LUSAKA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) on Tuesday called on African countries to quickly put in place early warning systems to respond swiftly to effects of climate change.
Harsen Nyambe, AU Head of Environment, Climate Change, Water and Land Management Commission said the continent has been reactive to effects of disasters for a long time hence the need for systems to detect disasters early.
Speaking when he addressed a meeting of experts from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) meeting to find solutions to the problem of climate change, the AU official said time has come for the region to put in place measures that will help in tackling emergency of disasters, according to state-run news agency, the Zambia News and Information Service.
According to him, early warning systems will help countries to plan properly on how to deal with disasters.
"The AU is coming up with the continental framework that links up with the global initiatives that will surely avert the effects of climate change as highlighted in the Agenda 2063," he said.
He further said the AU was working with regional economic communities such as COMESA to enhance the tree planting and conservation exercises which were key ingredients towards ending climate resilience.
Mclay Kanyangarara, COMESA Climate Change Coordinator, said the adverse effect of climate change has resulted in insufficient power generation at some power plants in the region, resulting in power cuts.
He said countries needed to come up with resilient mechanisms because the effects of climate change were real.
"We have been hit hard by the effects of climate change so we all need to continue coming up with resilient mechanisms because we predict that the situation will be worse in the near future," he said.
