One-Third Of Africa's Coastal Infrastructure At Risk From Climate By 2100 - UNEP Director

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Around a third of Africa's existing coastline could be swallowed up by rising water levels brought on by global warming, the United Nations' top environment official said on Thursday.

Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN's Environmental Programme, told reporters at a press conference that the impact of climate change was already clearly in evidence and would become more serious in the coming years. "By some projections, global warming could affect up to one third of Africa's coastal infrastructure by the end of this century," Steiner said at a press conference in Johannesburg.

"We know that we are on the course of having sea-levels rising from 20 (7.8 inches) to 60 centimetres (23.6 inches) in this century," he said adding that "port facilities, refineries will be affected."

The continent is already experiencing "major coastal erosion", calcification of shellfish under the increasing heat and dramatic shifts in currents as new climactic phenomena appear.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071108/sc_afp/safricaunenvironmentclimate_071108182100;_ylt=AoiSloxg9j4M50dzCQjFjFNrAlMA