The need for global cooperation in climate change
Gemeda Chala
Climate change has resulted in shrinking of glaciers, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner. Besides recurrent droughts in many parts of the world including the developed countries shows that the issue of climate change is not a political or ideological agenda. Mankind needs to make a critical and informed choice between unprecedented global disaster which is already threatening human civilization and conceited cooperation to rescue the planet earth from gradual extinction.
Effects predicted by scientists in the past are now occurring, including loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more intense heat waves. Scientists confirm that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more than 1,300 scientists from the United States and other countries, forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.
According to the IPCC, the extent of climate change effects on individual regions will vary over time and with the ability of different societal and environmental systems to mitigate or adapt to change.
The IPCC predicts that increases in global mean temperature of less than 1.8 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 3 degrees Celsius) above 1990 levels will produce beneficial impacts in some regions and harmful ones in others. The net annual costs will increase over time as global temperatures increase.
The United Nations and its agencies as well as regional and national institutions have been trying to coordinate international efforts towards devising policies and strategies that could have been used to roll back climate change induced disasters. The signatories of COP 2 have expressed their political commitment in supporting the multi-faceted efforts to curb the effects of climate change, but some countries are already harboring doubts over wether “ climate change” is a reality.
Recent hurricanes that occurred in the USA and Latin and Caribbean countries clearly indicate the massive effects of climate change. Some countries can cope with these disasters easily while a considerable number of countries will not be able to rehabilitate their citizens affected by such disasters. The effects of climate change are already global and require the concerted efforts of all countries. The world is already experiencing global warming in unprecedented pace and scope. Nations can never remain indifferent to such disasters as the issue transcends political, ideological and policy priorities of the countries.
One thing is worth mentioning here. Although natural phenomena play a greater role in contributing to climate change, the imbalance in climatic conditions is mostly attributed the release of carbon to the earth’s atmosphere by millions of factories located in fewer countries like the USA and China while the developing countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia are the ones who are suffering from adverse global climatic irregularities.
Although some level of hope is in the horizon through COP 2, many countries who are responsible for releasing huge amount of carbon every year are not responding to the commitments they have entered in the desired speed.
Most of the 20 countries that have already been identified as the most vulnerable are already suffering from the effects of climate change but Ethiopia did not waste time waiting upon other countries to address her climate change induced drought, flood and other climate change related calamities that recurrently occurred in the country for several decades.
Ethiopia is already a showcase in developing a climate resilient but huge challenges remain. The country’s climate change strategy calls for annual spending of 7.5 billion dollars to combat the effects of climate change, but the actual funding available falls well short of this. According to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the government is only able to afford an estimated 440 million dollars per year.
One of the effects of Climate change is higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather which has already ushered a visible shift in the cropping calendar of Ethiopia and significantly increases the risks related to agricultural production, exposing smallholder farmers to vulnerability.
Despite these visible challenges, every year Ethiopia is mobilizing more than 30 million citizens which is very close to a third of the population on regular environmental protection programs and catchment management schemes. The country is currently working on mainstreaming environment related interventions into the planning cycle of every sector of the nation’s development programs.
As part of the climate resilient green economy (CRGE) the major mega projects of the country including national power supply gird, railway transport, industrial parks are based on hydropower as a one of renewable energy resources.
Ethiopia is playing a major role in promoting climate change information systems in Africa. The nation is actively participating in AU’s Africa regional strategy for disaster risk reduction which aims at contributing towards attaining sustainable development and poverty reduction by integrating disaster risk reduction into development programs. Water, Irrigation and Electricity Minister, Dr. Sileshi Bekele recently said the purpose of this forum is to bring together technical as well as ministerial participants to provide guidance on how existing weather water and climate information strategies and programs can be strengthened.
This would help to promote sustainable development, adaptation planning and climate resilient growth.
Ethiopia in its growth, trajectory aspires to achieve economic development targets in a resource efficient manner that overcomes the possible conflict between economic growth and climate change, he added.“Within this Ethiopia sees strong hydromet services and climate information systems as a key to realize the positive roles of climate and water resources and reduce its negative impacts,” the minister said.
The Africa Hydromet Forum is expected to confer on the opportunities and challenges of strengthening National Meteorology and hydrology service delivery and outline recommendations. In Ethiopia, particularly in the urban centers, the issue of environmental protection is of critical importance because it is interrelated with maintaining hygienic standards that fits into urban life. The social consciousness of the public on sanitation and environmental protection is still not at the desired level. Although municipalities in all parts of the country are trying to keep their towns clean and green, mishandling of trashes and sewerage disposal shows low level of public participation. This entails that more is to be done in the current fiscal year.
The public needs to give a greater care to trees and flowers that are planted on roadsides and in public avenues. Some of the periodic localized epidemics that were observed in the previous years are directly related to nonchalance of all concerned with maintaining clean and green residential areas. It is important that all public and private enterprises, ministries, agencies and commissions come up with viable environmental protection schemes as part of their regular activities. It has been proved that conducting periodic campaigns could only pay off in the short run, but keeping the working and living environment clean and green needs to be a regular activity of all citizens. Ethiopia’s leading role in promoting and implementing carbon free economy sets a practical example, both for the developed and developing countries and all concerned need to do their part in making the entire country free of pollutants of all kinds.