Even though climate change is a global phenomenon, its impacts affect Africa a lot even though Africans are yet to come to full realization of why they need to take it more seriously beyond the social media posts of those young chaps that only want to attend environment conferences and United Nations’ forums.
Last Friday, Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General and Chair of Kofi Annan Foundation, has issued stern warning to the world on climate change in an article that was originally published in French on LeMonde.fr and in English on theafricareport.com.
According to him, climate change among other things is magnifying the threat of harmattan which he said has become more severe and less predictable, and carries more dust.
“The evolving threat of the harmattan is a stark example of how we need to collaborate to protect public health from the effects of climate change. In the case of the harmattan, we need to make sure that accurate weather forecasts travel the “last mile” to reach people in the wind’s path so they can take shelter,” Annan said.
As far as health is concerned, Annan quoted the 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change that unequivocally said climate change can undermine the last 50 years of progress in public health and development.
“Climate change will magnify and multiply existing health threats – in many cases dramatically. The effects will be felt hardest in low and middle-income countries in Africa and South Asia,” he said.
What should be done
Beyond just reeling out the threats, Annan said things could be done to avert the full wrath of climate change. This he said includes a comprehensive programme of action that places people and their health at the centre of the global response to climate change.
“The threat from the harmattan shows us a good place to start: by improving collection of climate and weather information, preparation of forecasts – including forecasts of dust and sand storms – and distribution of weather warnings to those who need them.”
Africa
As far as the continent is concerned, Annan said the continent is the one that should be climate-smart the fastest, although many health professionals in Africa are not yet using forecasts of droughts, floods or extreme temperatures – mainly because national weather services don’t have the funding, tools, training or institutional arrangements necessary to generate or share such forecasts.
Annan said: “How can we change this? We need to support weather and climate services in developing countries so that rather just collecting and providing data, they can become trusted suppliers of information and knowledge to the public.
“To do that, they need access to data management and communication technologies that have already been tried and tested in other sectors, such as agriculture, where being climate-smart is becoming the norm.”
He also called for greater emphasis on providing people with the timely information they need to protect themselves from extreme weather.
“The last time the harmattan swept through Ghana, I was there to see it. The skies were dark for days. I thought of the people in remote and rural areas, caught unawares by sudden storms of sand and dust. We have the means to help them – not just now but in the future, when climate change makes things worse – so we should join forces to do everything we can.”
