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Dust storm in Senegal

IRD / Bernard Mougenot

Africa should not wait for developed nations to set the example on climate change, said Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai at a climate change workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, on 24 November.

Maathai said African countries should initiate small interventions and inform their people about how climate change will affect their lives. She mentioned her own tree-planting programme as an example of a small step that Africans could make towards mitigating the effects of climate change (see Scientist-turned-activist wins Nobel Peace Prize).

In her speech, Maathai rejected the suggestion that African nations were too poor to take responsibility for their greenhouse gas emissions. She said that the onus was on national governments and leaders to address their own country's emissions.

Link to the full News24.com news story