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Climate Change Will Displace Millions in Africa

By The Media Line news agency

Climate change will make hundreds of millions of people refugees, claims a new report by the UN.

The report, released at a UN climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, predicts that by 2050, 700 million people will have been displaced by climate change.

Several UN agencies, in collaboration with Columbia University and the NGO CARE, produced the report, entitled, "In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement." It reiterates claims made in recent months by the Norwegian Refugee Council in Oslo of 'climate refugees'. Africa is said to have been the worst hit by climate change displacement so far, and will continue to suffer due to its considerable reliance on agriculture.

"What we will be seeing throughout most of Africa is increasing volatility in terms of seasonal change," Charles Ehrhart, co-author of the report and coordinator of CARE International's new Poverty and Climate Change Initiative, told The Media Line. "And that makes it very difficult for farmers to effectively do their jobs."

Widespread displacement is mainly caused by two things: a weak agriculturally-dependent economy, which is significantly affected by climate change, and political strife.

Because agriculture has become such a precarious industry, African farmers are abandoning rural areas in the hope they will find stable work elsewhere.

"The pattern we have been seeing in recent decades is people giving up those traditional livelihoods and moving towards urban centers," Ehrhart explained. The problem is that those economies have not been able to generate alternative livelihoods to meet those demands."

"We need to support those rural livelihoods to be more resilient because the urban centers cannot absorb the rural populations fast enough."

Ehrhart's report outlines a program to bolster Africa's rural economy, which he hopes will make the agricultural industry more climate-change resistant. 'In Search of Shelter' recommends that governments contribute to agricultural innovations such as water-wise irrigation and low/no-till farming practices.

While the repercussions of climate change are difficult to manage, Ehrhart believes that women are an untapped resource in curbing the numbers of environmental refugees in Africa, whose growth rate is the highest in the world.

"The best way that we can affect population growth in a positive way is to educate women," Ehrhart believes, advocating education as the solution, rather than birth control.

"When women are empowered through education, the decisions that they make end up frequently being better for them and for their family," Ehrhart said. "And in many cases that results in a choice to have fewer children."

(c) 2009. The Media Line Ltd. All Rights Reserved.