Both studies were released while thousands of delegates from around the world gathered during Jun. 6- 17 in the German city of Bonn to take part in the new United Nations (UN) Climate Change conference. New research supports the need for a revamped international regime of reduction of greenhouse gases emissions, the main cause of global warming.
The first study, "Climate change, water, and food security" by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) constitutes a comprehensive survey of existing scientific knowledge on the anticipated consequences of climate change for water use in agriculture.
In the study, the FAO warns that rising temperatures associated with global warming will accelerate the world's hydrological cycle, increase the rate of evaporation from land and sea, and disturb the rainfall patterns across Africa and other parts of the world, aggravating erosion and desertification.
As a consequence of such sweeping transformations, the FAO adds that climate change "will significantly impact agriculture by increasing water demand, limiting crop productivity and reducing water availability in areas where irrigation is most needed".
"Rainfall is predicted to rise in the tropics and higher latitudes, but decrease in the already dry semi- arid to arid mid-latitudes and in the interior of large continents", such as Africa, the report says. Read the full report here.
Source: Julio Godoy, all Africa.com, Bonn.
