The recent environmental conference on the Basel Convention held in Nairobi last month highlighted the impact of global warming on and the consequences of recycing of waste products across the continent.

The continent is having to pay the price of US consumption ie 5% of the worlds population are in the US yet they contribute to 25% of the worlds greenhouse gas pollution. Africa’s 14% population contribute a mere 3%.

Last month, at the United Nations Climate Change summit in Nairobi, Kenya, climate change experts from around the globe reported to 165 countries on the impacts of global warming, which will be felt most harshly by poor developing countries……………Unfortunately, some of the world’s richest countries and major polluters — Australia, Canada and the U.S. — failed, at the summit, to address the most urgent needs of the world’s poorest countries. Climate change has already caused significant damage on the African continent and it is now agonizingly clear that a lack of action by the world’s major polluters to reduce global warming pollution will, in short order, devastate the globe.

One of the consequences of global warming is desertification and one of the worst hit countries in Africa is Somalia (also recently a dumping ground for nuclear waste) . But many other countries particular those bordering the Sahara savannah regions in West Africa and the Horn of Africa will suffer from severe drought, failed crops and floods. Access to water is a major issue through out Africa where privatisation of water supplies are adding to the lack of water availability on very basic levels in countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Niger and South Africa to name just a few.

The October release of the Stern Review on climate change summarised here by Oxfam

The “Up in Smoke” report by the Working Group on Climate Change and Development presents a grim picture of the present not to speak of the future. An update of the report is summarised by Geoffrey Lean who quotes the report

“Africa is steadily warming,” it concludes. “It is becoming clear that in many places dangerous climate change is already taking place.” The six warmest years ever recorded in Africa have all been since 1987, it says, and in many parts of the continent temperatures are expected to rise twice as fast as in the world as a whole. The result will be to drive its climate ever more towards extremes. Traditionally arid areas such as the northeast and south of the continent, and the Sahel on the fringes of the Sahara in west Africa, are becoming drier — with increased droughts — while rainy areas, such as equatorial Africa, are getting wetter, with more floods.

This is not simply an African issue but a global one. However the US and the West in general over consumption of natural resources and over production of pollution is directly impacting in varying degrees of serverness on countries across the continent. The ultimate responsibility lies with those that are the major producers of toxic gases and contributors to global warming. Making the situation worse is the trend of using African countries as a dumping ground for toxic waste including electronic waste, consumer waste and nuclear waste. African governments need to stand their ground on the issue of global warming but even more under their control is to stop allowing their countries to be used as toxic waste dumps.

Links: Here’s the Plan

Tags: Climate Change; Africa