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Regions with the smallest carbon emissions will be the hardest hit by its effects according the 2007/2008 UNDP Human Development Report launched here today. Africa is among the most vulnerable regions to the effects of climate change, which are derailing efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

At the Africa regional launch of Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world, Nigeria’s President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua appealed for world leaders to address climate change as a matter of urgency to avert a global climate disaster. 

Countries contributing substantially to global emission of greenhouse gases are least affected by the negative impact of the climatic shocks, said President Yar’Adua, he explained developing countries are paying a high toll for the actions of rich nations and called on developed countries to drastically cut emissions, and exceed the reports recommendations. “While the report is advocating a reduction by 30% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 from advanced countries, I think the 30% must be reached before 2015 if they really want Africa to reach the MDGs.” 

President Yar’Adua said that Nigeria, as the host of the regional launch, would take a leader role on climate change in Africa and that his government would not tolerate gas flaring in the Niger Delta beyond 2008. 

President Yar’Abua is urging African governments to act now to address the effects of climate change in the region, which include erratic rainfall patterns, floods and prolonged and recurring droughts creating a cumulative cycle of vulnerability and destitution across generations.

Presenting the highlights of the report, UNDP Regional Director for Africa Gilbert Houngbo, said climate change in sub-Saharan Africa could reverse, if unchecked, advances in health, education and poverty-reduction.

“For Africa, the double mitigation challenge is the need for energy security and energy access by finding ways to attract enough direct investment to meet the growing energy demand and to drive investments towards lower carbon technologies,” Houngbo said.

The biggest challenge to human development in the 21st century

The Human Development Report is UNDP’s flagship publication commissioned annually to present the most pressing challenges facing humanity.

It builds on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Synthesis Report and sets a platform for climate change negotiations in Bali, Indonesia this December, and stresses that a narrow 10-year window of opportunity remains to put it into practice.

Africa will require the support of wealthy countries to adapt and prevent reversals in recent drops in the share of people living in extreme poverty according to the authors. Developing countries must integrate climate change in poverty reduction strategies. African governments will need to expand the continent’s meteorological monitoring network, so that farmers can access better information about climate patterns in the region.

Other recommendations include water-storage or “water harvesting” facilities in countries with high levels of rainfall concentrated in a few weeks of the year and improving national social insurance programmes to protect farmers and poor urban residents from the worst effects of climate-related disasters.

Fighting climate change notes that if each poor person on the planet had the same energy-rich lifestyle as an American or Canadian, nine planets would be needed to safely cope with the pollution. The US state of Texas, for example, with 23 million people emits more CO2 than all of the 720 million residents of sub-Saharan Africa put together, says the report.

The report concludes, “One of the hardest lessons taught by climate change is that the economic model which drives growth and the profligate consumption in rich nations that goes with it, is ecologically unsustainable”. However, the authors argue, “with the right reforms, it is not too late to cut greenhouse gas emissions to sustainable levels without sacrificing economic growth: that rising prosperity and climate security are not conflicting objectives”.