preview

Climate Change Challenges

Decent Essays

A strong argument among scientists exists that anthropogenic climate change is the greatest contemporary global threat to sustainable development in the 21st Century, and that, the risks associated with climate change will become more severe affecting all aspects of human livelihoods (IPPCC 2014, FAO 2013, Shiferaw et al 2014, UN 2015. The ratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 and signing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 signified the importance of the issue to the international community. The intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes’ (IPCCs 2007 a,) fourth assessment further focused the worlds’ attention on the imminent dangers of climate change. It particularly highlighted the risks it …show more content…

In rural communities in the Sub-Saharan Africa, change is occurring at an unprecedented rate, resulting in increasing uncertainty for their livelihoods (Scoones et al., 2007; Leach, 2008). Scientists opine that whilst the effects of drivers of change such as population growth and modernization are already evident (Armitage and Johnson, 2006; Curry et al., 2012; Butler et al., 2014a), extreme climate change effects will be felt later within the century (Stafford Smith et al., 2011). Therefore in many regions, there is an ‘adaptation window’ of approximately three decades in which to build the adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities and other stakeholders to face potentially drastic change, but also high levels of uncertainty (Butler et al., 2014a). This challenge , particularly due to changing climate can be framed as the necessity to ‘leap-frog’ the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (UN 2014) and their successors, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UN, 2015). ‘Leap-frogging’ implies the rapid development and adoptions of affordable integrated local policies which can by-pass environmental impacts and accelerate poverty alleviation (Goldemberg, 1998). In terms of adaptation, it refers to investing in innovative green development that is preadapted to the future (Palutikof et al., 2013). Leap-frogging the SDGs therefore requires rapid identification and implementation of innovations that achieve improved human and environmental outcomes

Get Access