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CLIMATE CHANGE AND
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
A keynote address on the occasion of the 2nd
Joint UNILORIN-UCC Conference, 2-5 May
2011
by
Professor Alfred A. Oteng-Yeboah
University of Ghana
Legon, Ghana
Outline of Address
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What is Climate Change?
What is Sustainable Development?
What roles does Agenda 21 play in the topic?
Causes of Climate Change
Physical evidence of Climate change
Main issues in Climate Change
The science of human induced climate change
Outline of address (contd.)
• Countering climate change effects:
 Global
 National

Mitigation

Adaptation
• The Way Forward
• What roles for Unilorin and UCC and others in
this enterprise?
What is climate change?
• The United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change defines climate change as "a
change of climate which is attributed directly
or indirectly to human activity that alters the
composition of the global atmosphere and
which is in addition to natural climate
variability observed over comparable time
periods.“
• This definition is synonymous with global
warming
What is Sustainable Development?
• Development that "meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs”
Brundtland Commission 1987
Agenda 21
• information, integration, and participation as
key building blocks to achieve development
that recognizes these interdependent pillars.
• that everyone is a user and provider of
information.
• the need to change from old sector-centred
ways to new approaches that involve crosssectoral co-ordination and the integration of
environmental and social concerns into all
development processes.
Components of Sustainable
Development
The interrelationships among the
components of Sustainable
Development
Causes of Climate Change
• Natural and man-made causes
• Natural causes: plate tectonics, solar output,
orbital variations, volcanisms, ocean variability
(El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Pacific
decadal oscillation, the North Atlantic
oscillation, and the Arctic oscillation,).
Causes of Climate Change (contd.)
Alterations to ocean processes such as
thermohaline circulation play a key role in
redistributing heat by carrying out a very slow
and extremely deep movement of water, and
the long-term redistribution of heat in the
world.
• Man-made causes from activities that
increase CO2 levels (fossil fuel combustions,
aerosols, cement manufacture, land use,
ozone depletion, animal agriculture and
Physical evidence of Climate
Change
• Past history & archaeological findings: old
vegetation, ice cores, dendrochronology,
pollen analysis, insects, sea level change,
glacial geology
• Observations made about Climate Change:
world climate changes, earth’s terrestrial and
marine ecosystems assessment in climate
change
What are the main issues of
Climate Change?
• global temperatures up by 0.6°C within the
last 130 years. That threshold marker for
dangerous climate change identifies an
increase of 2°C (3.6°F) in average global
temperature (over pre-industrial levels) as an
advisable ceiling. Beyond this point, the risk of
abrupt and catastrophic climate change
emerges;
Main issues of climate change
(contd)
• GHGs are rising with CO2 concentrations
increasing over 30% within the last 130 years,
that there is a growing consensus on the need
for urgent action to reduce the Green House
Gas (GHG) emissions. The understanding is
that we adopt the global objective to cut
greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by
2050, compared to the1990 level owing to the
decadal residence time of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere.
Main issues of climate change
(contd.)
• Current estimates put the annual global
emissions of CO2 due to human activities at
about 10 gigatons, of which about 1.5 Gt is
from land use change (mainly deforestation)
• Climate change is affecting agriculture,
forestry, water and several other livelihood
sources. It is affecting social order,
environmental cohesion and economic
growth. Thus affecting sustainable
development.
The world as seen from Apollo 17
spacecraft
Thermohaline circulation
Retreat of the Glaziers
Glazier thickness change
Polar icebergs melting
Polar bears at risk from ice melt
Global increase in carbon dioxide
emission
Increase in carbon dioxide
concentration
Temperature increases in °C
Sea storms
Hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclone
Increase in tropical diseases eg
malaria from mosquito spread
Flooding affecting transportation
Flooding affecting home security
Crop productionDrought affecting
What is the science of human
induced climate change?
• Global warming, which is the warming of the
earth`s surface, is caused by excessive
greenhouse effect on the atmosphere
• The term greenhouse is used to describe the
increased concentration of Carbon dioxide
(CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrogen oxide (N2O),
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons
(PFCs), Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and
Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) in the atmosphere
which act as shields like glass and cover the
A Green house structure
Green house effect from GHGs
Fire as useful/ destructive tool in
land-use
Land-use: removal of forest
Land-use: monoculture plantation
Land-use: displacement of
‘Orangutan ’in Indonesian forests
Land and water degradation
Flood victims
Model of balancing GHG emissions
A nation’s effort to confront the
climate change challenge
The African Vulnerability
Countering the effects of Climate
Change
• Global: Decisions of and recommendations
from international processes of MEAs,[ eg.
COPs of UNFCCC, CBD, UNCCD, Ramsar, CMS,
CITES, POPs etc.], of UN organizations [eg.
FAO, IMO, UNEP, UNESCO, UNIDO etc.]; of
other international organizations [ IUCN,
WWF, Bioversity, Wetlands International,
BirdLife, etc.]; Provision and actualization of
Financial Mechanisms [eg. GEF, WB,CDM,
Kyoto Protocol, REDD+]
Countering the effects (Contd)
• National: : Implementation of these decisions
at the national, regional, district and
community levels; strategic and action plans
development; governance, institutional
coordination and monitoring; communication
and education; capacity development and
knowledge management; Gender
mainstreaming;
Global efforts
• Decisions: transforming REDD from a
discussion point into a global mitigation
mechanism REDD+, formally recognized by the
Parties of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC);
recognition of Climate Change as a global
challenge, needing a global solution with
financing, technology development and
transfer, and technical support for climate
mitigation and adaptation.;
• Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change
(IPCC) working through the working groups
and the Subsidiary Body on Science and
Technological Advice (SBSTA) of the UNFCCC
to give credible scientific reports to inform
decisions of the COP; All the other MEAs are
to adopt programmes of work that reflect
climate change issues towards adaptation and
mitigation
National efforts
• Develop strategic and action plans for both
mitigation (National Appropriate Mitigation
Action) and adaptation (NAPA) approaches;
• seize mitigation opportunities such as
promotion of low carbon technologies (eg.
Direct business opportunities, cost reduction,
access to international funding, creating more
robust and stable economy, private sector
involvement in promoting low-carbon power
generation);
National efforts (contd)
• firmly adopt REDD+ to reduce emissions from
deforestation, reduce emissions from forest
degradation, conserve forest carbon stocks,
manage forests sustainably, and enhance
forest carbon stocks;
• provide a national forest reference emission
level and/or forest reference level;
National efforts (contd)
• undertake a robust and transparent national
forest monitoring system for the monitoring
and reporting of the activities;
• address drivers of deforestation and forest
degradation, land tenure issues, forest
governance issues and gender considerations
The Way Forward
• The idea of thinking globally and acting locally
can be reinforced
• The desire should capitalize on the current
momentum at the global level on the climate
change concern that is engaging and
influencing governments for proper financial
outlays and national actions.
• there should be cooperation among countries
to pursue the following programmes: the
Great Green Wall for the Sahel and Sahara
Initiative (GGWSSI), the Permanent Interstate
Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel
(CILLS), the river basin and catchment areas of
the Congo, the Lake Chad, the Lake Victoria,
the Niger, the Nile, the Volta, the Limpopo etc
• There should be cooperation for the Abidjan
and Nairobi Conventions respectively that
consider the protection, management and
development including the health and
productivity of marine and coastal
environments of the Benguela, Canary and
Guinea and West Indian Ocean (WIO) Large
Marine Ecosystems
What roles for Unilorin and UCC
and others in this enterprise?
• As a matter of urgency, Establish a centre or
unit within the universities to:
• Participate in national actions (NAMA,NAPA)
to inform the public and integrate into
curricular
• Be part of the REDD+ process, provide
standard knowledge in state and trends in
national forest reference emissions for
monitoring
• Be part of the knowledge mining of
information on land-use and land-use change
in relation to gender and livelihoods
• Develop research profiles to understand and
address drivers of deforestation and forest
land degradation
• influence policy makers to undertake low
carbon growth policies
• Use these platforms of joint conferences to
share ideas and forge ahead on issues of
sustainable development.
• As a concluding paragraph, I will like to
challenge Unilorin and UCC to live up to your
vision of training the minds of students to
acquire knowledge, catalysing and advancing
knowledge to inform the public for sustainable
development.
• One major entry point to this is your devotion
to finding solutions to effects of climate
change on all aspects of sustainable
development
THANK YOU