OXFAM’S climate hearings are being held in 17 countries around the world, taking the testimonies of real people from all walks of life about how climate change is affecting them. Oxfam will relay these messages to world leaders at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen at the end of the year.

Climate change is a huge threat to development in Africa. Despite contributing less than 3% of global emissions the continent will be hit hard. Scientists predict serious impacts on the production of many staple foods – with the average yields of maize in southern Africa projected to decline by 30%. The number of people without adequate access to water on the continent is predicted to triple to 600 million by 2050.

I attended a Pan-African climate hearing in Cape Town last month where I heard stories from all over Africa about how climate change is already affecting and threatening lives. The stories I heard there were first hand accounts from people who are struggling to survive because climate change is making life so much harder for them.

Rachel Hesselman, a small- scale rooibos tea farmer from the Suid-Bokkeveld region in South Africa has worked hard to make the most of the opportunities which have opened up since the first democratic elections. She now sells organic, fair-trade certified rooibos tea to a growing local and foreign market. However, her hard-won gains are being threatened by drought and rising temperatures.

A pastoralist in northern Kenya, Omar Hussein, travelled from Wajir to share his story. He owns 20 cows. He used to have 200 cows, camels and goats. But in 2007 there was a huge storm and most of his animals drowned. Since then, there has been a crippling drought. “Imagine this – no money, no food for the animals, no food for your children,” explained Omar. Caroline Malema, a Malawian farmer and mother of six, told the Pan-African climate change and poverty hearings of the flooding in her region in March 2007. “In the night we just heard a big noise coming from the river and people were crying, ‘Water, water!’ In the morning when we went to the river we saw that everything had been swept away and the cattle had been killed,” she said.

The villagers tried to replant but drought destroyed their harvest and, with no options for income or sustenance, many women resorted to prostitution. Now, says Malema, HIV infection is rife in the region and there are many Aids orphans.

These are not one-off experiences but they represent what communities all over Africa are facing. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu attended the Pan- African Climate Hearing event in Cape Town and called for the world to help these people, and his words are still echoing in my head: “World leaders must not turn their backs on the people from across Africa and around the world who are struggling to cope with a changing climate. They must deliver the emissions reductions and the financial support that is needed now to prevent a human catastrophe.”

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Source: WalesOnline

Tags: Human impact