About 118 million people living below $1.90 per day, will be negatively affected by extreme weather events such as drought, floods, and extreme heat, if adequate response measures are not taken.
This is according to the recently released State of the Climate Report, by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), into 2030.
This is expected to aggrevate the plight of poverty and hamper alleviation efforts and growth.
Therefore, the WMO has urged African countries to prioritize investment in National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and accelerate the implementation of EarlyWarningsForAll to save lives and livelihoods.
This will help mitigate risks, build adaptive capacity, boost resilience at local, national, and regional levels and guide sustainable development strategies, according to the report.
WMO, the African Union Commission, UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Ministerial Conference for Meteorology released the report in collaboration with partners at the 12th Climate Change for Development in Africa (CCDA) Conference in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire on 2 September 2024.
According to the report, released on Monday this week, on average, African countries are already losing 2-5% of GDP and many are diverting up to 9% of their budgets responding to climate extremes.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of adaptation is estimated to range from US$ 30-50 billion annually over the next decade, or 2-3% of the region’s Gross Domestic Product.
Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of WMO, said “while many countries in the Horn of Africa, southern and North-West Africa, continued to suffer exceptional multi-year drought, other countries experienced extreme precipitation events in 2023 leading to flooding with significant casualties. These extreme events led to devastating impacts on communities, with serious economic implications.”
She said this pattern of extreme weather has continued in 2024.
Graph: WMO based on Africa’s 53 countries
Picture of strange cloud in Langebaan this week shared by Johan de Beer, via Reenval SA