Ghana And The Vulnerable Countries Calls For Attention At The Climate Treaty

We are already facing devastating climate impacts, for example drought, sea level rise and food insecurity is very real and present dangers. If the negotiations don't work for the most vulnerable among us – the Least Developed Countries – then they will have failed. Chair of LDCs reported during the Bonn negotiation.

A week of UN climate negotiations in Bonn closed Friday and submissions where made by the African group such as Ghana and Nigeria and LDCs such as Angola and over 100 countries worldwide including the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are 48 nations such as Afghanistan, Burkina, Sudan, Gambia and more than half are in Africa that are especially vulnerable to climate change but have done the least to cause the problem.

The current plans to mitigate GHG emissions do not keep us even within a temperature rise of 2°C. However from the Least Developed Countries' perspective, it is far worse than that. For 48 of the world's poorest and most vulnerable countries, economic development, regional food security and ecosystems are at risk in this 2°C 'safe zone'.

So far 128 INDCs have being submitted and more are coming but there are fears that the current INDCs submitted are unfortunately still a race to the bottom and the level of ambition contained within the country's climate change plans put the world on a 2.7°C pathway but the LDCs are calling for a 1.5°C as anything higher exposes the nations to irreversible changes in the climate system. During the negotiation in Bonn, parties recognized that deep cuts in global emissions will be required to achieve the ultimate objective of the convention and emphasized on the need for urgency to address climate change. Parties also declared their support for a 1.5°C target on climate change.

Ghana and other African nations are among the lightest polluters, but analysts say they will suffer the most from climate change in their pursuit of water, food security, and sustainable development, political and economic sustainability.

African countries are highly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate variability and climate change owing to the high frequency and intensity of extreme climate events and the increasing risk of slow onset processes. Emerging empirical evidence from the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC (IPCC AR5) shows increased frequency of droughts, floods, rising temperatures, sea level rise, and other weather and climate events, pose major threats on populations that derive their livelihoods from these agricultural systems. For example, the droughts in the Gambia of the Sahel region in 2013, according to Yaffa, led to a decline of 39% in groundnut, 45% in maize, 64% in millet, and 50% in rice production, respectively.

In the Horn of Africa, the UNICEF reported in 2011 that 8.8 million people needed humanitarian support during the 2011 drought. According to the UNEP Report of 2009, droughts as a result of climate change have contributed to a reduction in the size and water levels of Lake Chad in West Africa by 95% in 2001, which resulted in an increased poverty due to its direct impact on fisheries and food security. Other reports indicate that flood fatalities in Africa increased by a factor of ten from 1950 to 2009, and during the decade 2000-2009 have even doubled. The understanding, prediction and early warning of extreme climate events are therefore critical to climate risk reduction and sustainable development in Africa.

Long-term global targets can serve as a guideline for policy decisions on mitigation. However, under any long-term global target, the impacts of climate change are not equally distributed over countries. The evaluation of a global target for limiting global warming needs to take into account this heterogeneity and the interests of countries that take the bigger share of impacts.

Global climate change has already shown observable effects on Africa. For example, in Ghana, increased drought and aridification, along with rising temperatures led to a decrease in water level in the Akosombo Reservoir causing major problems in the production of hydroelectric power which pose a threat to the energy sector. In northern African countries, water resources have been affected in that the frequency of extreme events such as floods or extended droughts has increased direct consequence as there is crop loss causing starvation of human populations or livestock if alternative food sources are not available. In fact, rainfall receipts have decreased by around 15% which threatens eastern and southern African countries dependent on rain-fed agriculture.

Developed and wealthy nations must show their commitment and support Ghana and other African countries in the implementation of these INDCs rather than the process and communication of the INDCs and must allow their policies to reflect the magnitude and urgency of actions needed to tackle climate change in Africa and more of the finance should be channel to Africa as are the most vulnerable when it comes to climate change.

Governments must do more in Paris, but the work does not end there. For the INDCs to succeed they must be adjusted before 2020 and reviewed in five year cycles from 2020 to ensure national actions quickly and rapidly progresses or we all face a grim and uncertain future.

Fariya Abubakari, climate tracker for adopt a negotiator program.
Email: [email protected]