The Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) has commended the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, for the newly-announced excise duty on tobacco which is expected to take effect from June 4, 2018.
Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun
The NTCA, in a letter signed by Chair of its Board, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said that the swift response of the government to the group’s December 2017 request for implementation of the National Tobacco Control Act 2015 as it relates to tariffs and the 2018 fiscal policy was commendable and should be applauded by Nigerians.
In the letter, the NTCA urged the government to stand firm in its resolve to ensure that tobacco excise taxes are progressively adjusted upwards in conformity with the global tobacco convention standard of achieving an excise burden of 70 per cent of the retail price per pack of 20 cigarettes.
It explained that, contrary to tobacco industry arguments, the policy would be of immense benefit to public health and the Nigerian economy, as evidence points to tobacco taxation as the most cost effective strategy to reduce tobacco consumption and ensure that young people do not pick up the deadly habit.
“Tobacco, being a leading cause of cancers and other deadly diseases worldwide; raising taxes for tobacco is expected to raise the retail price which will decrease desirability and demand for tobacco especially amongst young people. Revenue accrued from these can be channelled to the development of our country.”
The NTCA however asked that the excise tax on tobacco be increased in three years’ time so that Nigeria can derive all that could be benefited from tobacco excise tax in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) standard.
The NTCA is a network of civil society organisations (CSOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based Organisations (CBOs), faith-based organisations (FBOs), and professional groups working on tobacco control, human rights, public health and cancer with a view to ensuring qualitative health, sustainable development and good governance for all Nigerians.
A new study has revealed that, since Fall 2017, Republican registered voters have become more convinced that human-caused global warming is happening, are more worried, and are more supportive of several climate policies.
US president, Donald Trump
The disclosure is contained in a report released by the Centre for Climate Change Communication of the George Mason University in the US on Tuesday, May 8, 2018. It is titled “Politics & Global Warming”.
The report says that, among Republican registered voters, belief that global warming is happening has increased 4 percentage points, while belief that it is mostly human-caused has increased 9 percentage points since the Fall of 2017. Republicans are also more worried about global warming than they were in the Fall (+5 points).
It appears that the “Trump Effect” – in which Republican opinions on climate change declined after the 2016 election – has bottomed out. Republican opinions have rebounded – in some cases to new record highs. Republican support for strict carbon dioxide limits on existing coal-fired power plants increased nine points and support for requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a revenue-neutral carbon tax rose seven points since Fall 2017.
More broadly, public support for a variety of climate and clean energy policies remains strong and bipartisan. Large majorities of registered voters support:
Funding more research on renewable energy (87% support), including 94% of Democrats, 83% of Independents, and 79% of Republicans.
Generating renewable energy on public land (86% support), including 91% of Democrats, 82% of Independents, and 81% of Republicans.
Providing tax rebates to people who purchase energy-efficient vehicles or solar panels (85% support), including 91% of Democrats, 82% of Independents, and 77% of Republicans (+6 points since Fall 2017).
Regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant (81% support), including 91% of Democrats, 80% of Independents, and 69% of Republicans (+8 points since Fall 2017).
Few registered voters think the United States should use more coal (12%; 6% of Democrats, 14% of Independents, and 18% of Republicans) or oil in the future (11%; 7% of Democrats, and 16% of both Independents and Republicans).
By contrast, solid majorities of registered Democrats, Independents, and Republicans say the United States should use more solar energy (80%; 84% of Democrats, 80% of Independents, and 75% of Republicans) and wind energy in the future (73%; 82% of Democrats, 75% of Independents, and 62% of Republicans).
Regarding the 2018 Congressional election, 38% of registered voters say a candidates’ position on global warming will be very important when they decide who they will vote for. When asked how important 28 different issues would be in determining who they vote for in the 2018 election, registered voters ranked global warming 15th overall. But among liberal Democrats, global warming was voting issue number 4, after healthcare, gun policies, and environmental protection more generally.
Global warming is now a leading issue among the Democratic base. Despite the increase in Republican beliefs and attitudes over the past 6 months, however, it remains a low priority issue among Republicans.
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 reiterated the need for sustained financial, technical and capacity building support from the international community to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change in the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari receiving Letter of Credence from Mr Robert Jan Petri, the Ambassador of Netherlands to Nigeria
The President made the call when he received Letter of Credence from Mr Robert Jan Petri, the Ambassador of Netherlands to Nigeria.
President Buhari said Nigeria would continue to vigorously pursue the replenishment of the Lake Chad Basin, which had dried up to 10 percent of its original size.
”With the population growth in Nigeria and the drying up of the Lake Chad, we have to move faster and adapt to the impacts of climate change through technological solutions,” he said.
The President told the Dutch Ambassador that following Nigeria’s active participation in UN-organised climate change conferences in 2015, 2016 and 2017, the Nigerian government successfully hosted a high-level international conference on Lake Chad in February 2018.
He noted that the high-level conference provided an opportunity to push further options to restore the Lake Chad, including the inter-basin water transfer project from Ubangi River in Central Africa to the Lake.
On agriculture, the President welcomed the interest by some Nigerian doctoral students studying in the Netherlands on developing the sector through research and innovation, particularly the livestock sector.
In separate remarks, while receiving the Letter of Credence from the High Commissioner of the Republic of Botswana, Mr Pule Mphothwe, Buhari commended the Southern African country for its consistent support to Nigeria in the international forum.
While recounting Nigeria’s leadership role in the liberation of African countries from colonial domination, the President expressed the readiness of Nigeria to continue to support fellow African nations in their time of needs.
”It is a national duty to support our African brothers in their time of need.”
The President, who also received Letter of Credence from Mr Houssam Diab, Ambassador of Lebanon to Nigeria, commended Lebanon for successful parliamentary elections, commitment to stability and security in the Middle East, as well as assistance to Syrian refugees.
In their separate remarks, the Ambassadors while highlighting the existing and cordial relations between Nigeria and their countries, called for increased trade and economic cooperation.
The Dutch Ambassador said: “We are in the process of intensifying our cooperation, particularly on agriculture where we can offer our expertise, being the second largest exporter of food after the United States.”
Also in his remarks, the Botswana High Commissioner told President Buhari that several companies from his country had indicated interest to invest in Nigeria’s mining, agriculture, sports and creative arts sectors.
”Sequel to the visit to my country (Botswana) by your predecessor in 2011, there is a great desire for my President to visit Nigeria,” Amb. Mphothwe said.
The Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 urged residents to always bag their wastes to ensure effective evacuation.
Officials of Visionscape demonstrate the use of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI) waste bag
LAWMA General Manager, Segun Adeniji, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the state government’s Cleaner Lagos Initiative had been distributing garbage bags to residents for easy waste evacuation.
“We have noticed that nylon bags did not get to certain areas, but areas where they get to, they are being used.
“Areas where they have not got to, people are expected to even buy the nylon; a roll of nylon is N250.
“People can buy this to ensure the cleanliness of the environment, you buy to complement what is available,” the general manager said.
He said that the March 2017 Lagos Environmental Sanitation and Protection Law clearly stated the role of LAWMA as a regulator.
Adeniji said that, before the law, LAWMA was a fully operational organisation directly in charge of refuse collection all over the state but, with the new law, it became a regulator.
According to him, LAWMA’s role is to make policies, monitor and supervise all those in Lagos that waste management has been concessioned to.
“What we have found out is that the job is going gradually and there is still much to be done. As a regulator we have seen a few gaps here and there and we are adjusting the gaps.
“The gaps showed that the equipment is not enough, they are arriving in batches. On a monthly basis, a good number of trucks are arriving.
“As soon as the concessionaire, that is Visionscape Sanitation Solution, has full complement of trucks, then you will see the whole places will be very clean,” he said.
Special Adviser to the Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode on CLI, Adebola Shabi, had said that as at March this year, Visionscape distributed over eight million garbage bags and over 400,000 garbage bins across Lagos.
“What we want from people living in Lagos is to generate your waste, bag your waste and drop them in front of the houses for effective cleaning and preventive blockage of our drainage and canals.
“The garbage bags and bins are meant for the waste generated, so please ensure that the wastes are packaged and kept at the front of the houses,” Shabi said.
Experts at the Civil Society Organisation (CSOs) Forum on Monday, May 7, 2018 in Abidjan said that renewable energy remained the best way to consolidate Africa’s industrialisation
Augustine Njamnshi
The experts spoke on the topic: “Bridging the energy access gap for Africa industrialisation: challenges and Opportunities”.
Mr Augustine Njamnshi, the Executive Secretary, Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme Cameroon, said renewable energy remained cheap and affordable for industrialisation.
He said that governments in the region and its supporting financial institutions should focus on the use of renewable energy in the industrialisation plan of the region.
He said that with that the potentials of rural communities and people living in the remote areas would be tapped.
He said that South Africa currently had 45 per cent of energy stored in the region, 30 per cent in North Africa, while 24 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa.
This, he said, would not drive the industrialisation revolution in Africa.
“It is true that Africa’s industrialisation revolution drive is late, but we must do the right things to get it done well.
“We must develop in the way that we will accommodate everybody, so our focus must be on how do we carry along women, those in rural areas as agent of development,’’ he said
He said that Africa must make access to energy a human right issue to subject leaders to deliver it to the citizens.
Mr Benson Ireri, Regional Coordinator, Climate Change and Sustainable Energy, said that there would not be any industrialisation without energy.
He said that access to energy was very important in the rural communities to drive growth and development.
He said that, currently, sub-Saharan Africa had 13 per cent of the world’s population but 66 per cent of the population had no access to electricity.
He said that about 80 per cent rely on bio-gas and mainly firewood for cooking, adding that 66 per cent of energy investment in the sub-Saharan Africa was for export rather than for internal utilisation.
“Modern renewable energy accounts for less than two per cent of primary energy mix. Unless access to electricity is increased, the region’s GDP can never increase,’’ he said.
He said that, for Africa to achieve industrial revolution, the 66 per cent of non-access to power must be reversed and government must show political will to drive the revolution.
He further noted that access to finance and need for establishment of facilitating environment remained very important.
Also, Ms Thuli Makama, Africa Senior Adviser, Oil Change, said that financing access to energy remained a major challenge in the region.
She described the African Development Bank (AfDB) drive on “Light up Africa” as one of its priority projects was a step in the right direction.
She called for the bank’s continuous collaboration with CSOs to achieve its goal in the region.
Negotiators and other interest groups at the ongoing UN climate change talks in Bonn, Germany, have been attempting to answer three questions – Where are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?
Incoming COP 24 President Michal Kurtyka, Poland, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, and Tomasz Chruszczow, COP 24 Presidency, Poland, attend the Talanoa Dialogue. Photo credit: IISD
The process of answering these questions has been termed the “Talanoa Dialogue”, a Fijian concept of non-confrontational approach to finding solutions to deliver on the Paris Agreement on climate change.
UN climate chief, Patricia Espinosa, at a media round-table, described progress at the talks as mixed, though “the general atmosphere is very positive”.
She observed that “people have come to the negotiations with the willingness to engage in the substantive issues that are before them”.
Climate finance is emerging as one the biggest issues in the negotiation process, in the quest to answer the question of “how do we get there?”
In addition to national emissions reduction targets, developed countries have made a collective promise of $100 billion a year of climate finance by 2020.
But poor and developing countries have their skepticism in the commitment to deliver on the promises to enable their vulnerable economies adapt to the impacts of climate change and redress the damages.
“Countries who have done the most to cause the climate problem must step up to deliver action and finance. They mustn’t delude themselves that distant technologies will solve the climate problem in the future, letting them off the hook for climate action now,” said Teresa Anderson of ActionAid International.
The Africa Group of Negotiators has submitted that “we need to go to a world where developed countries stop making promises but live up to their promises”.
According to the group, financial support should include access to clean technology and expertise, and a significant increase in money from public sources and not simply offload finance to the private sector.
“We call on governments to lay the ground for stronger ambition to honour the Paris climate pact,” said Kimbowa Richard of Uganda’s Coalition for Sustainable Development.
Three years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement, there are expectations among many countries for clear indications how the $100billion climate finance will be delivered.
Patricia Espinosa acknowledged there are technical issues in negotiating climate finance but “I don’t see any denial of the commitments that have been made”.
She noted: “The principle that developing countries need to be supported in order to deliver on their commitments under the Paris Agreement is absolutely unquestioned”.
Investors are using the climate risk assessment as guideline for the decisions they will be taking, says the UNFCCC.
“Now the truth is that even those 100 billion will not be enough to financing the big transformation that is required in this agenda,” said the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.
Espinosa therefore believes the willingness for compliance will need to move beyond the UNFCCC process, by exploring the bigger picture in the implementation of the roadmap.
Climate change impacts are already visible in communities and exacerbating poverty in developing countries.
Outcomes of the Bonn Climate Talks would define progress to be made at the COP24 climate summit in Katowice, Poland later this year.
The pioneer post graduate students at the Marine and Offshore Engineering Centre of Excellence have commenced studies at Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, involving 18-month academic and field work that will lead to the award of Masters degrees in Marine Engineering (Power Plants), Naval Architecture and Offshore and Subsea Engineering. A Diploma in Marine and Offshore Engineering will also be awarded by the Centre which was established last year by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) operated Joint Venture.
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) General Manager, External Relations, Igo Weli
“We are pleased that the Centre of Excellence has taken off with students eager to achieve their dreams using hydrodynamic equipment that can simulate offshore/marine situations,” said SPDC’s General Manager External Relations, Igo Weli, as he led a Shell team to witness the historic commencement of classes.
“The Centre of Excellence is another powerful testimony on the educational initiatives of SPDC which began with the Shell scholarship scheme since the 1950s,” he added.
The Centre of Excellence in Marine and Offshore Engineering – said to be the first in Nigeria – offers a programme that covers lectures, practical sessions, term project modules and a six-month internship in the oil and gas industry. The Board of Trustees for the Centre which is chaired by the Vice Chancellor of Rivers State University, Prof. Blessing Didia, also held its inaugural meeting on the day the Shell team visited. Prof. Didia thanked SPDC and her partners for establishing the Centre of Excellence in the university, calling on undergraduate students in Marine Engineering and other Engineering disciplines to study harder as to qualify for enrolment into the programme.
Director of the Centre, Dr. Ibiba Douglas, stated that 10 students were admitted to the programme after a rigorous selection process, and commenced studies in April this year. Speaking at a lecture organised by the centre titled “An enabling business environment – implications for future careers in the oil and gas industry,” Mr. Weli called on youths in the Niger Delta to support the creation of a business environment that will attract investments to the region.
He said: “The way we act, speak and manage conflict will help to create an environment where peace, investments and prosperity will thrive for the benefit of all stakeholders including communities.”
Mr. Weli echoed the same sentiments at a dinner which he later hosted to mark the take-off of the Centre which was attended by several stakeholders including the President of The Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) Capt. Greg Ogbeifun, Managing Director of the Naval Ship-Yard Limited Commodore Abolaji Orederu and the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Simbi Wabote (represented by Dr. Patrick Obah).
In other support for tertiary education, SPDC JV funds a Centre of Excellence in Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering at University of Benin, and endowed six Professorial Chairs at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife; University of Nigeria, Nsukka; University of Port Harcourt; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Uyo; and the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun. The Chairs are in Geophysics, Environmental Management and Control, Petroleum Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, as well as Climate Change and Biodiversity Conservation.
The Chair in Light Weight Automobile Engine Development at FUPRE is the most recent endowment and is expected to contribute to the growth of local content in Nigeria’s automobile industry.
On Sunday, May 6, 2018, parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sat with representatives of civil society, cities, businesses and other non-party stakeholders for the Talanoa Dialogue.
A session at the Tolanoa Dialogue in Bonn on Sunday, May 6, 2018
The format of the talanoa, allowing for stories and interventions covering three clear questions – where are we? where do we want to be? how do we get there? – was a welcome and successful departure from the usual formal structure of climate conventions procedures.
Members of the Climate Action Network (CAN) on Monday espressed the fact that the dialogue may have fostered a sense of good intentions in the room, making clear that vulnerability to climate change binds all together and highlighting the urgency of taking more ambitious action.
“This lack of climate action means we are ‘cheating one another and abandoning our children’. People around the world are angry. They want to see more climate action; they want to see it happening faster. That is why they go out on the streets with banners and march. That is why they are taking governments and companies who fail to take action to court,” said Juan Pablo Osornio, Task Force Leader, Greenpeace.
“The Talanoa Dialogue provided the space in which some of that anger can be channelled. It was a forum to ask the hard questions and to have an honest and open conversation, where participants tell it like it is, with respect and without pointing fingers. This should be a model that we should build on in the future,” Osornio adds.
The dialogue lays the groundwork for the political discourse needed for an ambitious outcome at COP24 and allowed non-state actors to show their support for governments to step up their ambition.
Four hundred major companies have already committed to climate action with reference to the Paris Agreement. This growing number of corporations is showing their readiness to support governments making firm commitments to revise and enhance their current nationally determined commitments by 2020.
David Wei, Director, Climate, Business for Social Responsibility: “What parties have from the We Mean Business coalition is a standing offer that we are willing to work with you on concrete ways of doing that. We will work with you to have renewable energy and plans mutually supported by corporate demand for renewable electricity. To have end dates for the sales of internal combustion passenger vehicles and fiscal members reducing the cost of electric vehicles, mutually supported by corporate electrification of vehicle fleets.
“We will work with you to have strong carbon pricing signals, mutually supported by capital investment by business. And we will work with you to have long-term greenhouse gas reduction strategies mutually supported by scenario analysis that is being carried out by companies. We are willing to do this – not just willing, we want to do this together.”
Leaders of cities and regional governments also took part in the Talanoa Dialogue, presenting plans to deliver on the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees – cities around the world are already working towards carbon neutrality by 2050 and setting targets for climate action in sectors including transport, building, zero waste, energy efficiency and renewables.
Emmanuelle Pinault, Head of City Diplomacy, C40: “We brought a message of hope and collaboration. The transformation that we are working towards is very ambitious, but it is possible. It is achievable thanks to collaboration between national governments and other stakeholders.”
“We are happy to have participated in the Talanoa Dialogue. We think that this global political and diplomatic process should continue beyond COP24 and more importantly be translated into a national political process in every country of the world, to engage stakeholders in the assessment and revision and discussions around the NDC, with the final objective of enhancing ambition by 2020,” he adds.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of UN on Monday, May 7, 2018 called on African governments to reduce importation of food to the continent by implementing food sufficiency measures.
Rice farming in Africa
Tito Arunga, FAO Kenya Agribusiness Officer, said this at a public private partnerships agribusiness meeting for Africa in Nairobi, Kenya.
Arunga said the continent had the potential of producing enough food once efforts aimed at improving income earning opportunities were given emphasis.
He said: “We need to ensure that our food system becomes efficient, resilient and inclusive to produce food in excess for domestic consumption and even for export.”
He added that beside Zambia that had sufficient food after putting measures that led to bumper harvest and developed measures against post-harvest losses, the remaining countries relied on food imports from outside the continent.
The officer noted that the increasing youthful population in the continent called for the adoption of farming techniques that would survive climate change.
“There is need to include women and youths by supporting their endeavours in embracing agriculture so as to replace aging population of farmers in the continent,” he added.
He called on governments to address the root causes of internal and trans-boundary migration, stressing that as youths who formed 60 per cent of population in the continent continued to migrate in search of alternative source of living in disregard of agriculture, food security would be a great danger.
According to Janet Edeme, AU Commission (AUC) Head of Division, Rural Economy, the commission has started holding series of stakeholder meetings to discuss how to better involve the private sector in the implementation of Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).
Edeme said there was need to support private sector investment to complement public sector efforts in addressing the investment gaps in the agriculture sector.
“It has become clear that AU member states alone are unable to implement their National Agriculture Investment Plans (NAIPs) as the capital investments needed and the technical skills required to drive and transform the agriculture sectors in their countries would require private sector capital and expertise,” she noted.
The AUC official observed that the pan African body is working with member states in reviewing and developing appropriate policies and programmes aimed at helping leverage public sector incentives that catalyze private sector investments with emphasis on women and youths.
“We are continuing in mobilising and strengthening of the organisational capacity of African Domestic Private Sector Apex Bodies engaged in agribusiness,” she added.
Stephanie Gallatova, FAO Agro-Industry and Infrastructure Officer, noted that the public private partnerships for agribusiness development initiatives have the potential to help transform the production-oriented agricultural sector of African countries towards a more market-oriented and modernised agri-food sector.
“This approach could improve farmer-market linkages and employment creation in rural areas and cities,” Gallatova added.
The meeting follows an analysis that was conducted by FAO and AUC of 24 agri-public private partnerships case studies from eight African countries – Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia and South Africa.
The findings are aimed at informing policy-makers to design and implement effective agri-public private partnerships in the continent.
There were also notable developments in long-term climate change indicators, including carbon dioxide levels and sea ice cover.
April 2018 was marked by a number of high-impact weather events. These continued into early May with violent storms combining dust, high winds, lightning and rain that killed more than 100 people and injured about 300 in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Storms are common in the pre-monsoon season in India, and the India Meteorological Department issued regular warnings. But the impact of the May 2 event was exceptional. High temperatures also were conducive to the severity of the dust storm, with intense heating taking place over the plains of northwest India, according to the India Meteorological Department. Parts of Rajasthan witnessed temperatures above 40°C, with maximum temperatures appreciably (3.1°C to 5.0°C) above normal.
Pakistan heatwave
Two meteorological stations in Pakistan reported temperatures of at least 50° Celsius on April 30 at the peak of a heatwave in large parts of the country’s populous Sindh Province.
The persistent heat in the lower half of Pakistan started in March, when 30 sites broke monthly temperature records. Another exceptional hot spell affected the country in mid-April and peaked on April 29 and 30 when many records were set over large parts of Sindh Province, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department. The PMD site Shaheed Benazirabad (Nawabshah) recorded a new national temperature record for April of 50.2 °C.
The World Meteorological Organisation’s (WMO) official Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes does not validate monthly records. But it is the first time that it has ever received a report of a temperature topping 50°C in April. A temperature of 50.0°C was recorded on the same day at Jacobabad, and five other stations also reported new April records. PMD has forecast above average temperatures for the coming two months and has established a heat wave early warning centre in Karachi, the capital of Sindh and Pakistan’s most populous city.
Global temperatures
The global temperature for April 2018 was well above average. Although not as exceptional as the values for April 2016 and April 2017, it was in line with the upward trend of 0.18°C per decade seen in global temperature data from 1979 onwards, according to the Copernicus Climate Change report. Globally, the 12-month period from May 2017 to April 2018 was 0.47°C warmer than the 1981-2010 average.
It said that April in 2018 was:
close to 0.5°C warmer than the average April from 1981-2010;
the third warmest April on record, though only a little warmer than April 2010;
about 0.2°C cooler than the warmest April (2016).
It was the hottest April on record for a number of countries, including Argentina and Germany. Germany’s average temperature of 12.4°C was 4.0°C above the 1981-2010 baseline, according to the German Weather Service. Other areas of markedly above-average temperature include parts of Mexico and the American Southwest and much of North Africa, China and Mongolia.
Conversely, the month was considerably colder than average over the central USA and much of Canada. A number of other land regions had temperatures that were a little below average.
Heavy precipitation
Extreme and unusual weather impacted many parts of the world, including above-average seasonal rainfall and flooding in the East and Horn of Africa. Flash floods and river flooding has affected hundreds of thousands of people and killed dozens in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, according to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs.
During a 24-hour period between April 14 and 15, 49.69 inches (1,262 mm) of rain was reported measured at a rain gauge in Kauai, Hawaii. If verified by the US National Climatic Extremes Committee, it would be the heaviest 24-hour rainfall total ever recorded in the USA.
Extreme events are part of the natural variability of the climate, but heatwaves and heavy precipitation, in particular, are expected to increase because of climate change.
Long-term climate change indicators
The average monthly concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii for the first time in recorded history was above 410 parts per million in April, reaching 410.26 ppm, according to preliminary data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Mauna Loa Observatory is the oldest continuous atmospheric measurement station in the world and is widely regarded as a benchmark site in the World Meteorological Organisation’s Global Atmosphere Watch network.
Spain’s Izaña observing station in Tenerife reported a new record concentration of carbon dioxide of nearly 414 ppm on April 7.
WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch monitoring stations in the northern hemisphere traditionally report peak concentrations in spring before the growth of vegetation which absorbs CO2. Despite the seasonal fluctuations, the underlying trend in greenhouse gas concentrations remains upward.
Much of the Arctic Ocean and some neighbouring land areas were again substantially warmer than the 1981-2010 average and Arctic sea ice extent was well below average. In particular, ice cover in the Bering Sea was record low at the end of April. Situated at the northern edge of the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait. “It’s the end of April and basically the Bering Sea is ice-free, when normally there would be more than 500,000 square kilometres of ice,” said the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre. Total ice extent over the Arctic Ocean also remains low and consists of a record-high amount of first-year ice. This means the ice cover is unusually thin and large areas are susceptible to melting out in this coming summer, according to NSIDC.
Greenhouse gas concentrations, ice cover and global temperatures are all indicators of long-term climate change as a result of human activities. WMO’s annual statement on the State of the Climate in 2017 said that global mean temperatures in 2017 were about 1.1 °C above pre-industrial temperatures. The five-year average 2013–2017 global temperature is the highest five-year average on record. The world’s nine warmest years have all occurred since 2005, and the five warmest since 2010.
