Farmers Review Africa Sept/Oct 2018 FRA - September - October 2018 digital 5 | Page 47

FEATURE
Adverse effects of global warming
By Nita Karume
T
he Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change released a
report detailing progress and
pathways to liming global warming to
1.5 degrees Celsius. In response to the
report, Pan Africa Director of Oxfam
International Mr. Apollos Nwafor, said
that climate change has set our planet
on fire, millions are already feeling the
impacts, and the IPCC just showed
that things can get much worse.
Settling for 2 degrees would be a
death sentence for people in many
parts of Africa. The faster governments
embrace the renewable energy
revolution and move to protect
communities at risk, the more lives
and livelihoods that will be spared.
He went on to explain that a hotter
Africa is a hungrier Africa. Today at
only 1.1 degrees of warming globally,
crops and livestock across the region
are being hit and hunger is rising with
poor small scale women farmers, living
in rural areas suffering the most. It
only gets worse from here.
According to Ms. Nwafor, doing
nothing more and simply following
the commitments made in the Paris
Agreement condemns the world to 3
degrees of warming. Consequently, the
damage to the planet and humanity would
be exponentially worse and irreparable.
He was however quick to add that
none of this is inevitable. He added
that the fact that some of the poorest
and lowest emitting countries are on
the frontline in the fight against climate
change is proof that all is not lost,
after all. He also insisted that Oxfam
calls for increased, responsible and
accountable climate finance from rich
countries that supports small scale
farmers, especially women to realize
their right to food security and climate justice.
Mr. Nwafor stressed that while time is
short, there is still a chance of keeping
to 1.5 degrees of warming. However,
he also said the notion that kicking
small scale farmers off their land to
make way for carbon farming should
be rejected and instead focus on
stopping the use of fossil fuels, starting
with an end to building new coal
power stations worldwide.
Climate impacts in Africa:
Natural disasters such as droughts
and floods have been inhibiting
development in the African continent.
Fluctuations in agricultural production
due to climate variations along with
inefficient agricultural systems cause
food insecurity, one of the most
obvious indicators of poverty. The
2016 El Niño phenomenon, which
was super charged by the effects
of climate change, crippled rain-fed
agricultural production and left over 40
million people foods insecure in Africa.
Without urgent action to reduce global
emissions, the occurrence of climate
shocks and stresses in the Africa region are
expected to get much worse.
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