A new report says Africa’s ability to adapt to climate change is being pushed to the limit, creating urgency to reverse course.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Tuesday issued the second part of its 6th Assessment Report, focusing on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability of climate change in the continent.
The report warns of multiple climate change-induced disasters in the next two decades even if strong action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adding the ability of human beings and natural systems to cope with the changing climate is reaching its limits.
Further rise in global warming would make it even more difficult to adapt, warns the report by the IPCC – a UN agency responsible for advancing knowledge on human-induced climate change.
The report has, for the first time, made an assessment of regional and sectoral impacts of climate change.
Its findings show that the most vulnerable people and systems are disproportionately affected across sectors and regions.
The report notes that over 3.5 billion people (over 45% of the global population) live in areas highly vulnerable to climate change.
Africa is identified as one of the vulnerable hotspots in the report, with several regions, towns and cities facing very high risk of climate disasters such as flooding, sea-level rise, heat-waves, and water stress.
Also for the first time, the IPCC report assesses the health impacts of climate change, and projects that climate-sensitive food-borne, water-borne, and vector-borne disease risks will increase under all levels of warming.
“Sub-Saharan Africa will be particularly affected, with increased incidence of vector-borne and water-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever,” the report reads.
“Flood and drought-related acute food insecurity and malnutrition have increased in Africa,” says the report.
Between 2010-2020, human mortality from floods, droughts and storms was 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions, compared to regions with very low vulnerability.
According to the report, vulnerability at different spatial levels is exacerbated by inequity and marginalization.
MG/abj/APA