Africa - Up in smoke 2

The second report on Africa and global warming from the Working Group on Climate Change and Development

 

Too much or too little rain can be a matter of life or death in Africa. At different times and in different places across the continent, climate change threatens both. This briefing brings up to date the original report from the Working Group on Climate Change and Development, Africa – Up in Smoke?, released in 2005. Our overarching conclusion then, which is even more pressing now, was that: “A new model of development is called for, one in which strategies to increase human resilience in the face of climate change and the stability of ecosystems are central. It calls for a new test for every policy and project, in which the key question will be, “Are you increasing or decreasing people’s vulnerability to the climate?”. Above all, the challenge calls for a new flexibility and not a one-size-fits-all, neoliberal-driven approach to development. Just as an investment portfolio spreads risk by including a variety of stocks and shares, so an agricultural system geared to manage the risks of changing climate requires a rich diversity of approaches in terms of what is grown, and how it is grown”.

Download the 2006 update (1.7MB pdf file)

Download the original June 2005 report (1.4MB pdf file)

Date of publication: June 2005 / October 2006