Climate Change & DRR in East Africa

Concern is growing in Kenya that these extremes are just the beginning of the consequences of climate change.

In fact, there is considerable evidence that right now, and in the foreseeable future, the build-up of greenhouse gases in the upper atmosphere will progressively alter conditions for cultivating life-sustaining food crops like maize and wheat, and for raising cattle and other livestock.

The government has seen the signs and responded accordingly. In 2012, it developed the Kenya Climate Change Action Plan.

But what is still missing is a detailed strategy for keeping food production vibrant as the effects of climate change sweep across the country.

Millions of people around the world are likely to be pushed back into poverty because climate change is undermining economic development in poor countries, the World Bank has warned.

Droughts, floods, heatwaves, sea-level rises and fiercer storms are likely to accompany increasing global warming and will cause severe hardship in areas that are already poor or were emerging from poverty, the bank said in a report.

Food shortages will be among the first consequences within just two decades, along with damage to cities from fiercer storms and migration as people try to escape the effects.

In sub-Saharan Africa, increasing droughts and excessive heat are likely to mean that within about 20 years the staple crop maize will no longer thrive in about 40% of current farmland. In other parts of the region rising temperatures will kill or degrade swaths of the savanna used to graze livestock, according to the report, Turn down the heat: climate extremes, regional impacts and the case for resilience...

...The development bank is stepping up its funding for countries to adapt to the effects of climate change, and is calling for rich countries to make greater efforts at cutting greenhouse gas emissions.