Over 100 climate change experts gathered Monday in Gaborone, capital of Botswana, for a three-day seminar on innovative solutions towards climate change.
The seminar, dubbed the 4th Lead Author of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is the last author meeting, ahead of the experts releasing a report to be used as a working document on efforts to mitigate climate change later this year.
The meeting is hosted by University of Botswana and Botswana’s Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism (MENT).
Speaking at the official opening of the seminar, Botswana’s vice-president Slumber Tsogwane said the special report on global warming being prepared by the academics should help the world understand the benefits of limiting warming to 1.5 degree Celsius warming.
“Your rigorous assessment of the latest evidence on climate change from different climate research sources plays a very important role in providing policymakers and other societal actors with clear view of relevant challenges and other actions that need to be taken,” said Tsogwane.
The report is the last author meeting for the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degree Celsius, after three previous meetings that took place in Brazil, United Kingdom and Sweden.
The report will inform the Talanoa dialogue during the next Conference of the Parties in Poland, at the end of the year, when governments will have a chance to understand, among others, the effects and impacts of a 1.5 degree Celsius warmer world and the potential global response to the scourge.
Meanwhile Botswana has been challenged to embrace adaptation to climate change, given its environmental, social and economic circumstances.
“Botswana is highly vulnerable to climate change particularly agriculture or livestock, woodlands and forest, water and health,” said Thelma Krug, vice-chairperson of IPCC.
She said climate change is likely to add to existing stresses in Botswana, causing significant changes in prevalent vegetation and rangeland cover, affecting species types, composition and distribution, as well as those depending on them.
In the Southern Africa region, Botswana is one of the countries affected by loss of livestock under prolonged drought conditions given its extensive rangeland, making it difficult to provide adequate provision of water for livestock production.
The meeting coincides with IPCC celebrating its 30th anniversary, having been formed in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Enditem
