African Union Conference Presentation By Hatau Mozayen 8I

THE AFRICAN UNION The African union or the AU was formed on 9 July 2002. It’s headquarters are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. All of the African countries have a chair in the AU with the exception of Morocco who oppose the membership of the Western Sahara and therefore declined a place in the union. The six official languages of the African Union are English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili and Arabic. Many believe Africa will be one of the worst affected areas of climate change as there are already many problems in Africa.

North Africa Of the African regions, North Africa is expected to suffer the most. The Sahara desert covers most of the North African countries and with temperatures expected to rise, the average temperature of 40 degrees is expected to go higher. Most of the blame will be shifted to Egypt. The most populous country in Africa, the capital city Cairo is also one of three megacities in Africa and one of the 20 odd megacities in the world. However every country has to take a slice of the blame cake and all have to cut down on carbon emissions.

Sudan Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and tenth largest in the world by areaThe world's longest river, the Nile, divides the country between east and west sides. Sudan is currently a country engulfed in it’s own problems. The situation in Darfur is currently one of the worst in the world with thousands of people trying to flee to neighboring Chad each day because of war. Because of thousands of people being displaced and killed, the need for humanitarian care in Darfur has attracted worldwide attention.

West africa West African countries might just have enough to survive. Ghana and Nigeria have enough money and the coastal countries aren't exactly low lying enough to be drowned. However like north Africa there are a few countries in the Sahara desert like Burkina Faso and Mali. However there are still countries in west Africa that pump carbon emissions in the air. Nigeria are the prime suspects, having another one of the worlds mega cities (Lagos) the also are one of the richest countries in Africa and the most populous country in Africa as well. There are also many problems in west Africa such as the recent wars in Cote d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone drug problems in Liberia.

Nigeria Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country that is located in West Africa. The capital city is Abuja. Oil found in Nigeria has rapidly improved their economy and some say that this is a contributing factor towards climate change. As oil has been made into petrol to power cars. Nigeria also contains another one of the worlds mega cities in Lagos and the hustle and bustle of Lagos may be another telling contribution to global warming.

Central Africa Central Africa might struggle to cope with climate change and also to try stop it. Most of the counties are very poor so funds are a problem to cope and to try stop and many countries have also just come out or are still in long bloody wars ( Congo Dem. Rep., Angola and Rwanda). Dem. Rep. Congo are still in conflict and climate change will add to a list of problems to try and stop so this may be a problem too many. Like wise in Angola where war stopped in 2004 and many are still recovering.

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola is a country in south-central Africa. Angola was a Portuguese overseas territory from the 16th century to 1975. After independence, Angola was the scene of an intense civil war from 1975 to 2002. The country is the second-largest petroleum and diamond producer in sub-Saharan Africa; however, its life expectancy and infant mortality rates are both among the worst ranked in the world. Afte recent discoveries of oil , the economy of Angola has improved dramaticcally. Due to a rapidly growing economy Angola releases the most carbon emmissions into the air in central africa and this needs to be solved.

East Africa There are many problems in East Africa that cannot bee solved easily : Drought. Drought and lack of rain in east Africa is a huge problem particularly in Ethiopia and Northern Kenya. Global warming will make it worse. Somalia’s political state is in a mess. With no official government and the situation with pirates , Climate is another problem to add to the already large list in Somalia. Climate change chose the wrong time to be existent and with lack of funds, the UN will need to donate money to this region. Also withy temperatures set to go higher, Drought will be ever more frequent in East Africa.

Somalia Somalia , officially the Republic of Somalia is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Piracy off the Somali coast has been a threat to international shipping since the beginning of the Somali Civil War in the early 1990s. It is estimated thatSomali pirates have received over US$150 million during the 12 months prior to November 2008. Due to most concerns about Somalia being about the pirates, Not much thought has been put into climate change and how it might affect Somalia.

Southern Africa Of the regions in Africa, Southern Africa seems the best placed to cope and to try and stop Climate change. South Africa have large exports of gold, diamonds, platinum. This has made South Africa, Botswana and Namibia some of the fastest growing economies in the world. Despite this there are still many problems in Southern Africa: Zimbabwe’s crumbling economy is forcing many citizens of Zimbabwe to leave the countries and many of these countries do not want these migrants. Swaziland has the highest aids rates in the world. Climate change will inflict even more problems to this already poor country.

SOUTH AFRICA The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. Due to large exports of gold, diamonds and platinum and a booming tourism industry, South Africa is a relatively wealthy country. But there are still areas of the country where there isn't so much development and there are large amounts of people who are very poor. Despite all this the people per car ratio is among the highest in Africa which might explain why South Africa is the third highest releaser of carbon emissions in Africa . Also there are lots of power stations run by coal and even the Koeburg power station is run by nuclear power.

What can be done? Many things can be done but sadly African countries do not have enough money to try to stop climate change and there are many problems that must be solved first: Aids is a rampant disease and many countries have very high HIV/AIDS rates and must try to stop it. Darfur has been a long conflict and it must be resolved first. The Somali pirates are a problem that must be dealt with as soon as possible. Sierra Leone and Liberia have drugs problems that must be stopped. There are many more problems but if Global Warming were to continue there will be many consequences: Brazzaville, Cape Town, Luanda, Lagos, Dakar, Maputo and Casablanca are all very important coastal cities that will be flooded if Global Warming continues Drought will become more common in dry places. Saharan countries will become even hotter The solution is simple. Ask the U.N. and other world powers to give money to poor African countries in order to help them tackle this big problem of global warming and maybe other problems will be solved as well.