Challenges
The Climate Change Threat
Few countries will be as seriously affected by global climate change as Uganda. It will raise average temperatures in Uganda by 1.5C in the next 20 years, and higher by up to 4.3C by 2080, according to United Nations experts. This would result in increased rainfall over much of the country by 10 to 20 percent, but a decrease in semi-arid regions, such as the dry cattle corridor, the experts noted.
As the United Nations noted in its 2010 report on Uganda’s progress in meeting its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015, “there is little doubt that climate change could jeopardize the Government’s economic and social development goals, including the MDGs. We put it more strongly: Without decisive actions by Ugandans, climate change will cause a national catastrophe.
It has already altered rainfall patterns to disrupt traditional agricultural calendars, helped lower water levels in Lake Victoria and other water bodies, created new water and heat stresses for farmers throughout the country, increased the number of deadly landslides, and in our Rwenzori mountains has melted much of their unique glaciers, whose size shrank by half between 1987 and 2003.
Science of Climate Change
Climate change is a worldwide phenomenon linked to the increase of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, trapping more heat, and raising temperatures everywhere. Greenhouse gases have a human origin – carbon dioxide, methane and other gases produced by human activity such coal-fired generating plants, manufacturing, and motor vehicles.
The impact on countries like Uganda is dramatic, as described by Texas Tech University climatologist Katherine Hayhoe:
“As our atmosphere becomes warmer, it can hold more water vapor. Atmospheric circulation patterns shift, bringing more rain to some places and less to others. For example, when a storm comes, in many cases there is more water available in the atmosphere and rainfall is heavier. When a drought comes, often temperatures are already higher than they would have been 50 years ago, and so the effects of the drought are magnified by higher evaporation rates.”
Uganda is Responsible Too
Africa emits only about four percent of greenhouse gases today (and Uganda only a fraction of that), according to the United Nations. But that does not excuse us from the responsibility to limit our greenhouse gas emissions. We should at least be part of the solution, not the problem, in keeping with the Millennium Development Goal Target 7A, which states, “Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs.”
Worldwide, two of the three most serious contributors to greenhouse gases are the burning of motor fuels and burning wood to heat homes, cook meals, and make bricks, according to findings by America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Both of these activities are increasing rapidly in Uganda. In fact, the NASA study recommended focusing on these two activities as the surest, quickest way to reduce production of new greenhouse gases.
Adapting to Climate Change
More important, Ugandans must get serious about adaptation, to minimize the human and environmental impacts of climate change. One initiative by NAPE has been to construct rain-harvesting reservoirs in hilltop communities in the dry cattle corridor of Mbarara district, in the Luwero district and the Buikwe district.
Sustainable natural resource practices like forest protection and replanting can moderate higher temperatures and help retain water in soils. Wetlands protection to restrain damaging developments and wasteful practices can further retain moisture. Finally, improved governance to make key decisions openly and consistently can involve everyone in adapting sustainably.
To read documents about climate change, click here for Library.
To read more about NAPE’s action agenda, click here.
