http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/11/african-countries-feeling-exposed-to-extreme-weather-changes/
African Countries Feeling Exposed to Extreme Weather Changes
By Justus Wanzala
NAIROBI, Nov 28 2015 (IPS) - Extreme weather conditions, an impact of
climate change faced by African countries despite contributing the
least global emissions, is attracting the attention of many as the
clock ticks towards the start of the 2015 United Nations Conference on
Climate Change (COP21).
Severe weather events are causing significant loss of life and
livelihoods among communities in Africa. The situation is a major
challenge to African governments given that the probability of
occurrence of events is continuously changing alongside associated
risks. Extreme weather events in Africa are higher temperatures,
drought, flooding and diseases.
Emmanuel Oluyakode Oladipo, an expert on climate and one of Nigeria’s
lead negotiators for the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change Conference of Parties and who is expected to pitch the
case of Africa during the COP21 to be held in Paris from November 30
to December 11. He said African countries have an uphill task in
tackling hazardous weather events. This he says is because climate
dynamics are very complex, more so than the operations of tropical
systems which are yet to be fully understood.
Speaking during the Seventh Annual Media briefing on Climate Change
organised by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) for Global South
journalists from 6 November 2015 in New Delhi, India, Oladipo noted
that closer collaboration between scientists and policy-makers is a
priority for Africa if the continent is to tackle the growing
challenge of extreme weather patterns.
Oladipo, who is also a climatology professor, said that climate change
is compounding the difficult situation in which Africa finds itself in
terms of ensuring food security and securing livelihoods. “Extreme
weather events results into unnatural disasters. Rains come but they
are not useful to farmers. For instance, in Nigeria in 2015 there was
no rain in southern parts of the country only falling in August when
it was least expected with November having three days of unexpected
rain,” he said.
But as severe weather events increase alarmingly with heavy economic
losses, most African countries are unable to assess current trends and
future scenario due to lack of data. “Lack of in-depth research is
affecting availability of data,” said Oladipo. He noted that only
South Africa is committing significant resources to climate research.
The situation is negatively affecting the capacity of the continent to
adapt or to address loss and damage from the changing risks.
According to Oladipo there is need to understand the effects of
climate change on extreme weather events and their impacts. He says an
emerging science of probabilistic event attribution is key to
providing scientific evidence in tackling extreme weather events.
“Such kinds of research have the potential to be useful for climate
change adaptation, but there is a need to explore applications in
vulnerable developing countries, particularly those in Africa,” he
stated.
Of concern also is the weak nature of response mechanisms to extreme
weather impacts in Africa. Oladipo argues that to effectively respond
to the chaos of climate change preparedness, knowledge of risks,
prediction, monitoring and communication are vital. He believes that
community-based early warning systems such as village vigilantes
trained to watch over weather are key aspects of adaptation in
fighting extreme weather.
Dependency on external financing of climate change mitigation
initiatives was also noted by Oladipo as a constraint. He states that
an African initiative on climate financing is required for externally
led initiatives sometimes tend to focus on issues which are least
linked to climate change.
His views resonate with those of Mithika Mwenda; Secretary General of
the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) who said during the
#Act On Climate March in Nairobi on 14 November that funding of
technologies to fight extreme weather is needed. The #Act On Climate
March and Concert was organised by PACJA and its partners to help
spread the word about the danger extreme weather poses for global
poverty and hunger and to show that not enough is being done to slow
the impacts of climate change across Africa.
Indeed, the continent suffers from multiple extreme weather conditions
that requires concerted efforts to overcome. Shem Amadi,
Director/Regional Advisor at the Regional Disaster Management, Center
of Excellence (RDMCOE), told IPS that the forms of extreme weather
patterns affecting Africa are desertification, floods, droughts,
landslides and forest fires.
RDMCOE is a regional initiative and member states are: Burundi,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, and Uganda. Its key objective is
to strengthen regional capacities for disaster preparedness and
response, reduce disasters and their impact through capacity building
and cooperation. RDMCOE is also engaged in promoting communication and
cooperation among the participating states, mobilizing resources and
improving disaster management in participating states as well as
facilitating promoting and strengthening regional and international
disaster management cooperation.
Amadi said the centre is engaging governments in reducing negative
impacts of extreme weather. “Engaging governments in capacity
building, creation of awareness and best practices at national, sub
national and local level coupled with generation of broad and specific
policy, institutional and development of legal frameworks is needed to
tackle effects of extreme weather,” said Amadi.
He added that poor infrastructure, communication and weak
institutional capacity challenges are undermining the continent’s
capacity to respond to extreme weather events.
On the role of governments in tackling extreme weather, Oladipo urges
African governments to design focused development plans and effective
policies. He says Africa suffers from unavailability of meteorology
information and most countries have no coping policy.
“Whatever we do we must put everything into our national development
systems, for if you can’t link climate change to development then you
can’t achieve development itself,” said Oladipo.
Received on Sat Nov 28 2015 - 16:57:22 EST