Every year the British Government celebrates the Queen’s Birthday* with a reception at British Embassies and High Commissions around the world. This year I felt it necessary to ask permission to move the date of the Yaounde event from 15 to 29 June. The weather in Yaounde has become so unpredictable and I wanted to avoid some of the storms we have seen recently. The question is why the climate in Yaounde is changing and becoming less predictable. Evidence suggests this is due to Climate Change.

You’ve probably heard of climate change but you might not fully understand what it means nor know how it is affecting your life. Widely accepted scientific evidence suggests that rising levels of carbon dioxide levels over the last 100 years as result of human activity have led to a rise in the average global temperature. This has led to: the melting of polar ice caps which has increased sea levels; more extreme weather events such as flooding, droughts and hurricanes; and an overall decrease in rainfall. That’s true here in Cameroon and in the UK and many other countries. In the last two weeks we have seen pictures from the UK of floods devastating parts of Britain. This week three people were killed in Yorkshire as a result of flooding. And in Yaounde the unseasonal weather has caused flooding too. Ironically, as I’ve learnt from Cameroonian ministers, rainfall has fallen dramatically in Cameroon over the last ten years.

For a long time, the world has seen climate change as an environmental problem, a 'green' issue. Often, as in Cameroon, the portfolio has been entrusted to Environment Ministers. That is understandable: the potential effects on biodiversity from climate change range, under differing scenarios, from serious to catastrophic. In the UK now all ministers are working on the basis that climate change is the single biggest problem faced by governments worldwide.

However, the report of the Second Working Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – that’s the body charged with providing us with information on the issue - underlines that climate change is not an issue which primarily affects insects, animals and plants. The report predicts, for example, that by 2020 crop yields in some African countries, could have halved.

This will come as no surprise to the millions of farmers across Cameroon who will tell you that a good crop is always subject to getting rain when you need it. The northern provinces of Cameroon have already experienced a change in conditions as a result of the reduction in rainfall and encroaching desertification. Land for rearing livestock is becomingly increasingly scarce. This affects a large number of Cameroonians personally as beef prices have risen sharply to adjust to the new conditions.

But it is not just about agriculture and food. It is also about disease. More than 110 million people in Africa live in regions prone to malaria epidemics. Slight changes in rainfall and temperature could increase this figure to nearly 200 million by the end of this century.

Reports show that the areas of Africa at greatest risk include the Sahel and the area around Lake Chad. 40 years ago Lake Chad covered 25,000 sq km and the daily fish catch was some 230,000 tonnes, now it barely extends to 500 sq km with a catch of only 50,000 tonnes. This shrinkage has led to clashes between groups fighting for fishing rights and disputing ownership of "new" land, illustrating that climate change also affects regional and world security.

These dramatic examples of the effects of climate change underline the need for all governments, especially those in Africa to respond urgently to the effects of climate change, not solely through the prism of the environment but more importantly in the context of the fight against poverty. In Cameroon as elsewhere food production, health and security are key factors in the government’s fight against poverty. All of these factors are already being affected by climate change.

While the entire world is feeling the effects of climate change, unfortunately it is Africa, which is most at risk. It is one of the world's injustices that the poor suffer most from new threats. From HIV to conflict, Africa has been hardest hit. The same is true of climate change.

The UK has recognised this. We made climate change and Africa the focus of our presidencies of the G8 and EU in 2005. Those priorities have been endorsed again at this month’s G8 summit in Germany. Last November, the UK Government sponsored a report by its Economic Adviser Sir Nicholas Stern into the economic effects of climate change. The Stern report set out the economic arguments for acting urgently on climate change, demonstrating it would be cheaper to act now than wait. We will seek to continue to positively influence a world response on climate change.

While Cameroon is not contributing to global carbon dioxide emissions, the government of Cameroon does need to prepare the country to deal with the effects of climate change. There seem to me to be three priorities:

• first to spread awareness of the climate change challenge. In this respect the establishment of a Parliamentary Caucus on Climate Change and growing debate promoted by civil society are positive developments.
• the second challenge is for the Government to ensure that climate change gets a cross-governmental response from all relevant ministries – Public Health, Planning, Finance, Urban Development and many others as well the Environment Ministry. It should also assist industry to take advantage of potentially profitable opportunities resulting from climate change, such as the Clean Development Mechanism. I hope the Government’s response will include a sufficient allocation of resources to match the threat.
• the third aim must be to work with African partners to develop an AU common position on the international aspects of climate change. I hope Cameroon will seek to play a key influencing role in Africa.

Moving a national day is a small matter: moving the nation to respond effectively to climate change will be a much more testing issue. The Government and people of Cameroon have my best wishes as they face the greatest challenge of our generation.

END.

*Syd Maddicott is the British High Commissioner to Cameroon
*The Queen's Birthday Party (QBP) is Britain's official national celebration. In Cameroon the theme for this year's QBP is: Climate Security: A UK, Cameroon and global challenge