By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representatives and senior managers from all over Africa are attending a course on climate change from today.
The four-day strategic training course on climate change, risk mitigation and sustainable human development in Africa aims to educate participants on climate change risk management for mainstreaming in UNDP programming and human development initiatives.
UNDP Communications Officer, Ginny Collins, said in a statement last week the course will offer participants theoretical and practical training in providing guidance for national partners, including Government, for them to communicate the importance of climate change and its impact to the media and public.
The initiative also serves as part of the UNDP’s preparations for the launch of the 2007 Global Human Development Report, which addresses issues of climate change and its impact on human development, Collins said.
Although Namibia contributes very little to greenhouse gas emissions, its arid environment, recurrent droughts, desertification and fragile ecosystem, make it one of the most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change.
It is predicted that this phenomenon in Namibia will lead to increase in temperatures, rise in sea level, increase and decrease in rainfall. The predicted sea level rise would flood parts of the Port of Walvis Bay, thereby threatening the country’s marine industry as well as the coastal economies.
Climate change in Namibia would also affect agriculture and livestock production systems, therefore threatening rural livelihoods and food production.
The statement said climate change in Africa is having a profound economic social and environmental impact that impedes development and threatens livelihoods.
“Floods in Mozambique, drought in Kenya and shortages of water and energy supplies throughout the continent provide striking examples of a phenomenon that cannot be ignored,” Collins said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that by 2020 Africa could see yields from rain-fed agriculture reduced by 50 percent, while between 75 million and 250 million people are likely to be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change.