Climate Change and Ethiopia Africa holds the unwelcomed title of the continent that will suffer the most under global warming. While climate change is a global challenge, it is primarily and most immediately a threat to developing countries like Ethiopia. Sub-Saharan Africa will face drought, food shortages, violent storms and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change. Pandemics threaten to topple governments, mass migration looms, feeding terrorist movements and destabilising regions. Ethiopia’s prime minister will speak for Africa at several global gatherings this year, warns that certain parts of the continent will become uninhabitable and “those who did the damage will have to pay.” Compensation is required because increased exposure to droughts, floods and storms is already destroying opportunity and reinforcing inequalities. One in 19 people in developing countries were affected by climate-related disasters between 2000 and 2004, compared with just one in 1,500 in rich countries. The findings come from the 2008 Human Development Report titled ‘Fighting Climate Change: Human solidarity in a divided world’. According to the report, while Ethiopia may have one of the lowest carbon footprints, it is one of the biggest suffers of global warming. Ethiopia is one of the world’s most drought prone countries. Children aged five or less are 36 per cent more likely to be malnourished if they were born during a drought. This translates to around 2 million additional malnourished children in 2005. Agriculture remains easily the most important sector in the Ethiopian economy, supporting 85 per cent of the population in terms of employment and contributing to about half of the country’s gross domestic product. Climate change will affect rainfall, temperature and water availability for agriculture in vulnerable areas. For example, drought affected areas in sub-Saharan Africa could expand by 60–90 million hectares, with dry land zones suffering losses of US$26 billion by 2060 (2003 prices), a figure in excess of bilateral aid to the region in 2005. While climate change mitigation is a global challenge, the starting place for mitigation is with the countries that carry the bulk of historic responsibility and the people that leave the deepest footprints. In Ethiopia, the average per capita carbon footprint is 0.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with 20 tonnes in Canada. An average dishwasher in Europe emits as much CO2 in a year as three Ethiopians. While the state of New South Wales in Australia (population 6.9 million) has a carbon footprint of 116 Mt CO2. This figure is comparable to the combined total for Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 10:17:02 +0000
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