Africa focus for climate Change summit
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Africa focus for climate Change summit*
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Reaching agreement on reducing emissions may be impossible
Delegates are gathering in Nairobi for the latest round of UN climate
talks, which will focus on helping poorer countries adapt to a changing
climate.
A UN report released on the eve of the talks forecast dire climate
impacts on parts of Africa.
Yields of crops will fall, it said, while rising seas could engulf cities.
This is the 12th set of UN climate talks since the Rio Earth Summit of
1992, but data released last week shows greenhouse gas levels are still
rising.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said carbon dioxide
concentrations rose by half a percent during 2005, and will not start
falling unless a stronger agreement than the Kyoto Protocol materialises.
Crops and floods
The new report from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) paints a stark picture of why measures to help African
countries "climate-proof" their societies, economies and infrastructure
are now widely seen as vital.
Greenhouse gases hit record
Yields of major crops such as maize, millet and sorghum will fall, it
concludes, while large portions of cities including Lagos, Dar-es-Salaam
and Cape Town could disappear under rising seas.
"There are also major impacts in highly elevated areas like Mount Kenya
and Mount Kilimanjaro whose glaciers, ice caps and run-off are important
for water supplies," said Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the WMO
which contributed data to the report.
Last week a review issued by British economist Sir Nicholas Stern also
warned of a disproportionate impact of climate change on the poorest
countries, while a number of development agencies have made the same
argument.
Potentially, "climate-proofing" poorer nations could include such
measures as:
* sea and river defences
* boosting water supply infrastructure for drought-prone regions
* planting of natural defences such as trees and mangroves
* development of new crop strains resistant to higher temperatures
or drought
* public education on issues such as saving water
World seeks climate compact
In a piece for the BBC's Green Room series, the new secretary-general of
the UNFCCC Yvo de Boer argues that money for adaptation can be raised
through some of the convention's internal processes, such as the Clean
Development Mechanism.
Britain's climate minister Ian Pearson told a parliamentary committee
last month that he was hopeful of reaching a deal on adaptation at the
Nairobi meeting, including financing.
Agenda restrictions
In comments made during a news conference two weeks ago, the European
Union's environment commissioner Stavros Dimas agreed.
But he hinted at another reason why adaptation is top of the Nairobi
agenda: it is politically possible, certainly more feasible than aiming
for a new deal on restricting greenhouse gas emissions when the current
targets for richer countries under the Kyoto Protocol expire in 2012.
Water threat to millions
"Discussions on the vital issue of post-2012 global action to combat
climate change will continue in Nairobi," he said.
"This process started in May and we expect to make further progress at
this meeting, but it is too early to expect any breakthroughs."
Officially European Union countries and Japan are aiming for stringent
long-term targets; and Britain has just proposed that the EU adopts a
medium-term goal of 30% reductions by 2020.
But the US and Australia, among the developed countries, remain
resolutely opposed to any talk of targets; and there is no prospect of a
deal including developing nations while those two countries, among the
highest per-capita polluters in the world, maintain their opposition.