Climate sins: Troubling realities of Sahel

The alliance of 21 countries along the Sahel working together to combat climate change is positive news of the Sahel recently, which is characterised by reports of coups, conflicts and terrorism.

Their efforts dovetail into one of the world's most audacious attempts at combatting climate change, the rolling out of the Great Green Wall Project (GGWP) spearheaded by the African Union (AU).

The GGWP launched in 2007 is to reforest 247 million acres of degraded land across the width of Africa stretching from Dakar to Djibouti creating a giant green belt across the African continent. With a budget of $8 billion, the GGWP is expected to be completed in 2030.

If successfully executed, the GGWP is expected to absorb some 250 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

As the long strip of semi-arid band of grassland at the southern edge of the Sahara, the Sahel with its many countries contribute to global warming, yet they reap the worst repercussion from the wealth generated by the more industrialised and rich countries of the world.

It is worth noting that the GGWP came about as concerns mounted about the impact of climate change on the Sahel, one of the most impoverished regions on earth.

The region is home to more than 150 million people nearly two-thirds of them under the age of 25. It is also an area reputed for having the highest birth rate in the world.

As climate change shrinks the resources of the region it creates a troubling situation that has a wider global repercussion.

The Drylands ambassador to the UN Convention to Combat  Desertification, Dennis Garrity, likens conditions in the Sahel to those in the impoverished ungoverned swath of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the font of global terrorism two and a half decades ago.

Troubling developments

This observation sounds gloomy, yet it is actually the reality of the situation in the Sahel. Currently, governments in the region are losing control of extremist groups such as Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) the sub-regional body of West Africa is currently having a headache as it tries to reverse the emergence of Club of Coup Countries (CCC) in the sub-region all located within the Sahel.

The sad reality is that the Sahel is not only the area most vulnerable to climate change in the world, but it is also emerging as an area where terrorism and extremism are growing more rapidly.

This calls for great concern. It has, therefore, become imperative for the rich and industrialised countries of the world to own up to their responsibility and accept or support any climate reparation proposal to countries that are the least contributors to climate change, yet they suffer the brunt of the phenomenon.

Action

Environmentalists embrace the GGWP for its epic territorial ambition but its biggest impact will come from allowing people to meet their needs without destroying nature in the process. 

Stopping global warming is not about saving the planet because, after all, the earth will survive no matter how much the climate changes.

It is about saving humanity. 

One way to do this is to help those countries that are most vulnerable to what chaos we have already created. Which other way could the rich industrialised countries make up for the climate sins they have committed back in their home countries?

This is not a time to pride oneself in curtailing aid to areas of the world that matter most.

Institute of Current Affairs and Diplomacy (ICAD).
E-mail: Lawmat2014@gmail.com