AFRICAN RARE GLACIERS

• Recently, a report from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) stated that Africa’s rare glaciers will disappear in the next two decades due to climate change.
• Their current retreat rates are higher than the global average. If this continues, it will lead to total de-glaciation by the 2040s.
• WMO is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN)
• It produces annually the State of the Global Climate Report

Important points:

• Africa is the continent that contributes least to global warming yet it is going to suffer the most.
• While African nations contribute less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the report underscored the outsize impact that changes in the climate are having on the continent’s 1.3 billion people.
• The last three mountain glaciers in Africa (Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), Mount Kenya (Kenya) and the Ruwenzori Mountains (Uganda)) are receding at such a rapid pace that they could disappear within two decades.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, climate change could further lower gross domestic product by up to 3% by 2050.
• The cost of adapting to climate change in Africa will rise to $50 billion per year by 2050.
• The Indian Ocean island nation of Madagascar is one where “famine-like conditions” have been driven by climate change.
• The parts of South Sudan are seeing the worst flooding in almost 60 years.
• Further, massive displacement, hunger and increasing climate shocks such droughts and flooding are expected to increase in the future.
• This is having a major impact on disaster warnings for millions of people in Africa.

Way Forward

• Increasing African Representation: Despite the threats ahead to the African continent, the voices of Africans have been less represented than richer regions at global climate summits like in IPCC reports.
• Thus, there is a need to increase African participation in all multilateral climate change negotiations.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT