07 December 2009 - Climate change: what is at stake for Africa?* (UNDP Regional Bureau of Africa position on Climate Change _ Op-ed) - Over the past year, the countries of Africa have intensified their efforts to build a coalition on climate change.Across the continent, governments and communities have been working to ensure that their concerns and expectations are heard at the Copenhagen climate negotiations of December 2009. Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change. In our lifetimes, climate shifts will likely inflict severe damage to human welfare in a continent already battling with entrenched poverty, degraded ecosystems and civil strife. Over 40 percent of the continent’s population lives in extreme poverty and 70 percent of that number is located in rural areas, depending largely on agric...[ more...]