Africa is bearing an increasingly heavy burden of climate change and disproportionately high costs of essential climate adaptation measures, according to a new World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report released on Monday. The report also warns that the continent faces disproportionate risks from climate change-related extreme weather events and patterns, causing massive humanitarian crises.
The WMO State of the Climate in Africa 2023 focuses on climate change indicators and impacts in 2023 - the hottest year on record globally. It complements the WMO State of the Global Climate report and is the latest in a series of WMO regional reports that provide the basis for action and decision-making.
According to the report, African countries are losing - on average - 2 to 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP), and many are diverting up to 9 percent of their budgets to respond to climate extremes. In sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of adaptation is estimated to be between US$30 and 50 billion annually over the next decade, or 2-3 percent of the region's GDP.
By 2030, it is projected that up to 118 million extremely poor people in Africa - those living on less than US$1.90 a day - will be exposed to droughts, floods and extreme heat without adequate adaptation measures, placing an additional burden on poverty reduction efforts and economic development.
According to the report, the continent is warming slightly faster than the global average, at about +0.3°C per decade between 1991 and 2023, with the most rapid warming in North Africa.
“Over the past 60 years, Africa has observed a warming trend that has become more rapid than the global average. In 2023, the continent experienced deadly heatwaves, heavy rains, floods, tropical cyclones, and prolonged droughts,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.
In 2023, at least 4,700 confirmed deaths were attributed to flooding in Libya following the Mediterranean cyclone "Storm Daniel" in September, with 8,000 people still missing. Parts of Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia experienced widespread and severe flooding, with more than 350 deaths and 2.4 million people displaced during the April-June rainy season.
Record-breaking Tropical Cyclone Freddy caused widespread flooding during its final landfall in both Mozambique and Malawi as extremely heavy rains fell. Millions of people were left homeless and displaced. While Malawi was particularly hard hit, with at least 679 deaths reported, an additional 165 deaths were reported in Mozambique. Madagascar was also affected by the storm.
In early May, severe flooding and landslides hit Central Africa on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least 574 people. The White Nile River in South Sudan reached record levels in February. Basic needs such as food, clean water and health care were difficult to access, and local livelihoods had almost completely collapsed.
In September and October, floods affected some 300,000 people in 10 countries, with Niger, Benin, Ghana and Nigeria the worst affected.
Last year, parts of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo experienced severe drought. Zambia suffered its worst drought in 40 years, affecting eight out of ten provinces and some six million people.
“While many countries in the Horn of Africa, southern and North-West Africa continued to suffer exceptional multi-year drought, other countries experienced extreme precipitation events in 2023 leading to flooding with significant casualties. These extreme events led to devastating impacts on communities, with serious economic implications,” said Saulo.
She noted that the pattern of extreme weather has continued in 2024.
“Parts of Southern Africa have been gripped by damaging drought. Exceptional seasonal rainfall has caused death and devastation in East African countries, most recently in Sudan and South Sudan. This exacerbates an already desperate humanitarian crisis,” the WMO Secretary-General said.
In recent weeks, numerous countries in Africa have been hit by torrential rains, flash floods, river floods, and other large-scale flooding events that have submerged vast areas of land, caused devastation, affected millions of people, displaced hundreds of thousands, and claimed hundreds of lives.
Among the countries affected by the recent floods are several experiencing some of the world's worst humanitarian crises, including Sudan, Chad, Niger and South Sudan. The extreme weather events associated with climate change are exacerbating these already dire humanitarian crises. Other countries severely struck by flooding include Nigeria, Guinea, Mali, Ethiopia and Cameroon.
The WMO report highlights the urgent need to invest in meteorological services and early warning systems to support climate change adaptation and resilience in Africa. It says this will protect lives as well as economies.
Further information
Full text: State of the Climate in Africa 2023, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), report, released September 2, 2024
https://library.wmo.int/records/item/69000-state-of-the-climate-in-africa-2023