The Cairo world conference on preparing for climate change :some problem of preparing for climate change in the energy sector in Africa

Abstract

The African continent straddles the equator, between latitudes 35 degrees North and 33 degrees South. More than any other continent, its land mass is under strong insolation for much of the year as the sun commutes annually between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Two major deserts, the Sahara and the Kulahari and vast arid and semiarid zones have high daytime temperatures. Rainfall is low and unreliable in the semi-arid zones. Evaporation rates are high and soil moisture levels are low over long periods. The Cairo world conference on preparing for climate change some problems of preparing for climate change in the energy sector in Africa. The need to wean the energy sector in Africa from overwhelming dependence on biomass has been recognized for some time. The likely impact of global warming in rapidly extending and worsening the scarcity of biomass by reducing bio productivity of large inhabited areas of the continent, makes switching to non-biomass energy sources a critically urgent necessity.