STORY: UN special envoy urges action on climate crisis in Horn of Africa
SHOOTING TIME: Sept. 20, 2024
DATELINE: Sept. 21, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:16
LOCATION: Nairobi
CATEGORY: ENVIRONMENT/POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the press conference
2. SOUNDBITE (English): HANNA TETTEH, United Nations Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa
3. various of the press conference

STORYLINE:

United Nations Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Hanna Tetteh on Friday called for enhanced collaboration to revitalize action on the climate crisis in the region during her visit to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
   
Tetteh, who paid a courtesy call to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and its affiliated Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC), said that climate resilience will underpin long-term peace, stability and development in a region grappling with multiple weather-related shocks.
   
"Climate change is a critical driver of conflict in the Horn of Africa, and partnerships will strengthen early warning systems to enable communities to prepare for and mitigate climate-related crises before they escalate," Tetteh said.
   
SOUNDBITE (English): HANNA TETTEH, United Nations Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa
"As in this region, we all very well know Africa contributes very little in terms of carbon emissions. If there is climate change, it's not because of the amount of carbon that has been put into the atmosphere by IGAD member states or by African member states as a whole. But notwithstanding, many of the countries of our continent, and especially in this sub-region, are at the forefront of bearing the brunt of what is increasingly becoming more obviously a severe climate crisis. And so we think it's important to be able to provide evidence-based data in order to come up with, as I said, these programs and initiatives that would respond and hopefully yield concrete outcomes from a prevention perspective."

She said that a partnership between the UN and regional blocs has promoted climate resilience and peacebuilding in the Greater Horn of Africa, which has suffered a series of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods.
   
Data-driven interventions are key to informing responses to climate emergencies that exacerbate hunger, water stress, disease outbreaks, and civilian displacement in the region, Tetteh added.
   
The collaboration between the UN and IGAD, according to Tetteh, will focus on scaling up early warning systems to inform disaster preparedness, avert conflicts linked to climatic stresses, and improve weather services and peace at the community level.
   
Abdi Fidar, ICPAC officer-in-charge, said that strategic partnerships are essential for advancing climate security in the Horn of Africa, alongside rebuilding the livelihoods of communities affected by prolonged dry spells and conflicts.
   
Fidar said that early warning systems in the region have improved thanks to scientific collaboration with multilateral agencies, helping communities prepare for and cope better with disasters.
   
Collaborative research and awareness creation have been pivotal in helping policymakers in the region understand the climate change-security nexus while leveraging data to build community resilience, he added.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Nairobi.
(XHTV)