World Weather Organization
The consequences of climate change in Africa are increasingly felt
Flooded street in Khartoum. Climate change is also exacerbating the hunger crisis in Africa. Photo: Ahmed Mostafa El Sheikh / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Climate change has particularly devastating consequences for Africa: there are more floods, droughts and landslides.
With rising temperatures, more extreme weather conditions and changed rainfall, climate change is exacerbating the hunger crisis in Africa and driving people from their homeland.
The World Weather Organization (WMO) reported on Tuesday together with the African Union and other partners in Geneva. The continent is disproportionately affected by floods, droughts and landslides.
Glacier retreat on Kilimanjaro
“The rapid shrinking of the last remaining glaciers in East Africa, which are expected to melt completely in the near future, shows the danger of imminent and irreversible changes in the earth system,” said WMO boss Petteri Taalas.
The development underlines the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to do more for climate protection and to provide more money for adaptation processes, said Taalas a good week before the world climate conference in Glasgow (COP26).
Global warming and its consequences are felt more strongly in Africa than the global average, according to the report. 2020 was among the ten warmest years since measurements began. The rise in sea level on Africa’s southern coasts is above the global average, as is the glacier retreat in the three glacier regions on the Mount Kenya massif in Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda.
The Mount Kenya massif is likely to become one of the first mountain ranges in the world to lose its glacier entirely by the 2030s, the report said. For the other two, if the trends remain the same, it could be so far in the 2040s.
The consequences of climate change are coupled with pest outbreaks, economic downturns, ongoing conflicts and political instability as well as the devastating consequences of the corona pandemic. Millions of people would be driven into extreme poverty.