Africa 'will be worst hit by climate change'

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The devastating impact of climate change, mainly caused by ballooning carbon emissions from rich Western nations, will hit hardest in Africa, a United Nations report has warned.

Large African cities will be submerged under rising sea levels, more than 40 per cent of wildlife habitats could disappear, and cereal crop yields - already desperately low in a continent unable to feed itself - could fall by a further 5 per cent.

The report warned that the effect of climate change in Africa is "even more acute" than experts had feared. Up to 70 million people could be at risk from rising sea levels, while droughts, which have overwhelmed the Horn of Africa with increasing regularity, will be more common.

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The report gives a stark assessment of what could happen on the continent if developed nations do not rein in their carbon emissions. Up to 30 per cent of Africa's coast could disappear as sea levels rise from between 15cm to 95cm in the next 100 years. Important cities such as Cape Town, Dar es Salaam and Maputo are at risk. If sea levels were to rise by one metre, part of Lagos, the economic centre of Africa's most populous country, Nigeria, would be submerged. Alexandria, a popular tourist destination in Egypt, could also suffer. The number of people at risk in Africa from coastal flooding will rise from one million in 1990 to 70 million by 2080.


http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1959047.ece

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1. Global warming major threat to humanity-Kenya

Saying that global warming was among the worst threats ever to face humanity, Kenya urged a 189-nation conference on Monday to do more to fight climate change with special help for the poorest in Africa.

Kenyan drummers and dancers started the annual Nov. 6-17 U.N. talks, which are also due to seek ways to overcome deep divisions about extending the main U.N. plan for curbing warming -- the Kyoto Protocol -- beyond 2012.

"Climate change threatens development goals for billions of the world's poorest people," Kenyan Environment Minister Kivutha Kibwana told delegates at the first climate talks in sub-Saharan Africa.

"Climate change is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious threats that humanity may ever face," he said. More than 5,000 people are due to attend.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B383140.htm