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Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 04:41:16 -0800
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Subject: AfricaDigest Feb. 2nd


African poor to bear brunt of global warming crisis

By Jeremy Lovell

EXETER, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Africa's poor millions risk bearing the brunt
of the global warming crisis unless urgent action is taken now, a
Nigerian scientist said on Wednesday.

Anthony Nyong from Jos University said if current trends continued,
temperatures in sub-Saharan Africa could rise by two degrees centigrade
by 2050 and rainfall could drop 10 percent, leading to major water
shortages.

"There must be substantial and genuine reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions by the principal emitters," he said in a paper to a climate
change conference, noting that the G8 group of rich nations accounted
for nearly half of world carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 1999.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has pledged to make Africa and the
battle to curb climate change the top priorities for his presidency of
the G8 this year.

Scientists say climate warming is caused by gases such as CO2, and most
accept that much of this is from human activities like car exhausts and
electricity generation.

Almost alone in the developed world, the United States disputes the
human element in climate change.

Nyong noted that while global warming was a crisis for the whole world,
Africa was among the worst placed of the continents to face it because
of water shortages and its dependence on agriculture for food and
export earnings.

"Africa's high vulnerability is not only due to climate change but a
combination of other stresses," he said. "Such stresses include
poverty, wars and conflicts, limited technological development, a high
disease burden and a rapid population growth rate."

The World-Wide Fund for Nature, which sponsored Nyong's paper, said it
was a wake-up call to the world.

"If global warming is not tackled, the viability of millions of
people's livelihoods in Africa will be undermined. Without significant
new resources, millions of others won't be able to adapt to changes
that are already happening," said Catarina Cardoso, Head of Climate
Change at WWF-UK.

"We need a commitment from governments that they will curb emissions
now to cap the rise at two degrees. That is the tipping point," she
said. "There must also be new funds to help the poor cope with the
climate change that will take place."

The group said that by the 2080s, climate change would have put an
extra 80-120 million people at risk of hunger -- up to 80 percent of
whom would be in Africa because of the dependence on ecosystems that
would be the first to go as the climate changed.

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