Tiempo Climate Newswatch
Climate Change Costs in Namibia
- Noticeboard
- Announcements
- Conferences
- Courses
- Mailing lists
- Climate treaty
- Latest news
- Secretariat
- National reports
- IPCC
Action point
José Alberto Garibaldi describes his priority for action on global warming. You can play the low bandwidth or the high bandwidth version
Featured sites
The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network works to improve management and conservation of coral reefs by providing manuals, equipment, databases, training, problem solving, and helps with finding funds for reef monitoring.
The Cities for Climate Protection Campaign assists cities to adopt policies and implement quantifiable measures to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and enhance urban livebility and sustainability.
zerocarbonbritain details how Britain can eliminate emissions from fossil fuels in 20 years and break dependence on imported energy.
Plan B, from the Earth Policy Institute, details how to rescue a planet under stress by cutting carbon emissions 80 per cent by 2020.
And finally,
Lorraine Berry was commissioned by the Environmental Change Network to produce a web-based creative work, as Seasons Change, drawing on data and knowledge concerning climate change.
About Newswatch
Tiempo Climate Newswatch is a weekly on-line magazine with news, features and comment on global warming, climate change, sea-level rise and development issues. It is edited by Mick Kelly and Sarah Granich and maintained by Mick Kelly and Mike Salmon. The cartoons are created by Lawrence Moore.
The news stories carried by Newswatch are updated weekly. Comment, features, interviews and other sections of the magazine are updated on a weekly to monthly basis.
Newswatch automatically scans a number of news sites once an hour, searching for a set of keyphrases. The raw news feed can be accessed in standard or PDA format.
Part of the Tiempo Climate Cyberlibrary, Tiempo Climate Newswatch is hosted by the Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia.
The Tiempo Climate Cyberlibrary is a co-production of the Stockholm Environment Institute and the International Institute for Environment and Development, sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
While every effort is made to ensure that information on this site, and on other sites that are referenced here, is accurate, no liability for loss or damage resulting from use of this information can be accepted.
 |
James MacGregor quantifies the costs of climate change on Namibia’s natural resource dependent economy and people. |
| The author is a researcher with the Environmental Economics Programme at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London. | |
Poor nations will suffer most from climate change, in part because of heavy reliance on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture and fishing. Up to 30 per cent of Namibia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), for example, depends on the environment. Ironically, poor nations have contributed least to climate change. Namibia was estimated to be a net carbon dioxide sink in 1994 due to uptake by trees.
Namibia’s advanced Natural Resource Accounts (NRA) help to evaluate the contribution of the environment to national wealth by developing "satellite" accounts for natural assets such as fish and forests. NRA data can be fed into conventional national economic accounts - a clear advantage for policy makers in natural resource dependent economies.
Feeding NRA data into a model reveals that under a best-case scenario agricultural impacts would be partly offset by improved water distribution, there would be no impact on fisheries and Namibia’s GDP would fall by roughly one per cent. Under a worst-case scenario, reduced agricultural and fishing outputs means the GDP could fall by almost six per cent over 20 years. These estimates, however, only consider agriculture and fisheries. They ignore impacts on the health, infrastructure and energy sectors that will also be significant.
Combining NRA data with Namibia’s Social Accounting Matrix shows that climate change impacts will hit the poor hardest. Even under the best-case scenario, subsistence farming will be sharply reduced. In the worst-case scenario for agriculture, labour-intensive livestock farming is hit hard. While high-value irrigated crop production could thrive, it creates few jobs. Thus, even under the best case scenario, a quarter of Namibians would need to find new livelihoods. Displaced rural populations could move to cities causing incomes for unskilled labour to fall by 12 to 24 per cent. Income distribution in Namibia is already one of the most uneven in the world and this inequality is likely to increase.
Nations such as Namibia cannot afford to ignore the contribution of the environment to national wealth in the face of climatic shifts. Along with "climate-proofed" policies and activities, Namibia needs a strategy to deal with displaced farmers and farm workers. Industrialized nations, who are most responsible for climate change, must help Namibia and other vulnerable countries cope with the impacts and plan for a climate-constrained future.
Further information
James MacGregor, International Institute for Environment and Development, 3 Endsleigh St, London WC1H 0DD, United Kingdom. Fax: +44-20-73882826. Email: james.macgregor@iied.org. Web: www.iied.org.
Bright Ideas
New York's Del Posto restaurant no longer supplies bottled water to its customers, citing transportation, packaging and the absurdity of moving water all over the world
The AIRPod, carrying three adults and a child, runs on compressed air at one euro per 200km
The Zero S is a high performance electric motorcycle with half the weight of a normal bike
The E3 electric tricycle is an eco-friendly, sustainable mini-taxi, zero emissions and zero noise
The Save La Mesa Watershed Project has created a 33 hectare public park, a venue for healthful recreation and a true forest experience, a living classroom
The GeoBulb LED light bulb uses 7.5 watts of power to provide as much light as a 60-watt incandescent light bulb and has a lifespan of ten years
Mumbai-based company Crompton Greaves has partnered with Lemnis Lighting to promote LED lighting products in India
Schools in Joondalup, Australia, can participate in dune rejuvenation and protection through the Adopt a Coastline programme
Princess Elisabeth Station, Antarctica, is the world's first zero-emission polar research station
The Canadian city of Kelowna is equipping parks, paths and other public spaces with solar-powered LED lights
The City of Oslo uses waste to generate energy for a district heating system, part of a hierarchical waste management strategy
BioEnergy Solutions provides the infrastructure necessary to create renewable natural gas from animal waste, then shares revenues and carbon credits with the farmer
Tiempo Climate Newswatch
Updated: June 28th 2009