By Aghan Daniel I aghandan09@gmail.com
Africa has the highest number of climate change vulnerability hotspots leading to increased losses in agriculture, tourism and the manufacturing sectors, a scientist has said.
While addressing a science media café cum preparatory meeting organised by the Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture, Patricia Nying’uro challenged reporters to continuously highlight these issues to save the globe.
Ms Nyinguro, a climate scientist who works at Kenya Meteorological Department, and doubles up as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Focal Point for Kenya noted that other diverse implications of the phenomenon have been responsible for reduced economic growth across Africa, increasing income inequality between African countries and those in more temperate climates.
She stressed that Africa as a continent with a lot of challenges need to come up with urgent African led solutions to deal with these climate change problems.
“Climate change has great impacts on our health, ecosystem, water security, food security. These are some of climate change issues to be discussed during the COP-27 in Egypt,” she said.
Senior science journalists Mr Otulah Owuor and Science editor Zeynab Wandati, who made presentations at the cafe, asked journalists across Africa to be on the alert of the discussions on COP-27 and report on climate change issues in their countries and globally to influence policy change.