U.N. to intensify Africa climate change monitoring
Source: Reuters
GENEVA, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Global warming is likely to have a profound impact on Africa, but the continent lacks the means to detect and adapt to shifting patterns of drought, floods and disease, United Nations' environmental agencies said on Tuesday. The Global Climate Observing System, a partnership of U.N. agencies including the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), said more funds were needed to prepare the vast continent for weather extremes linked to "human-induced climate change". "There are big holes in climate observing networks in Africa," William Westermeyer of the Global Climate Observing System told a news briefing. To help reverse the trend, he said United Nations agencies and regional groups such as the African Union had agreed to intensify monitoring of global warming trends in Africa in a new initiative called ClimDev Africa. Britain has pledged up to $20 million in start-up funds for ClimDev Africa, which will seek to improve climate observation and risk management in eight African countries, and then seek to expand to about half of the continent, Westermeyer said. The initiative, whose other partners are the International Council for Science and UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, would require about $200 million over 10 years. Most scientists now agree that world average temperatures may rise by between two and six degrees Celsius this century due to emissions of so-called greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels for power and transport. The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2001 cited evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years was "attributable to human activities".
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
