Africa must prepare for climate change - experts

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 30 (Reuters) Africa must be prepared for more droughts, floods and cyclones because of climate change caused by industrial pollution, which has already damaged rural economies on the continent, experts said today.

African leaders discussed climate change at a summit in the Ethiopian capital, focusing on its potential to cause severe loss of life or even conflict.

As climate-related disease and severe weather affect the continent, experts urged African leaders to take action now to prevent future disasters ruining the lives of some of the world's poorest people.

''In the past 30 years we have seen some of the worst weather and disasters, which impact on African economies as they are heavily dependent on agriculture and vulnerable to climate change,'' said Abdoulaye Kignaman-Soro, head of ACMAD, the African Centre for Meteorological Application in Development.

Desertification has contributed to the bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region as nomadic cattle-herding tribes clash with farmers over diminishing water supplies.

Preliminary studies in west Africa have shown some correlation between conflicts and climate change, although more research is needed, said Stephen Zebiak, Director-General of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI).

''When times get really, really hard the suggestion is that that can trigger other types of problems,'' Zebiak said.

''The Western countries should reduce their emissions. We are not the contributors, we are the victims,'' said South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

But Zebiak said African nations should do more to protect themselves against disasters caused by climate change with early warning systems which could prevent famines, floods and outbreaks of disease caused by severe weather fluctuations.

IRI said Ethiopia prevented widespread famine in a drought in 2003 by using an early warning system that supplied food to 13 million people in affected areas.

In southern Africa, malaria outbreaks caused by heavy rainfall and humidity can be mitigated by careful monitoring of weather forecasts, IRI said.

''If we learned better how to cope with those disasters now ...

it helps to prepare for what the future might hold,'' Zebiak said.

Reuters SP DB2241