Somalia

Located in northeast Africa—the Horn of Africa—Somalia has a land area of 246,201 sq. mi. (637,657 sq. km), a population of 9.35 million (2010 est.), and a population density of 36 people per sq. mi. (14 people per sq. km). About 80 percent of the population is dependent on agriculture, although only 2 percent of the land is arable, with a further 69 percent used for meadows or pasture, mainly for low-intensity grazing of cattle, goats, and pigs. Some 14 percent of the land remains forested.

Because the country is underdeveloped, it has a very low level of electricity usage, and less than three cars per 1,000 of its population—one of the lowest levels of car ownership in the world, although three times that of its neighbor, Ethiopia. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per capita are among the lowest of any country in the world, even though accurate statistics have not been available for the last 10 years. Official statistics from 2001 record the entire electricity production for the country at 245 million kilowatt hours (kWh), with consumption levels at 228 kWh and 100 percent of all electricity coming from fossil fuels. It was estimated that CO2 emissions were 0.1 metric ton per capita in 2007, the same level as Uganda and Tanzania, and with Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mali having lower per-capita rates of CO2 emissions.

The effects of global warming and climate change on Somalia are expected to be extensive. The rising temperature is expected to make more of the arable land unusable for the growing of crops and to render pastureland even less productive than it is now. There is also the possibility of flooding in some low-lying parts of the country. The fishing industry has been devastated by overharvesting, and rising water temperatures are expected to make fishing even more difficult. This lack of legitimate opportunities for fishermen is [Page 1273]often stated as one of the reasons for so many who are turning to piracy from the mid-2000s, endangering regional security. Speaking about the problem in Somalia, United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon stated, “Extreme weather events continue to grow more frequent and intense in rich and poor countries alike, not only devastating lives, but also infrastructure, institutions, and budgets.”

The Somali government sent an observer for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that was signed in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992, and ratified the Vienna Convention in 2001. Because of the instability in the country, there have been few measures introduced to combat some of the effects of climate change. However, on July 26, 2010, the government signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC, the 191st national government to do so.