Climate change in Africa News

[IPS] Rome -Mass public pressure backed by the weight of scientific reports is starting to bring governments to their senses as the annual UN climate summit kicks off in Madrid today.

[Thomson Reuters Foundation] London -Fiercer weather and worsening wildfires drove more than 20 million people a year from their homes over the last decade - a problem set to worsen unless leaders act swiftly to head off surging climate threats, anti-poverty charity Oxfam said on Monday.

[IPS] Madrid -During the 25th round of climate change negotiations starting today in Madrid, Spain, African civil society organisations will call on governments from both developing and developed nations to play their promised roles in combating climate change.

[Daily Maverick] MADRID, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The United Nations opened a two-week climate summit in Madrid on Monday, where world leaders face growing pressure to prove they can muster the political will to avert the most catastrophic impacts of global warming.

[Zimbabwe Standard] United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food Hilal Elver's preliminary report following her 11-day fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe is a poignant reminder of everything that has gone wrong with this country.

[Zimbabwe Standard] The Insurance and Pensions Commission (Ipec) says it is working with the World Bank to develop a framework for weather based index insurance aimed at capacitating Zimbabwe insurance industry and increasing financial inclusion.

[Nation] Floods continue to wreak havoc in some parts of the country as the November-December rains persist.

[UNEP] Nairobi -The world is on track to produce far more coal, oil and gas than would be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C or 2°C, creating a "production gap" that makes climate goals much harder to reach, according to the first report to assess countries' plans and projections for fossil fuel production.

[263Chat] The United Nations (UN) says the deplorable socio-economic conditions in Zimbabwe continue to pose a danger to children who have turned to social ills for survival.

[Nyasa Times] President Peter Mutharika is scheduled to join dozens of heads of states and government, environmental organizations, entrepreneurs, scientists and over 25,000 representatives from 200 countries in the world who are in Madrid-Spain for the UN Climate Change Conference which opens Monday.

[New Era] Lüderitz -The effects of the prevailing drought have seen a rise in cases of copper cable theft by people illegally crossing into Namibia along the Orange River from neighbouring South Africa, according to an environment official.

[Nyasa Times] State Vice President, Everton Chimulirenji has said government has put in place strategies aimed at ensuring that no one dies of hunger in this country by providing relief food items and stocking Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) selling point with enough maize, saying 8 129 metric tonnes of maize has been set aside for distribution to household facing hunger.

[New Zimbabwe] Rains received in Bulawayo two weeks ago have contributed only two percent inflows into city dams, latest council rainfall water statistics have revealed.

[News24Wire] A tornado ripped through the Raymond Mhlaba local municipality on Friday night, affecting 13 villages near Alice and Fort Beaufort, authorities have said.

[Monitor] Bundibugyo -A total of 349 households have been displaced by landslides in Bundibugyo District, humanitarian officials have said.

[Dalsan Radio] Flooding in Somalia has affected 574,000 people, displacing 370,000 of them, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Friday.

[263Chat] United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur, Hilal Elver has raised alarm on the plight of women and children who are bearing the brunt of the Zimbabwean crisis.

[Daily Maverick] Flash flooding has hit Djibouti, where the government and United Nations said the equivalent of two years' rain fell in a single day, with several countries in East Africa, including Kenya, struggling after heavy rainfall.

[VOA] A U.N. official is warning that Zimbabwe is on the brink of starvation, with millions facing food insecurity.

[Thomson Reuters Foundation] London -The "wonder crop" is a staple for 20 million people in the Ethiopian Highlands who turn it into bread and porridge, construction materials, packaging, cattle feed and medicine