UNFPA launches 2009 World Population Report

Accra, Nov. 18, GNA - The 2009 state of the World Population Report, has revealed that the earth surface continues to warm up due to human activities with temperatures increasing by 0.74 degree Celsius within the past two centuries.

In the next century, temperature is expected to increase by 6.4 degrees Celsius, resulting in change in climatic patterns leading to intense tropical storms, floods, water scarcity, loss of glacier melt-water, food shortages and health crisis, the report said.

The report published in two parts: with the first one titled, "State of the World Population Report 2009, Facing a Changing World: Women, Population and Climate" has 94 pages while the other part, "At the Frontier-Young People and Climate Change", a youth supplement, has 44 pages.

It covers "Elements of Climate Change, At the Brink, On the Move, Building Resilience, Mobilising for Change, and Back from the Brink". The report launched in Accra on Wednesday by Dr Edward Omane Boamah, Deputy Minister of Environment, Science and Technology indicated that developing countries would bear the brunt of the burden for coping with and adapting to extreme weather events, rising sea levels, floods and drought. Presenting highlights of the report, Mr Ben Treveh, National Programme Officer, Population and Development, UNFPA explained that the report was dwelling so much on climate because aside the issue of energy efficiency and industrial carbon emissions, climate was an issue of population dynamics, poverty and gender equity, since "people cause climate change. People are affected by it. People need to adapt to it. Only people have the power to stop it".

The report noted that the impact of climate change affected women more, particularly those in the poor countries differently than men and the overall impact exacerbate the gap between the rich and poor, amplifying the inequalities between the two sexes.

It revealed that climate change also spur migration, destroy livelihoods, disrupt economics, undermine development and had the potential to reverse hard earned development gains of the past decades and retard progress towards achieving MDGs.

The report said technology alone could not solve global climate change and there was the need to focus on role people played by population growth, consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

"As we approach the brink of disaster, our future as humanity depends on unleashing the full potential of all human beings and the full capacity of women, to bring about change," it said. The report called for people-centred solutions alongside technology in the debates and solutions to climate change, stressing that, women should be an integral part of any agreement that emerges from next month's climate conference to be held in Copenhagen.

Ms Thoraya Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director in a speech read on her behalf, by Mr Jude Edochie, UNFPA Country Representative in Ghana, said poor women in poor countries were among the hardest hit by climate change even though they contributed the least to it.

Ms Obaid urged countries to invest in women by ensuring alternatives to wood and imported fuel, clean water supplies, better roads and mobile phones as well as providing girls with education and health care. "Overall, climate change is not just an issue of energy or environment; it is also a moral issue of justice and equity. All nations and people have the right to development. And all countries are challenged to develop in ways that are socially equitable and environmentally sound," she added. Dr Boamah said Africa was ready to adapt to climate change but would not be forced to mitigate its effect since it played little or no part to green house emissions being produced by the industrialized world. "In fact we expect the developed world to sign a deal at the Copenhagen conference to cut down on their emissions".

"We are going to demand from the developed world at the conference, to establish a fund for the developing world to source to mitigate climatic impact like floods that happened in northern Ghana". Mr Emmanuel Ashong, a Representative of the Youth, who gave the perspective of the youth, said young people being part of the vulnerable group face hardest the brunt of climatic impact, and called on governments to reduce poverty through creation of jobs and improve their health status to reduce their vulnerability to climatic change.

Professor Elizabeth Ardayfio-Schandorf, of the University of Ghana, Legon stressed the need for national and international approach to reverse the scourge of climatic effect on the environment.

"Let us all help in reducing green house emissions," she added.