Demographic growth, industrialisation and the increase of demand resulting from higher living standards is exerting growing pressure on the world’s natural resources. The effects of climate change are also showing their first impacts on some of the regions of the world that are least equipped to manage them. How can these pressures be handled on the long run? What role can public policies play to tackle this rising challenge?

On the occasion of the 6th AFD/EUDN conference on “Population and natural resources: managing pressure”, I evoke in this brief video clip the dual challenge of mounting environmental pressure and demographic explosion in Sub-Saharan Africa – that I think has not sufficiently made its way at the front of the development community’s preoccupations. I also attach some of my recent publications on these two topics, as well as a recent study on the trends of African demographics. I am looking forward to reading your thoughts and experiences on this crucial issue.

Jean-Michel

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Over the last 18 months or so there has been a major surge in the spread of public understanding on the subject of climate change, particularly in respect of human actions being a cause for changes in the earth’s climate system. However, this increase in awareness has not yet translated into action at the global level to bring about a reduction in the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), the increased concentration of which has now increasingly affected the earth’s climate. The impacts of climate change are particularly harmful for some of the poorest societies on earth.

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I come back from Kenya. AFD and other donors including the World Bank and EIB are financing a large-scale public geothermal investment program that will supply most of Kenya’s future power generating capacity. The power generation mix that will fuel Kenya’s rapidly growing economy over the next decade will be carbon-poor.

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For those of us who work in the humanitarian world, the dawn of the twenty-first century has dealt us a difficult hand. As the expert practitioners in the game of preparing and planning for sudden, unpredictable events, we at the World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian agency, have become the recognised experts in emergency response.

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