Togo

THIS WEST AFRICAN country, officially the Togolese Republic, is located between Ghana and Benin, with a northern border with Burkina Faso. It has a land area of 21,925 sq. mi. (56,790 sq. km.), with a population of 6,585,000 (2006 est.) and a population density of 280 people per sq. mi. (108 people per sq. km.). Some 38 percent of the country is arable, with a further 4 percent used for meadows and pasture and another 28 percent of the land forested.

For the electricity production in Togo, 97.9 percent comes from fossil fuels, with 2.1 percent coming from hydropower. These generate 102 million kilowatt-hours (kWh; in 2001), with 520 kWh, largely drawn from hydropower, more imported from Ghana. Although before World War I the Germans tried to establish Togoland (as it was then called, including part of what is now eastern Ghana) into a model colony, the country has remained relatively poor, with its carbon dioxide emissions being 0.2 metric tons per person in 1990, rising gradually to 0.38 metric tons per person in 2003. About 68 percent of the country's carbon emissions come from liquid fuels, with the remainder coming from the manufacture of cement. By sector, 37 percent comes from manufacturing and construction, with 35 percent from transportation and 14 percent from electricity and heat production. The high figure for transportation is because there is only one train line, going from the capital, Lomé, to Blitta, with very few other forms of public transport.

The coastal part of Togo, around Lomé, is low lying, and as such, it is at risk from global warming and climate change. The rising average temperatures are also likely to lead to increased desertifi-cation in the north of the country. The Togo government ratified the Vienna Convention in 1991 and took part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992. The government accepted the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on July 2, 2004, with it coming into force on February 16, 2005.