Kampala: Uganda has lost nearly a third of its forests in the last two decades and could lose most of its tree cover in about 40 years unless measures are quickly taken to reverse the situation, environmentalists have said. "Climate change does not happen in isolation... It interacts with existing problems and challenges - notably deforestation, soil degradation, declining food security, declining fish stocks - and makes them worse," said Frank Mulamuzi, environmental advocate and executive director of the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE)... Read more...
Smallholder farming in Africa under threat of desertification � World Bank
Lagos: As the world marks World Day to Combat Desertification, the World Bank has released data which show that smallholder farming in Africa is under threat of desertification that is, land degradation. According to the latest World Bank Weekly Report, "around 85 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africans live in rural areas and are fully dependent on the land for their livelihoods... Read more...
New York: So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement. But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases... Read more...
'Africa needs cross-border markets to stem food insecurity'
Sirte: Africa’s food insecurity is likely to continue to manifest itself unless the continent’s leaders address the lack of cross-border agricultural food markets and take steps to tackle poor land use policies, a UN official said here Sunday.The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Executive Secretary Abdoulie Janneh said the food crisis that faced Africa in 2008 revealed major weaknesses in Africa’s food production chain that needed to be addressed... Read more...
Rwanda backs UK's plan on climate change
30 June 2009, source: The New Times URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200906290278.html
Kigali: Rwanda has expressed its support for the recent commitment by the British government regarding its position on dealing with climate change to achieve sustainable global development.
British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, Friday, called for a global fund worth US$100 billion a year to tackle climate change in the developing world... Read more...
Johannesburg: Under-resourced media are failing rural people in developing countries, who are most vulnerable to climate change and in greater need of information to protect themselves from more intense cyclones and longer droughts, according to a new study.
"Journalists need resources and support from their editors to access rural areas to find out how people ... Read more...
2020 deadline is the crucial "litmus test"
30 June 2009, source: Inter Press Service URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47412
Vienna: "So who here thinks there will be a meaningful deal in Copenhagen?" Few of the more than 600 energy ministers, officials and experts from 80 countries attending the Vienna Energy Conference raised their hands in response to the conference moderator's question about the final round of climate negotiations this December in Copenhagen... Read more...
Minister advocates rain water harvesting policy
30 June 2009, source: Modern Ghana URL: http://www.modernghana.com/news/224572/1/minister-advocates-rain-water-harvesting-policy.html
Accra: Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Albert Adongo, on Monday called for a policy on rain water harvesting to make water available during dry seasons. He said though he would be leading the crusade for the policy, he would not be able to put a timeframe to it.Speaking to the media after the opening of a five-day international workshop on Climate Change Adaptation for Water Basin Management in Ghana, he said water had been very scarce in the country but during raining seasons, “we allow the rain water to just flow without any harvesting and our farmers and crops suffer”... Read more...
Oxfam urges Africa to boost farm investments
30 June 2009, source: Oxfam
Sirte: Africa needs to invest more in agriculture to rescue millions from hunger, aid agency Oxfam says, warning both African nations and donors have failed to meet funding pledges. African leaders pledged in 2003 to devote 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture, a goal that only seven nations have met, Oxfam said in a report released on the eve of an African Union summit devoted to agriculture... Read more...
Johannesburg: The debate on providing protection to possibly several million "climate refugees" displaced by the vagaries of nature is heating up. Bangladesh, which may lose up to one-fifth of its surface area if sea levels rise by one metre, called for provisions in the immigration polices of industrial countries to accept "climate refugees" at the recent UN climate change talks in Bonn, Germany... Read more...
Namibia: Climate change policy underway
29 June 2009, source: New Era URL: http://www.newera.com.na/article.php?articleid=5173
Windhoek: Efforts are underway to develop Namibia's National Climate Change Policy Strategy and an accompanying Action Plan. Yesterday, representatives of various Government ministries, research organisations, consulting companies, local authorities, Office of the Prime Minister and non government organisations met in Windhoek to give their input on the proposed National Climate Change document... Read more...
MSU researchers link carbon markets and tree-planting to fight poverty, protect the earth
29 June 2009, source: Michigan State University
East Lansing: Michigan State University scientists are combining sustainable forest production with emerging carbon markets in a unique effort to help some of the world's poorest people grow trees that will boost their standards of living and slow climate change. Called Carbon2Markets, the program includes collaborative projects with farmers, researchers and government agencies in five developing Asian and African countries... Read more...
Rajendra Pachauri: Where's the world's plan of action against climate change?
London: Today, international action on climate change is urgent and essential. Indeed, there can no longer be any debate about the need to act, because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), of which I am chairman, has established climate change as an unequivocal reality beyond scientific doubt... Read more...
The World Bank has approved US$3.5 million for Liberia for its Costal Defense programme which will target three cities including Monrovia, the capital City of Liberia and two other major cities in the country, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) communiqué has said.
According to the EPA communiqué, the fund is also targeted to reduce the impact of climate change and build capacity for Liberians on the magnitude of funds needed to tackle climate change... Read more...
Rising sea could swallow Mombasa in 20 years
29 June 2009, source: Daily Nation URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200906280011.html
Nairobi: Mombasa is known all over the world as a city of sun-kissed beaches and luxurious hotels packed with tourists having the time of their lives. But in just 20 years, this world-renowned tourist haven may become an island of misery in which vast stretches of land are submerged in sea... Read more...
ACCID RSS newsfeed