UNLESS effective risk and impact reduction strategies are put in place urgently, the effects of climate change on the Africa continent could cost as much as 2.7 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product, experts have said.
Concerned stakeholders, have, therefore, called on the African Union (AU) and governments of the different countries on the continent to effectively integrate climate change concerns into development policies, strategies, programmes and practices.
Essentially, they want governments in Africa and the Africa Union to provide and increase their support for scientific research on climate change and foster a continuing engagement with national science academies for providing technical advice on climate change.
Scientists and researchers who attended the eighth Annual Meeting of African Science Academies (AMAS), which ended in Lagos at the weekend, pointed out the realities of the impact of climate change in Africa.
President of the Nigeria Academy of Science who made the position of the meeting known, told journalists that "the frequent prolonged droughts and famines that have ravaged the Sahel and other parts of Africa episodically since 1970s are extreme climate-related events that cannot be ignored in discussing the impacts of climate change on the continent. Flooding from excessive rainfall, sea level rise and storm surges are climate-related extreme events currently ravaging many parts of the world, with devastating outcomes in Africa. Cases of land or mud-slides, wild fires or pest epidemics have also been reported.
"The consequences of these events include extensive destruction of settlements with their infrastructure, extensive damage to farmlands, fisheries and other means of livelihood, massive displacements and movements of people, food shortages, diseases epidemics and the breakdown in social order sometimes leading to combative conflicts. Displacement and movement of people may occur internally within countries, creating the category of internally displaced refugees (IDRs) or across borders among the 50 countries of the continental land mass of Africa in various patterns."
Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) based in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Dr Youba SOKONA, affirmed that the Impacts of climate change in 2030 could cost up to 2.7 per cent of the GDP in Africa.
"Climate change increases developmental challenges. Almost half of the African population is living on less than $1.25 dollar per day as at 2008. The economic growth experienced in the last decade has failed to generate significant employment.
