AACC Church Leader's Statement on Climate Change

[Worldwide Faith News]

Church Leaders Release Statement on Climate Change
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Church Leader's Statement on Climate Change

Greetings from All Africa Conference of Churches,


Today, it is widely agreed by the scientific community that climate 
change is a reality. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 
(IPCC) has concluded that human activities are altering our climate 
system and will continue to do so, and climate change will increase 
frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events such as droughts, 
floods, and storms as we are already experiencing.


The effects of a surge in hurricanes, floods, higher temperatures and 
water shortages are expected to fall disproportionately on the poor 
because they are less able to adapt. Farming in tropical and 
sub-tropical regions is worst hit. Africa, with its already severe 
economic and social problems will be most vulnerable. Disease levels 
will shoot up, especially in crowded cities along the continent's 
coasts, which will also face inundation as sea levels rise.


Widespread poverty limits adaptation capabilities in Africa, where 
repeated drought, inappropriate land-use and a dependence on rain-fed 
agriculture increase vulnerability to climate changes. An estimated 
20 million people, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa, have already 
been displaced by problems linked to a damaged environment, ranging 
from eroded farmland to polluted water supplies hence the new 
phenomenon of Environmental refugees in the continent. A United 
Nations think-tank has predicted as many as 50 million environmental 
refugees most of whom would be from Africa could be driven from their 
homes by 2010 through increased desertification, drought, flooding, 
storms and rising sea levels associated with global warming.

1.  Effect of climate change on humans

(a)          Agricultural Sector

Most of Africa relies on rain-fed agriculture. As a result, it is 
highly vulnerable to changes in climate variability, seasonal shifts, 
and precipitation patterns. Any amount of warming will result in 
increased water stress. Roughly 70% of the population lives by 
farming, and 40% of all exports are agricultural products. One third 
of the income in Africa is generated by agriculture and livestock 
husbandry. Climate change will affect agricultural yield directly and 
indirectly through changes in soil quality, pests and plant diseases. 
In particular, the yield of cereals is expected to decline in Africa. 
As the temperature rises, conditions will be more favourable for 
pests like grasshoppers to complete a number of their reproduction 
cycle and increase their population.

(b)          Health

Climate change has critical health implications. Changes in rainfall 
will affect the presence and absence of vector - and water - borne 
pathogens. For example, it can be expected that small changes in 
temperature and precipitation will boost the population of disease - 
carrying mosquitoes and result in increased malaria epidemics. 
Increased flooding could facilitate the breeding of these malaria 
carriers in formerly arid areas. These problems will be exacerbated 
by the inability of many communities to cope with increased diseases. 
In many African urban settlements, population expansion has outpaced 
the capacity of municipal authorities to provide civic works for 
sanitation and other health delivery services. If settlement 
conglomeration such as those envisaged for West Africa and the 
eastern seaboard of South Africa develop, vulnerable populations will 
cover entire regions, not just isolated areas.


(c)          Migration

Semi-arid areas of the Sahel, and the Kalahari historically have 
supported nomadic societies that migrate in response to annual and 
seasonal rainfall varieties. Nomadic pastorals systems are 
intrinsically able to adapt to fluctuating and extreme 
climates-provided they have sufficient scope for movement and other 
necessary elements in the system remain in place. However, the 
prolonged drying trend in the Sahel since the 1970s has demonstrated 
the vulnerability of such groups to climate change: they cannot 
simply move to the axis of migration when the wetter end already is 
occupied and permanent water points fail at the drier end. The result 
has been widespread loss of human life and livestock, and substantial 
changes to the social system.


(d)          Employment

Trade Unionist believe that the level of knowledge about the impact 
of climate change on global employment and the measures to limit its 
impact, are often overlooked by decision-makers. The little research 
that has been done on the impact of climate change on employment 
shows that the issue is twofold.


On the short-term, closing down the industries that contribute to 
global warming will create unemployment, however sure to be created 
in other sectors that will start producing alternatives. When it 
comes to the effect of global warming, this is already documented to 
have a negative effect on employment, both on an African and a global 
scale. According to the 1997 report The Regional Impact of Climate 
Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability edited by Robert T. Watson, 
Marufu C. Zinyowera and Richard H. Moss, the social and labor 
consequences of a global warming will be significant in Africa. 
Reduced stream flows would cause reductions in hydropower production, 
leading to negative effect on industrial productivity and costly 
relocation of some industrial plants. Management of pollution, 
sanitation, waste disposal, water supply and public health, as well 
as provision of adequate infrastructure in urban areas, could become 
more difficult and costly under changed climate conditions, the 
report concludes. In fact it has been reported in Kenyan daily papers 
that if the trend of global warming continues unchecked, most rivers 
in East Africa which flows from the mountains such as Kilimanjaro, 
Kenya, Ruwenzori etc. will dry up by 2010.

A recent publication by Don Hinrichen (Published by the World Watch 
Institute) also shows that the societal consequences of a 1-metre 
rise of the  oceans will be tremendous in Africa.  Whole cities, the 
economic and labor centers, could disappear. Banjul, the Gambian 
capital, lies in the mangroves, and the entire city is no more than a 
meter above the sea level. Close to 4 million people would be 
displaced and part of the Nigeria economic capital of Lagos would be 
under water. Alexandria, Egypt second city would be lost. The demise 
of this ancient city would cost the country over $32 billion in lost 
land, infrastructure, and tourist revenue, The study further shows 
how certain labor intensive African sectors would suffer. Oil 
production in the Niger Delta would be lost to the advancing sea and 
another 10000 hectares of productive crop land would be subject to 
erosion and Stalinization. Some 8-10 million people would be 
displaced in Egypt - and the working place will lie less than one 
meter of sea-level.


2.  Call for responsible global leadership in response to Climate Change

Since the United Nations Conference on Environment (UNCED) in Rio de 
Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, there has been much debate and many 
international deliberations on the global environment crisis. The 
Kyoto Protocol, one of the outcomes of these deliberations, has been 
signed and ratified by most nations. The current environmental crisis 
cannot be overcome through voluntary actions, but through a legally 
binding commitment of all nations. The Kyoto Protocol was designed to 
ensure that all annex 1 (industrialized) countries would commit 
themselves to legally binding emission reductions to 1990 levels. 
Since then, none of these countries have met this target, but have 
instead continued to increase their emissions, with the disastrous 
consequences which are now being experienced, particularly in Africa.

The AACC therefore calls upon all the industrialized countries to 
implement all provisions of the Kyoto Protocol as an initial step, 
and that after its expiry in 2012, that this is followed by new and 
higher commitments based on historic responsibility and development 
equity. The AACC calls for global responsible leadership both in the 
North and in the South, in the support for a real and actual 
reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same time 
preserving the right of all people to reach a dignified level of 
sustainable development. Governments of the industrialized nations 
must keep the promise that they made in the UN Framework Convention 
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.


3. Consultation on Climate change and water

The Church Leaders representing National Christian Councils and 
Churches from the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in 
Southern Africa [FOCCISA] and the Fellowship of Christian Councils 
and Churches in the Great lakes and Horn of Africa [FECCLAHA] under 
the auspices of AACC met from 3rd 5th June 2008 in Nairobi, Kenya to 
consult on the subject of climate change and water. One of the 
outcomes of the Consultation is the statement attached. We are 
currently writing the Consultation report and we will send you a copy 
immediately it is ready.

A similar Consultation for West and Central African Sub-Regional 
Fellowship is planned to take place in September 2008.

Yours in His service,

Rev. Dr. M. Dandala

GENERAL SECRETARY

All Africa Conference of Churches