Africans must ratify Kyoto to slow desert expansion: conference

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[ Sahara dust causing global warming ---- like on Mars - see story below ]

ALGIERS (AFP) - An international desertification conference closed Wednesday with a call to all African countries to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, to help slow the rapid expansion of deserts on the continent.
In a statement dubbed the Algiers Appeal, participants urged any countries that had not yet done so to sign up to the protocol on climate change, which has been
So far, 168 countries have ratified the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gases, but major polluters such as the United States and Australia are among those resisting.
The Algiers Appeal said that by ratifying Kyoto African countries would have access to international financing aimed at fighting climate change and desertification.
The appeal also called on African nations to step up regional cooperation in water management and to set up a regional observatory specifically to tackle desertification.
Speaking at the start of the conference on Monday, Algeria's minister for territorial planning Cherif Rahmani warned that by 2025 the number of people living in deserts would have doubled to two billion people.
Of them, 750 million would be in Africa, he said. Desertification would drive 65 million Africans to seek refuge in the West, he added.
Representatives from 20 African countries, European deputies and international experts in the field attended the three-day conference, which was jointly organised by the Algerian parliament and the Pan-African parliament.