Essay from the year 2008 in the subject African Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald (Summer Academy 2008), course: Energy & Environment, language: English, abstract: Climate change has emerged as the most critical challenge to sustained global economic growth, social well-being, quality of life, and political stability in the 21st century. In the last two years, two landmark reports - the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007 report, and the Stern Review - have provided highly persuasive empirical evidence, analytical explanations of observed trends, and simulation model projections drawing stronger cause-and-effect linkages between human socio-economic activities and greenhouse gases (GHGs), and between the latter and climate change.