Data Show Dire Climate Outlook For Africa

Recent climate change projections by the UN confirm that most parts of Africa will likely experience drier, hotter conditions, while also being prone to more frequent heavy rainfall events. All of which, writes Victor Ongoma, an assistant professor at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco, will have an overwhelming impact on millions of people in Africa whose livelihoods depend on dryland agriculture.

- Victor Ongoma

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN body tasked with providing scientific information on climate change, has released a major new report titled ‘Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis’, pulling together evidence from a wide range of current and ancient climate observations. It’s the most up-to-date understanding of climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science. It is crucial that we have a good understanding of the findings, as they give an indication of what our future could look like. According to the report, global warming is evident, with each of the last four decades being successively warmer than any decade that preceded it since 1850. Average precipitation on land has also increased since the mid-20th century. In addition, there is high confidence that the mean sea level increased by between 15cm and 25cm between 1901 and 2018.

The major concern is that as warming continues, more extreme climate events, such as droughts, are projected to increase in both frequency and intensity. This warming is mainly driven by greenhouse gas emissions from human activities like burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) and coal production.

HOT EXTREMES, FREQUENT FLOODS