The First Climate Change Famine
Madagascar is experiencing the "first climate change famine" according to the United Nations.
Climate change is not just a phrase. It should make us react like Gina in the film “The Girl in the Cafe” when she said: “To watch your kids die, and then to die yourself in trying to protect them, that’s not right. If we do not make great decisions now, someday someone else will (if it is not already too late) and they will look back on us and say : people were actually dying in their millions…in front of you, on your TV screens, what were you thinking? You knew what to do to stop it (from) happening and you did not do those things. Shame on you”
What is happening?
According to the IPCC report, global warming would reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052, if it continues to increase at the current rate. Yet it is only 2021, and Madagascar is experiencing the "first climate change famine" according to the United Nations. Due to rising temperatures in the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific, there is a drought leaving more than a million people facing hunger and food insecurity across Madagascar. Parts of South Africa's provinces are also at risk of a total water shortage, which is having a serious impact on agricultural activities. There are even fears that the country is facing the onset of a major drought. Climate change is not only affecting water supplies, but is also causing electricity shortages in Zambia. In fact, the water levels of Lake Kariba, which provides half of the country's total electrical energy, have dropped by six meters in the last three years. In addition, rising sea temperatures due to global warming are causing extreme weather conditions such as the cyclones in Mozambique that caused massive flooding about five months ago.
Faced with these extreme climatic conditions, the victims are forced to abandon their land, which represents for them a large part of their wealth and identity, to survive elsewhere. More so, without an internal migration policy to better accommodate them, survivors of the famine in southern Madagascar, who migrated to the northwest, burned the forests of the Ankarafantsika protected area. Unfortunately, with these burned forests, thousands of species of endemic fauna and flora that the island took thousands of years to develop to obtain its unique biodiversity disappeared in the blink of an eye. Thus, in Africa, the effects of climate change are turning into a vicious circle that the populations will have difficulty escaping. However, the sad reality about global warming is that it is the most vulnerable who suffer the most. In Malawi for example, with 84% of the population living in rural areas, climate change has led to long periods of drought followed by severe flooding. Therefore, in the absence of food and the possibility of selling their crops, women engage in transactional sex or travel long distances just to find water and firewood to feed their families.
If Africa does not react now, then when will it?
African countries are already experiencing the consequences of climate change but unfortunately most African governments have not yet set their targets for climate action. However, the time to act is now because the 26th annual UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) will take place in Glasgow from November 1 to 12, 2021. Leaders from 196 countries will be present at this major conference to take action to limit climate change and its effects and to consider whether sufficient progress has been made since the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Thus, this Conference represents an opportunity for African leaders to raise awareness of the effects of global warming on the continent and to commit countries around the world to take drastic measures to limit these effects. But even before this Conference, African governments will have to clearly integrate the climate change agenda into their development context. In terms of national vision, they need to be clear about their financial capacity and availability of resources to see which actions they can do on their own, and which they will need support from other countries. The pandemic and drought have taught us this year that water, agriculture, health and energy transition are the most important areas for Africa. African countries must know their priorities, and at the same time make demands to secure their future, so that they are not always the ones who suffer the misfortunes of the world.