Africa climate change 'could kill millions'

· Report urges poor nations to switch to clean energy
· Higher oil prices could reverse years of progress


The development group argues that a shift from fossil fuels to clean energy could result in more jobs and better health and education, and reduce pressure on resources. But if the world's dependence on oil continues, it says, climate change will devastate poor countries.

It estimates that up to 182 million people in sub-Saharan Africa could die of diseases directly attributable to climate change by the end of the century. Many millions more poor people throughout the world face death, disease and penury if nothing is done, due to climate-induced sea level rises, floods, famine, drought and conflict.

The warmer and wetter conditions largely predicted for the tropics under climate change scenarios will make diseases such as malaria, dengue, cholera and Rift Valley fever more prevalent and could spread them to higher ground.

The advantages of moving away from oil, says the group, is that it will not only reduce pressure on climate change, but will allow poor countries to leapfrog to a cleaner future. This will save money that can be spent on health and education.

If high oil prices continue, it says, the poorest countries may have to spend three times as much money on oil as they do now within 10 years. This, says Christian Aid, could throw into reverse recent gains in reducing poverty.

Oil, which has fuelled rapid growth in some developing countries, often with disastrous results, accounts for roughly 63% of the energy used in Africa. "If the high oil price becomes a reality, billions of extra dollars will go to oil companies rather than be spent on things that really matter to poor people, like education and health," said John McGhie, the report's author.

Christian Aid says that clean power is needed for economic and environmental reasons. The price of electricity generated from solar power stations and photovoltaic cells is dropping every year and is expected to become cheaper than oil and gas soon. The group cites a visionary plan to build and link dozens of giant solar power stations across north Africa to provide Europe with electricity. But it says that small-scale solar power is the best option for millions of communities who presently have no electricity. It would cost about $50bn (£26bn) to provide 500 million people in sub-Saharan African countries with renewable electricity, it says - "not much more than the region expects to spend on oil over the next decade".

But the report recognises that a major shift to renewables needs a revolution in thinking by rich countries. "This report shows the devastating impact that human-induced climate change will have on many of the world's poorest people," said climate scientist Sir John Houghton.