Climate Change A Threat To Millenium Development Goals in Africa

'Developing countries may not achieve their Millennium Development Goals targets by 2015 unless they address climate change concerns, experts have warned.

And they are now telling these countries to urgently devise measures to cope with the adverse effects on climate.

Ms Maria Netto, United Nations Development Programme's Climate Change Policy Advisor, made these revelations and added that these countries would be severely affected despite contributing little toward global pollution.

She pointed out five MDGs at risk of not being achieved if these countries did nothing to curb the emissions of green house gases.

They include eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal education and promoting gender equality. Others are reduction in child mortality and ensuring environmental sustainability.

While addressing journalists on the sidelines of an International Conference of Climate Change in Accra, Ghana on Wednesday, Ms Netto said developing countries faced an imminent reduction in economic growth as a result of these threats.

"This means that food security will be seriously undermined...we have already started experiencing that. The countries will also experience a reduction in children's ability to participate in full time education, greater prevalence to vector and water borne diseases amongst others."

"We must therefore come up with concrete plans to curb climate change before it affects all of us in the developing countries."

More than 1,000 delegates including government representatives, business and industry, environmental organisations and research institutions participated in the talks in Accra.

The talks are part of the UN negotiating process that will culminate in Copenhagen at the end of 2009'. 

Written by Dave Opiyo in Accra, and posted in The Nation, Nairobi, Kenya.

For more information on the UN Millenium Development Goals visit: www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

Brief History

At the Millennium Summit in September 2000 the largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets, with a deadline of 2015, that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights-the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security.

The eight goals laid out were:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2. Achieve universal primary education

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

4. Reduce child mortality

5. Improve maternal health

6. Combat HIV/Aids, Malaria and other diseases

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

8. Develop a global partnership for development.