By Dr Moses Amweelo
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the global average temperature over land and ocean from January to October 2014 was the hottest since records began in 1880 and emissions continue to rise.
The December 2014 meeting of 195 states in Lima, Peru, agreed on a format for nations to make pledges to reduce earth-warming carbon pollution. These national commitments would form the cornerstone of an unprecedented accord to be sealed in Paris in December 2015 and take effect by 2020.
UN nations have vowed to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels. Scientists say earth is on course for roughly twice this amount by the end of the century – a recipe for worse droughts, floods, storms and rising seas. They warn that scant time is left to reduce heat-trapping emissions to safer levels. “The more we disrupt our climate, the more we risk severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts,” said Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN’s panel of climate scientists.
Climate change in its current form is one of the greatest challenges of our time, with projected impacts on forests, soil degradation, declining food and energy security, human and animal health and the supply of clean water, as well as heightened risks of flooding, drought and other calamities globally.
Therefore, we need to act urgently and work together to address climate change so as to ensure long-term sustainable development, food, energy and water security and reduce the risks of natural hazards turning into disasters. There is an urgent need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, as agreed by governments in the Copenhagen Accord of December 18, 2009, and to enact national legislation to that end.
While recognising the need to co-operate in capping global and national carbon emissions, we support the call for national actions consistent with a 1.5 degree Celsius pathway, as proposed by the most vulnerable countries on the basis of the best available scientific knowledge. On the occasion of the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP20) and the 10th Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP10), remain concerned that climate change continues to pose a grave threat to all forms of life on our planet and to the very survival of humanity.
The scientific evidence for global warming presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is comprehensive and incontrovertible: since the 1950s, the global climate system has undergone unprecedented change, on a scale unknown in previous decades or millennia. A warmer atmosphere and oceans, decreasing snow and ice cover, and rising sea levels are only some of the consequences of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, while the growing magnitude of this warming augments the likelihood of a severe and irreversible impact.
It is, therefore, extremely important for us to work together and step up our efforts to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, in accordance with the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The impacts of climate change will affect food security, water availability and human health, especially in Africa, significantly. African agriculture is confronted by many challenges. The primary one is low investment in the sector by many African governments. Others include poor access to capital, inadequate infrastructure, and inappropriate market structures.
Worldwide, considerable shifts in long-term averages and variability in rainfall and temperature, sea levels, and frequency and intensity of droughts and floods have been experienced. Africa too has had its share of increased climate variability and long-term climate change. Incidences of extreme weather events, including droughts and large fluctuations in precipitation patterns, and shortening of the lengths of growing periods have been occurring with increasing frequency. Given that agricultural production in Africa relies mainly on rainfall, with less than 4 percent of cultivated land under irrigation, such fluctuations exposes African agriculture to frequent production uncertainties.
African governments are particularly concerned with the impacts of high variability in rainfall and the high incidence of droughts on their economies and the agricultural sector in particular. With regard to the water sector in Africa, it is very sensitive to changes in climate and prolonged climate variability.
Climate change is expected to alter the hydrological cycle, temperature balance, and rainfall patterns across Africa and thus has the potential to add to existing pressure on water availability, accessibility, and demand, thereby affecting economic development, ecosystems and biodiversity. Even in the absence of climate change, present population trends and patterns of water use indicate that more countries in Africa will exceed the limits of their economically usable, land based water resources before 2025.
*Dr Moses Amweelo is a former Minister of Works and Transport and currently a Swapo MP. He was the Namibian Parliamentarian group leader to Lima’s 20th Conference of Parties (COP20) in December 2014.