African countries are facing a disproportionately high and increasing climate change bill, a new World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report warns.
The report, published this week, outlines that African countries are losing between 2 and 5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), on average, as a result of climate-related hazards, with many diverting up to 9 per cent of their budgets to respond to these climate extremes.
“Over the past 60 years, Africa has observed a warming trend that has become more rapid than the global average,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo in a statement this week.
Indeed, between 1991 and 2023, the continent warmed at a rate of +0.3 °C/decade, while 2023 was the warmest year on record for many countries, including Morocco, which witnessed the highest temperature anomaly, according to the report.
“In 2023, the continent experienced deadly heatwaves, heavy rains, floods, tropical cyclones, and prolonged droughts,” said Saulo.
The WMO State of the Climate in Africa 2023 report writes that looking ahead, by 2030, up to an estimated 118 million “extremely poor people”—those living on less than US$1.90/day—will be exposed to drought, floods, and extreme heat in Africa if adequate response measures are not implemented.
“This will place additional burdens on poverty alleviation efforts and significantly hamper growth,” the report warns.
The report calls for investments in National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and early warnings and early actions, which it says is a “priority” for saving lives, promoting economic development, valuing development gains and livelihoods and reducing the cost of disaster responses.
Estimates are that in sub-Saharan Africa, adaptation costs will be US$ 30–50 billion (2–3 per cent of regional gross domestic product (GDP)) each year over the next decade.
“Africa faces disproportionate burdens and risks arising from climate change related weather events and patterns, which cause massive humanitarian crises with detrimental impacts on agriculture, and food security, education, energy, infrastructure, peace, and security, public health, water resources, and overall socio-economic development,” commented H.E. Ambassador Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Union Commission.
Last month, at the UNFCCC Africa Group of Negotiators meeting, experts and negotiators from across Africa underscored the lack of financial flows into the continent.
Indeed, it was highlighted that Africa receives “less than 1% of the global climate financing on an annual basis,” as reported by Reuters.
A number of COP29 priorities were outlined at the meeting, which included:
- The need for an ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG),
- Operationalising the global goal on adaptation (GGA) and the Loss and Damage Fund, and
- Resolving unfinished business under Article 6 on carbon trading mechanisms.