Climate Change and Africa

Description

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, no environmental issue is of such truly global magnitude as the issue of climate change. The poorer, developing countries are the least equipped to adapt to the potential effects of climate change, although most of them have played an insignificant role in causing it. African countries are amongst the poorest of the developing countries. This book presents the issues of most relevance to Africa, such as past and present climate, desertification, biomass burning and its implications for atmospheric chemistry and climate, energy generation, sea-level rise, ENSO-induced drought and flood, adaptation, disaster risk reduction, the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol (especially the Clean Development Mechanism), capacity-building, and sustainable development. It provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of these and many other issues, with chapters by the leading experts from a range of disciplines. Climate Change and Africa will prove to be an invaluable reference for all researchers and policy makers with an interest in climate change and Africa.

'He should be commended for managing to recruit about 40 per cent of the authors from Africa, giving the book for the most part a genuine African perspective... The collection of papers in this book addresses many aspects of climate change, providing an overview of the long-term trends, causes, consequences, development issues and opportunities, as well as offering detailed recommendations for maximising the progress to be made in Africa through Kyoto Protocol initiatives ... the book remains a valuable resource for students and policy-makers in providing a fairly comprehensive overview of the range of issues that are linked to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Africa.' Area