Elsewhere across Nigeria lately, there has been an upswing in cases of natural disasters. Temperatures are rising to unprecedented levels, desertification is ravaging the northern part of the country; flooding is taking greater toll on the land and people more than ever before, and storms, landslides and erosion are on the increase.

Indeed in the whole of Africa and other third world countries, it is most evident that nature is on rampage and taking on angry surge against humanity. Many people have attributed this to climate change. Incidentally, in the discussions and strategizing for climate change, the developing world is hardly reckoned with. It is as if they are to be seen, but not to be heard. And so a United Nations (UN) world climate change negotiations on how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is coming up in Copenhagen, Demark, in December 7. In preparation, flurry of activities are already on in the developed countries, but in Africa and other developing countries, not much seems to be happening.

This is probably why, realizing that, as is usual in world affairs, Africa and the third world nations are being left out in the global climate change issues and discussions. Three western organizations are collaborating to lend a helping hand to the countries.

The organizations: Internews, Panos London and International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) are organising to see that no part of the world is left out in the global run to contain climate change. The partnership is called Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP), and they are joining forces to specifically support developing world journalism and perspectives from the heart of the international climate negotiations.

In this regard, they are organising 40 journalists from Asia, Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Latin America to participate in a climate change media partnership fellowship programme, designed to improve media coverage of climate change issues in developing countries, including reporting on the 2009 Copenhagen Summit.

The partnership is appalled that just 11 percent of the 1,500 journalists accredited to the 2007 Bali climate change summit were from developing countries, highlighting the urgent need to provide training and opportunities for journalists from these countries to report on climate change.

Viewed from the fact that for Nigeria alone, with its more than 200 broadcast stations and more than double of that number in the print media, the scanty slot reserved for Africa and the developing world becomes laughable.

Internews “is an international media development organization whose mission is to empower local media worldwide to give people the news and information they need, the ability to connect, and means to make their voices heard.”

For Panos London, it is in the business promoting “participation of poor and marginalised people in national and international development debates through media and communication projects. We are part of the worldwide Panos Network of independent institutes working to ensure that information is used more effectively to foster debate, pluralism and democracy.”

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is an independent research organisation that specialises in linking local to global in communication. It sees itself as global leader in sustainable development. In Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Middle East and the Pacific, we work with some of the world’s most vulnerable people to ensure they have a say in the policy arenas that most closely affect them, from village councils to international convent.

“Our mission is to build a fairer, more sustainable world, using evidence, action and influence in partnership with others.”

But the big question might be: “Considering the fact that Africa and developing world contribute least of the burning of fosil fuel, which have contributed so much to climate change, do they really matter in the scheme of things?

But in as much as it may easily be argued that Nigeria and perhaps other developing countries contribute so little to carbon emission, because they have little or no industrial output like the developed world, a reason some people may argue that Africa does not have a part to play in the whole plan of confronting climate change, lesson from Brazil proves otherwise.

The case of Brazil, a Southern American country, however appears most instructive in understanding climate change as it concerns developing and non-developed countries.

By mid 1970, Brazil had already converted up to 40 per cent of its fuel use to ethanol (bio-fuel), but it was still the world’s fourth largest producer of carbon dioxide. It is argued that Brazil’s relatively high emission of carbon dioxide was a result of its rain forest destruction.

As a result of the above, taking into consideration the gas-flaring that has gone in such countries as Nigeria for years, the bush-burning that Nigeria, nay Africa, has indulged in for years, the belief of many is that it would be foolhardy ignoring the third world in climate change talks and strategies.

Anu Mohammed, the acting Head of Research at British Broadcasting Corporation World Service Trust (BBCWST), toes that line. She believes Africa and the entire developing world has a great role to play in the whole battle against climate change. She told Daily Independent that the way Nigeria in particular and Africa in general, would adapt to the change would be crucial in battling the change.

“Africa is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Its effects are already being felt by citizens across the continent. The ways in which African’s adapt to their changing environment are going to be crucial to the continent’s response to climate change.”

Understanding the African importance in the whole gamut of issues surrounding climate change therefore makes it imperative that African peoples and the entire developing world get informed on the dynamics of climate change. Though very little is known as to how much Africans understand and are responding to climate change, Mohammed enthused that her Trust’s Africa Talks Climate, seeks to address the gap.

She said, “It is a groundbreaking African-led research and communication initiative, founded on the belief that those worst affected must be better informed in order to understand and effectively respond to their changing climate. Africa Talks Climate seeks to understand how communication and media strategies can be tailored to support Africa’s response to climate change and to collate and amplify the voices of people at all levels of society.”

She has the belief that an understanding of African perceptions of climate change is essential to effective communication of the problem worldwide.

Most unfortunately, western efforts to contain climate change had been many. For instance, there was the Kyoto (a Chinese city) Protocol agreement in which a promise was made by signatory countries to reduce carbon emissions into the earth atmosphere to below 1990 levels by 2012.

Right now, all the efforts, at confronting climate change, are concentrated mainly in the developed countries, with the highest being the coming Copenhagen conference to be held in December, by such countries as the USA, Britain, and a host of others.

In Britain, for instance, a draft bill, the Climate Change Bill (CCB) was published in 2007, which aimed at ensuring that the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions was reduced to 60 per cent by 2050. It was, however, reported that the bill had such a widespread support from the populace, since it was targeted at the transport sector.

There had been previous efforts to move away from serious concentration on fossil fuel from other areas. For instance, in 2003, former American President, George Bush, announced a programme called the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative (HFI) during his ‘State of the Union’ address. This initiative was reported to be supported by legislation in the Energy Policy Act of the country in 2005 (EPACT) and Advanced Energy Initiative 2006. It major aim was to develop hydrogen, fuel cell vehicles that were practical and cost effective by the year 2020. Reports equally showed that the country had already spent over one billion dollars on research and development on the initiative so far.

Instructively, fuel cell produces electricity without the side effects inherent in burning fossil fuels, with the only by-product as water and heat. It is dependent upon a battery, but unlike conventional batteries, it never goes “flat.”

Just as some countries have been making laws, trying to put structures to their countries, and indeed the world on climate change, there have been meetings of world leaders for partnership in the battle.

Among the latest was meeting of United States of America (USA) President, Barack Obama, and the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, on November 19, where both men promise to attend the United Nations (UN) summit on climate change. The summit which comes up on December at Copenhagen, Denmark, promises to pull world leaders together, with a view to collectively strategise to reducing and fossil fuel burning and carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere.

While efforts are continuing in crafting laws to drive changes in other countries, Africa countries are doing little in driving the process in their individual countries. While world leaders are meeting to strategise on how to combat the problem, African leaders are not seen as doing much.

Perhaps the only effort seen is the Group of 77 developing countries (G 77) being chaired by Sudan’s Lumumba Di-Aging. Happily for many of its members, China has invited them for pre-talks before the Copenhagen negotiations.

Before this invitation, Di-Aging had complained, “We know the scientific evidence. We know the impacts on agriculture, health and so on. We know what action that needs to take place. And we are expecting that there have to be ambitious targets taken on by Annex-1 countries, and at the moment they are not coming up with that.”

While talking tough may be good, experts are insisting that the media must be empowered for any decision on climate change to be effective.

Mohammed is one of them. “The BBC World Service Trust hopes to continue supporting Africa’s response to climate change post-Copenhagen. Only when governments, NGOs and the media in Africa are comfortable talking about climate change can they communicate it effectively to citizens. Only when African citizens are clear about climate change and its implications for their lives can they respond most effectively to it,” she said.

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Original article on the Daily Independent website