KAMPALA – The world’s largest ever report into climate change will be published shortly, setting out the stark reality of the state of the planet.
According to the latest information from www.bbc.com, the results from more than 14,000 scientific papers from around the world spell bad news for the planet if governments do wake up.
The study is by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – a UN group that looked at more than 14,000 scientific papers.
It will be the most up-to-date assessment of how global warming will change the world in the coming decades. Scientists say it will likely be bad news – but with “nuggets of optimism”. And environmental experts have said it will be a “massive wake-up call” to governments to cut emissions.
Uganda is experiencing significant impacts of climate change, which include changing weather patterns, intermittent water levels, and increased frequency of extreme weather events like floods, as well as drought, whose social economic impacts make communities very vulnerable, according to a 2016 Irish Aid report.
According to this report, Ireland provided a total of €1,137,983 to Uganda in climate finance through its bilateral aid programme. In addition, Ireland provided €1,563,447 in 2016 in climate finance to projects in Uganda through its civil society programme.
Climate projections developed for the country using the models used in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC AR5) indicate an increase in near-surface temperature for the country in the order of +2°C in the next 50 years, and in the order of +2.5°C in the next 80 years under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5; and in the order of +2.5°C in the next 50 years, and in the order of +4.5°C in the next 80 years under RCP 8.5.
They also predict a slight decrease in total annual rainfall in most of the country, with slightly wetter conditions over the west and north-west under both RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5. Rainfall totals might drop significantly over Lake Victoria (-20% from present)
Overall, those changes will require a number of adaptation strategies to combat the resultant impacts including drought, floods, pests and diseases and loss of assets and livelihoods. It is already widely accepted that extreme weather events have been increasing and have been more severe in recent years. It is estimated that the risks are likely to increase in the future in large parts of Uganda, the report says.
For more details on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, see this link: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58141129