Over the past year, the countries of Africa have intensified their efforts to build a coalition on climate change. Across the continent, governments and communities have been working to ensure that their concerns and expectations are heard at this month's Copenhagen climate negotiations.
Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change. In our lifetimes, climate shifts will likely inflict severe damage to human welfare in a continent already battling with entrenched poverty, degraded ecosystems and civil strife. More than 40 percent of the continent's inhabitants live in extreme poverty and 70 percent of that number are located in rural areas, depending largely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Climate change will affect farmers from the Sahel to the highlands of Lesotho. Rising temperatures could lead to new epidemics of mosquito-borne diseases in countries such as Kenya and Uganda. Storms and floods are likely to intensify, wiping out vital infrastructure and housing in Madagascar, Mozambique and many other coastal areas.
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