How does Climate Change affect us in Africa?
Africa’s emission rank the lowest among all regions in the world, which is a tiny percentage compared to the emission from the others, with just 3.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions coming from Africa in the past two decades. Yet African countries suffer the most from Climate change impact in the world.
Africa’s development and economy depend majorly on Agriculture, According to the United Nations Development Programme, over 80% of Africans rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, and with the global average temperature at 1.5C, the impacts of climate change seem to impact agricultural production heavily causing crop failures, reduced yields, and increased food insecurity due to prolonged droughts, erratic rainfall, and changing weather patterns. At the same time, the farmers in Africa do not have enough to reinvest after losing their yield due to climate change effects.
The effects of climate change also have an exponential effect on the public health sector of the continent which is already in a precarious state. Hospitals are that already in a bad state are loaded with more patients from illnesses such as malaria, cholera, and yellow fever that are exacerbated by climate change effects, natural disasters are also putting a lot of pressure on the Public health system in Africa.
Infrastructure investment is improving in Africa, with a lot of development happening in road building, telecommunications infrastructure, and electricity, but this development faces a great risk of destruction and damage due to climate change effects, especially on the world’s poorest people. The risk of flood alone can wipe out a network of roads and will require billions to build back, what is the fate of a poor nation that took a loan to build these infrastructures? That means more debt or stunted development.
Climate change affects us differently in Africa and the impact is more resounding for us because of our economy and development dependency on agriculture and because we are poor.
Another area where climate change impacts are felt in Africa is in the water sector. Many African countries are already facing water shortages, and climate change is expected to exacerbate this problem. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted that rainfall patterns in Africa will become even more erratic, with more frequent and severe droughts, while heavy rainfall events will become more intense and lead to flooding, making the water scarcity in Africa more and even bringing water-related diseases alongside.
