The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has just released a report showing that Africa may be hardest hit by climate change impacts. The report, timed to coincide with the week-long climate change summit in Nairobi, highlights a range of risks, including:
- inundation of major cities following sea level rise;- increased drought and soil degradation on a continent where 70% off people work in agriculture;
- increased stress on sensitive animal and plant habitats.
Says UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner:
"Climate change is underway and the international community must respond by offering well targeted assistance to those countries in the front-line which are facing increasing impacts such as extreme droughts and floods and threats to infrastructure from phenomena like rising sea levels"
The report stresses that adaptation to these effects must go hand-in-hand with ongoing efforts to reduce global CO2 emissions.(...editorial comment...)
At Carbon Clear, we feel that initiatives like our community tree-planting projects in Tanzania and India, which help local people protect degraded soils while capturing CO2, are an important part of this effort. By improving livelihoods we can help strengthen the resilience of local communities at the same time that we're helping to reduce global CO2 emissions.
