African countries do not have a budget to deal with climate change impact, most rely on international organisations and donors to sponsor their delegates to the conference while for others it is usually an annual talk show where you go and learn more punctuations as each document must be vetted thoroughly to ensure that shall and may are clearly used as at when needed.
Like in Nigeria where all the geo-political zones are bearing the brunt of climate change from sea-level rise in the south-south to gully erosion in the south-east to flooding in the south-west to too heavy rains in the north-central, too little rains in the northeast and desert encroachment in the north-west, other countries on the continent are also having their slice of the cake.
These climate crises which are manifesting in the form of water scarcity resulting in the clashes between farmers and herders and leading to the death of many on the continent has not moved government to put issues of climate change on the front burner.
I remember as a young reporter in 2004, a report was released at the COP which was held in Nairobi, Kenya that year, that the sea level was expected to rise and will lead to the submerging of all coastal states in Nigeria including Lagos. I rushed out of the press conference to the nearest business centre to file the story on how Nigeria will soon lose Lagos to climate change.
That night I couldn’t sleep as I was busy thinking about Nigeria without Lagos, Port-Harcourt and the other beautiful cities in the coastal area. As I worked for a wire service then, I kept waking up all through the night and checking Nigerian newspaper headings for the next day because I thought I had broken a major story, but to my surprise, my editor didn’t even bother to treat the story that day.
The next day I managed to reach out to him and asked if he saw my story and he just told me casually that he was told the same story 10 years earlier. So why the hurry if it didn’t happen 10 years ago what is the guarantee that it will happen now?
I was so discouraged that I just barely completed my assignment at the conference and returned. I hope African governments have not also caught that bug and decided that since we are still here and climate change has not wiped us out, it may not happen in our lifetime.
The conversation continues at alexyabutu@gmail.com
