Africa produces only 5% of world greenhouse gas emissions yet is most at risk from worsening heatwaves, droughts, and floods. African youth activists urged their governments to do more to combat climate change to safeguard food and water supplies on the continent most vulnerable to rising temperatures.
Deforestation in Africa and local energy policies promoting fossil fuels were all adding to the crisis, said Makenna Muigai of Kenya. “I urge African leaders to take into consideration that all of us at the end of the day will be affected by climate change,” she said.
Ndoni Mcunu, an environmental scientist at Witwatersrand University in South Africa, said that African nations should make their economies more
efficient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Africa only contributes 5% of the greenhouse gases yet we are the most impacted,” she said. China, the United States and the European Union are the top emitters.
According to African Development Bank, Africa has 15% of the world’s population, yet is likely to “shoulder nearly 50% of the estimated global climate change adaptation costs,” noting that seven of the 10 countries considered most vulnerable to climate change are in Africa: Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea.
Among the policy advice offered, Vanessa Nakate, 23, of Uganda urged a halt to construction of a pipeline to export Ugandan oil via Tanzania to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga.
Read the rest of this story by Alister Doyle here.
Image by Dominic Wunderlich from Pixabay.
