Geldof highlights Africa climate crisis
Monday November 30 2009
Bob Geldof returned to Ethiopia this week 25 years after he raised a global response to the 1984 famine there -- and warned that climate change could undo progress made there since.
"The resilient Ethiopians I have met tell of two types of change over the last 25 years," Geldof wrote in an email.
"They tell of famines avoided, diseases fought, roads, dams and mobile phone networks built, children in school and immense economic growth. But then there is the negative, unwelcome change -- that of the climate.
"It is having a terrible impact on their economy and their communities," Geldof said.
The singer visited Korem, the town that grabbed world attention when tens of thousands of starving people descended from its surrounding hills in search of food in 1984. He saw a new hospital, funded by Band Aid there.
"Global leaders have a peculiar responsibility to be politically mature and forward-looking at the forthcoming Copenhagen meeting," he said.
"I strongly urge that at least the DNA for further action -- that will involve costs -- be laid down and acted upon. Anything less is an act of gross political negligence that endangers us all."
Some climate experts have called for rich countries to pay up to $100bn annually to counter the effects of global warming on Africa.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi will represent Africa at next month's UN climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Barry Malone in Addis Ababa
Irish Independent
