Tiempo Climate Newswatch

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hosted last minute talks to seek agreement on key issues such as Africa and climate change at the G8 summit this week. The United States, with others, is opposing plans to raise an additional US$50 billion in aid and Tony Blair himself has admitted that reaching agreement on climate change would be "very difficult". But, he continued, "I think it is incredibly important that we do get some clear agreement that we need to move to a low-carbon economy, we need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and we need to do so urgently."

Meanwhile, a working group on climate change and development, an alliance of non-governmental organizations and agencies, released its latest report Africa - Up in Smoke?, which argues that concern about development in Africa must be linked to action on climate change. It points out that the majority of Africa's population is dependent on small-scale agriculture and is in the front-line as climate change accelerates. Anticipating a debate at the G8 summit, a report, Mirage and Oasis, prepared by the New Economics Foundation concludes that nuclear power would be a very expensive and inefficient way to deal with climate change, increasing the risks associated with terrorism.

More information

• Financial Express
• Guardian Unlimited
• Sydney Morning Herald
• ePolitix
• Transcript of webchat with Tony Blair on Africa and climate change

• Africa, EDIE
• Download report (1.4Mb), Africa: Up in Smoke
• Nuclear power, Terra Daily
• Download report (1.3Mb), Mirage and Oasis

One in six countries faces food shortages this year because of droughts that could become permanent as a result of global warming, warn United Nations scientists. Wulf Killmann is chair of the Food and Agriculture Organization's climate change group. He says that "Africa is our greatest worry. Many countries are already in difficulties... and we see a pattern emerging. Southern Africa is definitely becoming drier."

Thirty-four countries, including Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Eritrea and Zambia, are now experiencing droughts and food shortages. In Malawi, one in three people are expected to need help by year-end. In 2002-03, in that country, the "hidden famine" killed thousands of people in remote regions. In Zimbabwe, four million people may need help this year.

More information

Current situation

• Guardian Unlimited
• Niger, Mali, OneWorld
• Southern Africa, Relief Web
• Zimbabwe, BBC

• Famine Early Warnings System Network
• Drought Monitoring Centre for the Greater Horn of Africa
• Drought Monitoring Centre for the South African Development Community

Modelling the link between climate and deserts suggests that global warming might transform southern Africa into a mobile desert as the sand dunes of the Kalahari become de-stabilized. "By 2099, all dunefields are highly dynamic, from northern South Africa to Angola and Zambia," reports David Thomas of the Centre for the Environment at Oxford University. In the south, the dunes start to move "significantly" as early as 2039.

Human activity will play a critical part in determining whether or not the predictions come about, both in determining the scale of the climate change and the resilience of local systems. Thomas warns politicians against development policies that that might make the situation worse. "We've seen in Botswana, for example, with European Union support, an enormous growth in livestock production using groundwater. That in itself has put great pressure on the Botswana landscape... [In turn, the shifting sands] will make those Western-sponsored programmes very unsuccessful into the future."

More information

• BBC
• Discovery

• SciDevNet
• Yahoo