The United Nations World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says Africa needs to prepare better for climate change by responding to a wide range of potential risks.
WMO made this known in a multi-agency report, the first in a series of continent-by-continent assessments.
Development Diaries understands that the aim of the report was to fill a gap in reliable and timely climate information for Africa.
‘In recent months we have seen devastating floods, an invasion of desert locusts and now face the looming spectre of drought because of a La Niña event’, WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement.
‘The human and economic toll has been aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic’.
Africa, it is understood, has been warming progressively since the start of the last century, and in the next five years, northern and southern Africa are set to get drier and hotter, while the Sahel region of Western Africa will get wetter, according to WMO’s Regional Strategic Office Director, Filipe Lucio.
Lucio said, ‘Overall, Africa needs to take action. Action is needed today in terms of adaptation, but also is needed tomorrow in terms of mitigation’.
It was gathered that climate change has contributed to a jump in food insecurity, mosquito-borne disease and mass displacement in the past decade.
Also, the rise in sea levels has led to unusual weather patterns such as Tropical Cyclone Idai, which hit Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in 2019.
According to Lucio, the agricultural sector is key to building climate resistance, since it is the dominant employer and it relies on the use of water and energy.
Source: UN News
Photo source: Tom Stahl