Curbing Climate Change: The Need For Global Concerted Effort

The call that investments in agriculture, energy and infrastructure require long planning horizons is essential to manage climate change in the coming decades. Accordingly, while climate change is expected to unfold gradually over the coming decades, it is very important that climate issues are factored into national planning processes in every country and geographical area across the globe.

I see such call being echoed by European Commission on the need to deal with climate change as refugees, especially the Syrians who are currently finding their way into some European countries will compound effect of climate change on the affected Europeans countries.

‘’The flood of Syrian refugees into Europe has spurred European leaders to call for an “ambitious, robust and binding global climate deal”.

This was the mood set by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker who noted that “climate refugees will become a new challenge – if we do not act swiftly.” These comments were made during Junker’s first annual State of the Union speech to the European Commission in which he highlighted that climate change is “one of the root causes” of the ongoing refugee crisis out of Syria.

The strong words may be seen by some as a warning, as Junker wanted it to “be very clear to our international partners” that the EU “will not sign just any deal” at the UN climate talks in December. This he concluded would include a strong global emissions reduction target of at least 60% by 2050.

This is a major concern; however, the problem of climate change does not pertain to only the European Commission as they plan to salvage the situation regarding the flood of refugees into their countries. Arguably, this calls for national and international programs in dealing with every respective country’s challenge to climate change.

In this connection, there is the need to identify every country’s peculiar problem as far as the effect of climate change is concern and the road map in terms of planning and projections to reduce the potential impact of climate change on every possible country.

Now major constraint to mainstreaming climate change within development policies is the lack of empirical evidence to inform decision making. While sector studies are crucial for determining specific vulnerabilities, individual impact channels often interact with each other, either offsetting or amplifying final outcomes. A multi-sector approach is therefore essential for evaluating climate impacts.

Moreover, there is considerable uncertainty surrounding climate change, with a wide range of climate projections for countries including Ghana. It is essential to consider the range of potential climate realizations in order to identify major risks and to avoid incurring large opportunity costs if certain projections are not realized.

However, Ghana is known to be vulnerable to climate change in at least three areas that are crucial for the country’s long-term economic development. First, agriculture is a major sector of the economy. It accounts for about a third of national income and export earnings and employs almost two thirds of the workforce . The sector is already exposed to climate variability in Ghana, particularly in its northern regions, and this could worsen under climate change.

According to a story filed by Joseph Opoku Gakpo of Joy New in Ghana,on 17 September 2015.

‘’Drought in Techiman, in the Brong Ahafo Region, has forced Islamic leaders in the town to hold special prayers to call on God for rains.

Farmers in the municipality are lamenting several weeks of drought have caused huge crop losses, leaving them in debt.

Techiman, a town with a large Muslim population is noted as the hub for the production of corn, yam, and other crops to feed other parts of the country. The farmers say they have not had any rains for several weeks, causing them huge losses on their fields.

Joy News’ Joseph Opoku Gakpo who was in the area reports some of the farmers took loans from the banks to finance their activities and have since not been able to pay back.

“This year, the way the rain has treated us was so bad. On my farm, I have planted on the same field three times, and the sun burnt it all. I took a loan of 1,200 cedis from the bank to invest in the farm, but I cannot repay that money now,” 2010 best district farmer Mathew Tuah told Gakpo.

He says this has made it impossible for him to take care of his children’s education.

“My child is supposed to leave for school in Obuasi, but I don’t know where to get money from for him,” he lamented.

An agric Extension Officer in the area Mujis Abdulai explained the major planting season is supposed to run from April till August during which the rains usually fall frequently to ensure they get good harvest, but that has not been the case this year. He says the minor planting season then runs from August till December, but the rain has fallen only once. Mr. Abdulai says the farmers are struggling.

“What the farmers will eat themselves is even a problem, not to talk about what to take to the market to sell…. I fear this could cause food crisis” he told Joy news.

At the special prayer session at one of the school parks in Techiman on Saturday, the Islamic leaders recited special versus from the Quran to call for rain.

Men, women and children took part in the prayers in the scorching sun.

They explained the Holy Prophet Mohammed said those same prayers during His days when there was drought; hence they are hopeful the situation will change.

“We waited for a very long time for God to help us with rain, and the rain wasn’t coming. So our Mallams and Imams had to come together and say let’s pray. And the path of the prophet is that whenever there is difficulty with rain, he meets with his disciples and they pray and call on Allah to help us with rain. So we know we are going to get the rains, Insha Allahu,” one of the leaders of the prayer session told Gaskiya Radio’s Anas Sabbit at the prayer ground’’.

However, analysts believe that unless the UN climate talks agree to make sharper short term goals, we may risk soaring over the 2 degree mark.

The analysts from Climate Analytics looked into 15 different national plans to cut emissions by 2030. These included the US, the EU and China, which together account for 51% of global emissions.

In Africa ,the NEPAD Agency’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has increasingly showed commitment to transform Africa’s agricultural sector.

For the past decade, CAADP has served as the continent’s policy framework for agricultural sector growth and economic development.

The Maputo Declaration of African Heads of States was “unprecedented”, says Dr. Augustin Wambo Yamdjeu, Coordinator of CAADP.

In Maputo, governments showed preparedness and commitment to increase their public expenditure to agriculture by allocating a minimum of ten percent of annual budgets to the sector.

There is now the quest to grow the agriculture sector by an annual six percent under the Malabo Declaration, which is crucial to consolidate the achievements and gains in the implementation of CAADP to ensure food and nutrition security.

“The Malabo Declaration is a game-changer,” said Dr. Yamdjeu during a media teleconference on “Walking the Talk – Malabo Declaration”. He has emphasized that the two declarations are mutually re-enforcing.

What they have found is that a recent trend for countries to submit emissions reductions targets for 2030 could inadvertently lead us down a dangerous path.

“It is clear that if the Paris meeting locks in present climate commitments for 2030, holding warming below 2 degrees could essentially become infeasible, and 1.5°C beyond reach” said Bill Hare of Climate Analytics.

They argue that this may in fact lock in recklessly high emissions until 2030, and that the UN urgently needs to step in and enforce a 2025 target that would allow countries to revise their emissions reductions plans.

Professor Kornelis Blok of Ecofys noted that “with current policies being insufficient to limit emissions…by 2025, it is clear that ramping up greater policy action needs to be encouraged as part of the Paris Agreement”.

If commitments are not increased, the world could be facing a swathe of potential Syrian refugee crises.

Junker’s statements linking climate change to Syria may have been inspired by a report by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences arguing “that drought, in addition to its mismanagement by the Assad regime, contributed to the displacement of two million in Syria.”

It is these 2 million that are now knocking on Europe’s door, and the world’s conscious. However, the question remains whether or not the Syrian crisis will shock countries into making stronger short-term goals to reduce dangerous greenhouse gasses.

In addition to Syrian crisis there is whole lot economic challenges facing many countries especially those in Africa and this problem has come about as result of economic mismanagement by many Africa leaders. This situation when left to persist will increase migration from Africa to some European countries to eventually overwhelm the climate impact of those countries.

As analysts suggest, this will require a concerted effort at the UN talks in December to ensure that the current levels of emissions reductions are not locked in until 2030, opening up a window for increased action in 2025.