Mary Robinson (UN Special Envoy on Climate Change) on Responding to the Impacts of El Nino and Mitigating Recurring Climate Risks

20 MAY 2016: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today the appointments of Mary Robinson of Ireland and Macharia Kamau of Kenya as his Special Envoys on El Niño and Climate.  These appointments come at a time of great urgency. Drought and flooding associated with El Niño have created massive needs across the world, especially in the four worst affected regions of East Africa, Southern Africa, Central America and the Pacific. Ethiopia is experiencing its worst drought in 50 years. One million children in Eastern and Southern Africa alone are severely acutely malnourished. And global food insecurity is not expected to peak before December.
The Impacts of Climate Change in Ethiopia Over the last decades, the temperature in Ethiopia increased at about 0.2° C per decade. The increase in minimum temperatures is more pronounced with roughly 0.4° C per decade. Precipitation, on the other hand, remained fairly stable over the last 50 years when averaged over the country. However, the spatial and temporal variability of precipitation is high, thus large-scale trends do not necessarily reflect local conditions. The projected increases in the inter annual variability of precipitation in combination with the warming will likely lead to increases in the occurrence of droughts. Furthermore, heavy rains and floods are projected to increase as well. These impacts include: Agriculture, Food Security: The increasing year-to-year variability and increases in both droughts and heavy precipitation events lowers agricultural production with corresponding negative effects on food security. Water: The availability of clean drinking water is likely to decrease due to the increasing evaporation and the increasing variability of rainfall events. Health: Incidences of malaria in areas of the highlands where malaria was previously not endemic. The warming is further expected to cause an increase in cardio-respiratory and infectious diseases. Ecosystems, Biodiversity: Climate change but also human drivers such as forest fires threaten forest ecosystems. Furthermore, a large number of plant and animal species is threatened by extinction, as climate conditions are changing too quickly for them to adapt. Infrastructure: Heavy rainfall events and floods cause damages to roads and buildings. It is important to notice, however, that other factors threaten the livelihoods of Ethiopian  communities as well. For example resource degradation and the over exploitation of natural resources such as fire wood is one of the key issues in association with the environmental decline.
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The Pentagon," calls CLIMATE CHANGE an “urgent and growing threat to America's national security” and blames it for “increased natural disasters” that will require more American troops designated to combat bad weather.