Africa faces a disproportionate burden of climate change and adaptation costs, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a new report on Monday.
The African continent warmed slightly faster than the global average – about 0.3 degrees Celsius per decade between 1991 and 2023, the WMO said in its report on the state of Africa’s climate last year.
North Africa experienced the fastest warming, the report said. The city of Agadir in Morocco reached a new maximum temperature of 50.4 degrees.
Other countries recorded extreme rainfall that led to flooding.
Climate activists have long pointed out that Africa pays one of the highest prices of climate change, while the continent is responsible for only a fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The COP29 UN climate summit, hosted by Azerbaijan in November, will focus heavily on how much rich industrialized countries should contribute to helping poorer countries adapt to climate change.
”Africa faces a disproportionate burden and risks arising from weather events and patterns associated with climate change,”Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Commission, stated in the WMO report.
”They cause huge humanitarian crises with adverse effects on agriculture and food security, education, energy, infrastructure, peace and security, public health, water resources and overall socio-economic development,” she said.
