Foreword
Humanity is at an environmental crossroads, and the long-term welfare of literally billions of people is at stake. Climate change has been sneaking up on us for many decades – some say ever since the advent of the Industrial Revolution – but it is only relatively recently that steps began to be taken to confront what I have called a ‘creeping catastrophe’. In 1989, the United Nations established the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and called for global action to reverse the alarming, but at the time, not well-understood climate trends.
The UNFCCC explicitly requested Member States to enact effective environmental legislation, and that new environmental standards and ecosystem management objectives be embraced. Since then, considerable progress has been made, both in terms of our scientific understanding of climate change and its likely impacts, as well as in the willingness of governments to acknowledge and address the challenge.
The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – a scientific body under the auspices of the UN, which assesses scientific evidence contributed to it by thousands of researchers worldwide on the causes and likely implications of climate change – confirms that the phenomenon is a manifestation of human activities on and to our planet, and their impact on the earth’s natural climate. Yes, there are those who still doubt the anthropogenic causes underlying the climate shifts we are beginning to see and experience, but as the evidence mounts and is becoming more overwhelming, their numbers are dwindling fast. And as the IPCC warns, unless humanity acts now to address climate change, its effects may be irreversible.
As is made clear by the contributing authors of this publication, one of the key sectors that is already and will increasingly be affected by climate change is agriculture. This is particularly true for agriculture in developing countries, and especially for countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Rapid and uncertain changes in rainfall patterns and temperature regimes threaten food production, increase the vulnerability of African smallholder farmers, and can result in food price shocks and increased rural poverty. As noted elsewhere in this publication, agriculture – even the low-input smallholder agriculture of sub-Saharan Africa – is both a ‘victim and a culprit’ relative to climate change.
Although developing countries, especially those in Africa, are likely to bear the brunt of climate change, none of us will be immune to its impacts. It is time we acted together and be reminded that, when it comes to the devastating effects if climate change, we all swim – or sink – together. This is not the time to play the blame game.
While considerable progress is being made on a number of fronts regarding climate change, much more remains to be done. This is a global problem and requires global actions and solutions. As a UN Special Envoy on Climate Change, I advocate for leaders in government, industry, finance and civil society, especially in Africa, to show serious commitment towards addressing climate change and to find ways to adapt to and mitigate its impacts on our people.
Climate-related government programs, whether aimed at adaptation or mitigation (or both), should be mainstreamed into national budgets in order to transform growing political will into concrete actions that help smallholders to adapt to and mitigate climate change.
The developed, as well as developing countries alike must live up to their responsibilities in safeguarding our planet. We must all take steps to implement the commitments we have made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are harmful to the atmosphere.
Developing countries may need to give greater emphasis to adaptation, at least in the near term, while industrialized nations focus more on mitigation measures, but we all have a role to play in meeting this environmental challenge.
Fortunately, as this publication attests, there are many adaptation and mitigation options at our disposal.
We need to be moving towards the widespread adoption of ‘climate-smart’ agricultural technologies and practices – not just in Africa, but globally. If we fail to do so, we risk greater food insecurity, higher food prices and rising poverty, as well as continued ecosystem degradation.
Beyond that, we must move together to address the root causes of climate change. I do not believe that any rational person would choose to live in a world characterized by ever-higher temperatures, melting polar icecaps, rising sea-levels, the destruction of coral reefs, more intense hurricanes and cyclones, deadly droughts, desertification, and increasingly contaminated rivers and polluted air. After all, such negative consequences of climate change are not selective; they affect everyone, everywhere. We must act swiftly and responsibly, individually and collectively, to ensure a secure future for Africa and for humanity as a whole. The current generation of humanity owes it as a duty to posterity.