“All we can do now is to minimize its impacts  by a sustainable lifestyle where there is less wastage of resources. But minimizing the impacts warrants a sound knowledge of what is happening to our world and to what extent the climate change is going to affect us. This needs to be complemented by information on our local environment,” he adds.

He points out the fourth Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report shows that sea level rise and the accelerated erosion of coastal zones, increasing intensity of natural disasters, species extinction and the spread of vector-borne diseases are some of the biggest threats for small islands. Of most immediate concern is the unexpected unusual rainfall.  “Even at this early stage of climate change, we are experiencing severe weather disruption. With less than 1°c rise in temperature, we are already facing flood and drought. So should we accept the 2°c that the latest IPPC report suggests as being the safe limit? Obviously not,” he says.

Local scientists
For the Minister, it's  high time to have a pool of local scientists so that they can screen our local specificities and come with solutions which suit  realities. “We want our young generation to show interest in science and use it to address our problems and development.”

In fact, Bachoo says,  hundreds of scientists will be needed to address the problem of climate change alone as it impacts on all spheres of  life. There's need to address problems related to management of the coastal zone, tourism industry, water resources, agriculture, forestry, land use, transport, health, among others. “For the Minister climate change is but one of the many challenges mankind is facing. Past activities such as industrialisation, overexploitation of resources and mismanagement of wastes, among others, have caused a major disturbance to our fragile environment. We are facing a variety of critical problems : drastic climatic change, depletion of our ozone layer, deforestation and biodiversity loss, acidification of soil and ocean due to acid rain, health problems like cancer, respiratory diseases and blue babies caused by air and water pollution.

Daunting challenges
“While many of the global problems are under control, climate change remains one of the most daunting global challenges of our time. Recent events have emphatically demonstrated our growing vulnerability to climate change. We witnessed it in Mauritius in the forms of unusual rainfalls and associated flash floods with which our present drainage system is unable to cope.

“The food crisis and energy crisis are to a large extent due to climate change. Despite all the progress made in food production, agriculture is highly dependent on the climate. A drought or a flood can ruin our crop and result in skyrocketing prices of food items affected by the drought or flood. Similarly cyclones or hurricanes can disrupt petrol supply by damaging the installations. Much of the world instability and disruption of supplies are due to climate change,” Bachoo says.