Cameroon’s Carbon Emissions Rise 4% in Four Years

Deforestation as a result of logging and agricultural expansion is believed to be the main driving force as Cameroon increases output of climate-change causing greenhouse gasses  BY ISRAEL BIONYI

Cleared: Cameroon has lost more than 13% of its forest cover

DOUALA—The emission of greenhouse gases, the main factor driving climate change, has increased in Cameroon, in spite of the global effort to curb their presence in the atmosphere.

A new World Bank estimate shows that between 2009 and 2013, Cameroon pumped up four percent more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases than in previous years.

Cameroon is located in the Congo Basin, one of the places the world looks up to for keeping emissions down because of the carbon-sinking ability of its forest.

According to the estimates, however, Cameroon contributed up to 45.4% of all emissions in the six-nation CEMAC sub-region that makes up part of the Congo Basin.

Deforestation appears to have been the maindriver of emissions in the country and sub-region in spite of efforts like Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation or REDD.

Climate change experts believe 20% of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) come from deforestation. It is the leading source of emissions in the developing world.

Uncontrolled logging, agricultural expansion and other factors cleared up 13% of the Cameroon’s forest between 1990 and 2005, says The World Conservation Monitoring Center.

In 2012, Cameroon cancelled the licenses of 27 forest exploiters because of unsustainable and illegal logging but that doesn’t appeared to have had a big impact.

An REDD initiative to reduce GHGs emissions from landfills in Cameroon could not be expanded to other sub-regional countries because of lack of funds and long delays.

In 2013, an initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfill sites in Cameroon by REDD could not be expanded to other Countries in the Central African Region.

Promoters said it failed to attract sufficient funding and suffered major delays.
Cameroon’s economy is highly dependent on agriculture and logging, which account for 20.7% and 6.7% (1996/1997 estimate) of the annual GDP.

“The human race may be threatened if the fight [against climate change] is not intensified, said one expert.
“If we don’t reduce this carbon footprints it can affect the Weather patterns affect the life cycle of other organisms.”

This article was first published on Standard tribune.