Uganda - The Forefront of Climate Change

Yesterday, the AFP vividly describes how climate change is dramatically changing Uganda’s climate and ecosystems. Key passage:

‘Goretti Kitutu, a climate change specialist at NEMA, said people might soon be competing for water as well.
The snow cap provides a steady trickle of water to the neighbouring communities and feeds the Nile river basin, which includes Lake George and Lake Albert.
"Once this ice disappears we shall have serious problems in the hydrology of the area. We will see reduced water in the lakes and that will impact the Nile basin," Kitutu explained.
"There are plenty of countries that depend on that water," she said. "You could easily have communities that will be fighting over water," she added.’

The article goes on to describe in personal terms how climate change concretely has impacted food production, water scarcity, flood risks and even disease control. Developing countries like Uganda are at the front lines of climate change and this just increases the pressure on major emitters, like China, the US and the EU, to agree to a binding international framework on climate change.