Browsing: climate change africa

• Food security, livelihoods, and economies are threatened as extreme weather conditions hit Africa hard.
• Citizens are now calling for bold action from their governments and the global community to combat this worsening crisis.
• Over 82% of Africans advocate for measures to protect communities against extreme floods, droughts, and environmental degradation.

 As climate change tightens its grip, the African continent is bearing the brunt of extreme weather conditions that have profoundly impacted food security, livelihoods, and economies.

A recent Afrobarometer survey paints a stark picture of the hard reality for millions of Africans: worsening droughts and crop failures are threatening their very survival. Citizens are now calling for bold action from their governments and the international community to combat this worsening crisis.

A decade of declining agricultural yields

Over the past decade, the majority of Africans report an alarming increase in the severity of droughts and crop failures. According to Afrobarometer…

• With the risk of up to 118 million people being exposed to extreme weather by 2030, Africa is in a race against time to adapt fast.
• African countries are already losing between 2% to 5% of their GDP annually due to climate-related hazards, such as droughts, floods, and heatwaves.
• The cost of adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa alone is estimated at $30Bn to $50Bn annually over the next decade, representing 2% to 3% of regional GDP.

Africa, a continent rich in biodiversity and natural resources, faces some of the most severe impacts of extreme weather, making climate adaptation very critical. The increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters such as droughts, floods, heatwaves, and cyclones are wreaking havoc on African economies and societies.

The State of the Climate in Africa 2023 Report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), highlights that climate extremes disproportionately affect African nations. Increasingly, …

On behalf of Tanzania’s Minister for Tourism and Natural Resources, Director of Wildlife Division, Dr Maurus Msuha said; “The project is key especially in our changing environment as many of our wildlife movement corridors are increasingly becoming fragmented to reduce encroachment and conflicts.”

The project will extend across five years to restore destroyed wildlife corridors along with supporting the surrounding communities. As such, the majority of the funding will go into strengthening the institutional capacity of key players from both the public and the private sectors.

“Although we cannot reverse previous damage to wildlife and natural resources, moving forward, USAID Tuhifadhi Maliasili will foster sustainable management at the community and national level,” Dr Masuha told stakeholders.

The project will engage and empower women and youth groups at both local and national levels. It is only through such communal engagement that the project can be sustained. A key part here is …

South Africa, like many other countries in the world, still uses coal to power its economy, but now the country wants to become a low carbon economy and a climate-resilient society and to do so, it has announced a major U.S.$8.2 billion deal with Europe and the US.

This deal makes South Africa the only African country to have come out of COP26 with a tangible, actionable and financed plan to make it climate change resilient. The energy embattled country has signed the deal with all the big boys, the UK, the U.S., Germany, France and the European Union.

The pact is considered the first of its kind, where the so-called ‘Global North Countries’ are funding a ‘Global South Country’ to transition to renewable energy. Granted in this case there is the interest in coal since South Africa is heavily reliant on coal and so the deal is considered a …

Five years ago, 197 governments promised to limit the impacts of climate change. Today, we are still very far from realizing that promise, as climate change impacts continue unabated. No continent has more to lose from this inaction than Africa, from worsening health outcomes, the destruction of natural resources, landscapes, and biodiversity, to significant economic losses at the macro and micro levels. This is further compounded by weak policies and regulatory frameworks not suited to support nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to reduce CO2 emissions and adapt to climate change, as well as limited funding available to implement critical programs and projects. 

Green finance has become more mainstream in recent years, with the emergence of the global green bond market that could be worth $2.36 trillion by 2023. However, only $2 billion worth of green bonds had been issued in Africa by Q4 of 2019, representing 17 issuances. Risk mitigation …