By Peter Sunday
Global warming and climate change have become terms for the century. According to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climatic change, 95% of global warming is caused by increasing greenhouse gases.
Furthermore, climate change impacts differ from region to region and around the globe.
Global warming leads to increase in global temperature, rising sea levels, changing population and expansion of deserts. Other changes include more frequent extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, heavy rainfall and heavy snow fall.
Effects to humans include food security from decreased crop yields and abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels.
In a bid to mitigate its effects, most countries are parties to the United Nations frame work on climatic change whose aim is to prevent anthropogenic climatic change.
Africa is no exemption to global warming. However, Africa has come up with solutions to global warming which include effective land use planning to avoid forest degradation and developing renewable energy. But Africa is likely to be affected most by impacts of global warming such as drought, famine, and desertification and population displacement.
By pioneering renewable energy projects and establishing forward thinking innovation centers, many countries in Africa are looking to renewable energy as a solution to meet their growing energy needs in a sustainable way while working towards practical adaptation strategies to migrate global warming impacts.
Africa, along with South America and South East Asia, has experienced a significant loss of forests in past two decades. The Congo basin rain forest is the worth second largest tropical forest and spans 700,000 sq miles in six countries.
Fortunately, deforestation and forest degradation in Congo basin are historically low. New efforts, however, are underway to ensure effective land use planning balancing local subsistence needs with consideration.
Effects of global warming in Africa
Temperature rise will trigger “sharp declines in crop yield in tropical regions” estimated at 5 to 10% in Africa with an associated increase in under nourishment, Malnutrition, Malaria and related deaths.
50% of all malnutrition related deaths occur in Africa while a 2˚C rise in temperature will increase the people affected by hunger potentially by 30 to 200 million worldwide.
Globally, Africa and Western Asia will suffer the largest crop losses yet these regions depend on agriculture and are limited in purchasing power.
The African Development Bank views tackling climate change as an essential component of drawing its mission of poverty reduction and economic growth.
The African -Europe Energy partnership seeks to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency in Africa by mobilising increased, financial, technical and human resources in support of Africa’s energy development.
The Paris COP 21
The United Nations climatic change conference Cop 21 was held in Paris France from November 30 to December 12, 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the conference of the parties (COP) of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climatic change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the meeting of the parties to the 1997 Kyoto protocol.
The key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2OC compared to pre-industrial levels.
The agreement calls for zero net antropogenic greenhouse gases emissions to be reached by the second half of the 21st century.
It also called for limiting temperatures to 1.5oc. The 1.5oc goal will require zero emissions between 2030 and 2050.
All in all, global warming is the major challenge for our global society. There is very little doubt that global warming will not change our climate in the next century. So there ought to be solutions to global warming including an inter national political solution much as funding for developing cheap and Clean energy production must be increased as well as Economic development based on increased energy usage.
The writer is an environmentalist researcher - See more at: http://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1420967/prevent-global-warming?#sthash.XAzScRA3.dpuf
Global warming and climate change have become terms for the century. According to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climatic change, 95% of global warming is caused by increasing greenhouse gases.
Furthermore, climate change impacts differ from region to region and around the globe.
Global warming leads to increase in global temperature, rising sea levels, changing population and expansion of deserts. Other changes include more frequent extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, heavy rainfall and heavy snow fall.
Effects to humans include food security from decreased crop yields and abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels.
In a bid to mitigate its effects, most countries are parties to the United Nations frame work on climatic change whose aim is to prevent anthropogenic climatic change.
Africa is no exemption to global warming. However, Africa has come up with solutions to global warming which include effective land use planning to avoid forest degradation and developing renewable energy. But Africa is likely to be affected most by impacts of global warming such as drought, famine, and desertification and population displacement.
By pioneering renewable energy projects and establishing forward thinking innovation centers, many countries in Africa are looking to renewable energy as a solution to meet their growing energy needs in a sustainable way while working towards practical adaptation strategies to migrate global warming impacts.
Africa, along with South America and South East Asia, has experienced a significant loss of forests in past two decades. The Congo basin rain forest is the worth second largest tropical forest and spans 700,000 sq miles in six countries.
Fortunately, deforestation and forest degradation in Congo basin are historically low. New efforts, however, are underway to ensure effective land use planning balancing local subsistence needs with consideration.
Effects of global warming in Africa
Temperature rise will trigger “sharp declines in crop yield in tropical regions” estimated at 5 to 10% in Africa with an associated increase in under nourishment, Malnutrition, Malaria and related deaths.
50% of all malnutrition related deaths occur in Africa while a 2˚C rise in temperature will increase the people affected by hunger potentially by 30 to 200 million worldwide.
Globally, Africa and Western Asia will suffer the largest crop losses yet these regions depend on agriculture and are limited in purchasing power.
The African Development Bank views tackling climate change as an essential component of drawing its mission of poverty reduction and economic growth.
The African -Europe Energy partnership seeks to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency in Africa by mobilising increased, financial, technical and human resources in support of Africa’s energy development.
The Paris COP 21
The United Nations climatic change conference Cop 21 was held in Paris France from November 30 to December 12, 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the conference of the parties (COP) of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climatic change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the meeting of the parties to the 1997 Kyoto protocol.
The key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2OC compared to pre-industrial levels.
The agreement calls for zero net antropogenic greenhouse gases emissions to be reached by the second half of the 21st century.
It also called for limiting temperatures to 1.5oc. The 1.5oc goal will require zero emissions between 2030 and 2050.
All in all, global warming is the major challenge for our global society. There is very little doubt that global warming will not change our climate in the next century. So there ought to be solutions to global warming including an inter national political solution much as funding for developing cheap and Clean energy production must be increased as well as Economic development based on increased energy usage.
The writer is an environmentalist researcher - See more at: http://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1420967/prevent-global-warming?#sthash.XAzScRA3.dpuf
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