The devastating impact of climate change in Africa: a growing concern

By: DaQuan Lawrence
AFRO International writer
DLawrence@afro.com

The growing impact of climate change becomes more relevant throughout the 21^st century, as this global phenomenon has recently caused some of the hottest days on record. While modern society has recently experienced sweltering summer temperatures as well as freezing winter days, climate change naturally affects regions of the world differently.

In September 2023, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that Africa and its populations are suffering disproportionately from the effects of climate change, despite the continent being responsible for only a fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The WMO State of Africa’s Climate 2022 report indicates that around 110 million people were directly affected by climate, weather and water-related hazards in 2022, and that the rate of temperature increase in Africa has accelerated in recent decades, with climate and weather-related hazards becoming more severe.

According to the WMO Emergency Events Database, 5,000 deaths have been reported due to drought and flooding. The climate situation is compounded by the fact that nearly 282 million people on the continent, or nearly 20 percent of the population, are food insecure and malnourished, according to the Brookings Institution.

At a November 2023 expert meeting in Accra, Ghana, Ngone Diop, Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Office for West Africa, mentioned the importance of food insecurity in West Africa.

“Food insecurity is unfortunately a structural challenge in Africa, affecting 20 percent of the continent’s population compared to a global rate of 9.8 percent…” Diop said.

At the UN expert meeting, experts said that 17 of the 20 countries most at risk from climate change are in Africa, according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

The African continent has experienced several heatwaves, including a heatwave in February 2024 during the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament in Ivory Coast that forced players to take extra hydration breaks during matches.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), over the past 60 years, Africa has experienced a global warming trend faster than the global average. Due to the unpredictable effects of global warming, social and environmental justice activists across the African continent have expressed concerns about the magnitude of climate change and its unique impacts on African societies.

The world saw rising temperatures in the early 2020s, with the latest data suggesting that 2024 could beat 2023 as the hottest year on record.

“I now estimate that there is about a 95% chance that 2024 will beat 2023 and be the warmest year since global surface temperature records began in the mid-1800s,” Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at the U.S. nonprofit Berkeley Earth, told Reuters.

In Africa, as in much of the Global South, the climate crisis has led to agricultural problems, food insecurity, droughts and environmental disasters such as storms and floods. With the African continent being blessed with distinct landscapes such as savannahs, deserts and rainforests, the region’s climate can cause natural phenomena such as rain, which can lead to disasters.

For example, in late April, heavy and relentless rains during Kenya’s “long rains” season (March to May) led to 91 disappearances, 169 deaths and the displacement of more than 190,000 people, as reported by Carlos Mureithi of the Associated Press.

Although many have linked the flooding to the natural El Niño weather phenomenon, Joyce Kimutai, a research associate at Imperial College London, said research shows the weather event has little influence on rainfall in East Africa during the “long rains” season. In addition, scientists have also found that human-induced climate change has intensified rainfall during the rainy season in East Africa.

While North and West Africa are known for the great Sahara Desert, World Weather Attribution (WWA) recently noted that the heatwave and extremely high temperatures in the region were caused by human activities such as deforestation and fossil fuels.

In West African countries such as Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, temperatures have exceeded 43°C. In early April, the Malian city of Kayes recorded temperatures reaching 48.5°C.

During that period, Mali’s capital, Bamako, recorded 102 heat-related deaths, more than half of which were people over the age of 60. While people in Burkina Faso and Mali are accustomed to high temperatures, the duration and severity of the heatwave made it difficult for people to cope, according to WWA.