Environmental ministries across the world are busy preparing for the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNCCC) in Mexico this coming December.
The last convention ended with demotivating statements like, “With no firm target for limiting the global temperature rise, no commitment to a legal treaty and no target year for peaking emissions, countries most vulnerable to climate impacts have not got the deal they wanted.”(In this case they were referring to developing countries).
Countries will be trying to come up with ideas that could protect their own economies, especially developed countries.
For Southern Africa though, the spotlight should be on conservation and safeguarding of its Bio-diversity.
Botswana, a country rich in natural resources, should choose its position considering the fact that it stands to lose its stable economy should the effects of climate change have anything to do with it.
For example, the Big Five, Botswana’s pride and glory, are also major players in a sector that contributes greatly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), tourism.
The Big Five, a name attributed to five unique animals that are mainly found in Southern Africa wildlife safaris, is used when referring to animals that are hard to hunt on foot, animals such as lion, rhino, Elephant, Leopard, and Buffalo.
The impacts of climate change for Southern Africa as a whole are mortifying.
The sad part is that there is not much that Botswana can do to prevent the expected loss of bio-diversity that climate change is going to bring about unless the developed countries decide to listen to the pleas of the poor nations.
Currently Africa as a whole contributes only 2.5% of emissions to the atmosphere while America is at the forefront with about 30%, with China running close behind.
European Union ambassador Paul Malin recently said that the Southern African environment needed to be safeguarded because of its nature, landscapes, flora and fauna as well as climatic conditions that make it unique and special to the rest of the world.
Ranked number 5 favorite amongst the top 10 tourist destinations in Africa, Botswana is counted amongst the environments whose assets need safeguarding in order to prevent future scenarios of depletion of resources.
Last year in December during the last United Nations Climate Change Convention held in Copenhagen, Denmark, developing countries tried to recuperate under one voice and ask the developed countries to sign the Kyoto Protocol, a document that is not legally binding but a step forward from all the years of talking, in which countries make an effort to reduce their pollution emissions.
Africa had said that it was not begging but requesting developed countries to sign the protocol as the impact of global warming would severely affect the highly vulnerable continent.
A few developed countries threatened to pull out their businesses from developing countries and that was all it took for the developing countries to back down.
One then wonders what difference the conference this year will make.
