The document presented during the 12th Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa held from August 30 to September 2 in Ivory Coast specified that African countries face an increasing bill in terms of climate change, reported the Ethiopian News Agency.
According to the text, this situation represents an average loss of two to five percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to extreme events.
In Africa, the cost of adaptation is estimated to be between 30 and 50 billion dollars annually during the next decade, which represents between two and three percent of the region’s GDP, it warned.
The African Union (AU) Commission’s Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment, Josefa Sacko, said the report highlights the urgent need for action.
Sacko recalled the disproportionate burdens and risks due to climate change facing the continent, which threatens food security, public health and socio-economic development.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Executive Secretary and Chief Economist of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Hanan Morsy, said Africa is on the front line of the fight against climate change and its impacts, from rising temperatures to changes in rainfall patterns and other extreme weather events.
Morsy stressed that key sectors such as agriculture, which employs more than 60 percent of the African population, are under threat.
“Crops are failing and livestock are suffering as climate variability disrupts traditional farming practices, jeopardizing food supplies and the economic stability of nations already grappling with high levels of poverty,” he stressed.
He stressed the need for a reform of the global financial architecture to ensure affordable financing at scale and the implementation of innovative instruments such as debt-for-nature swaps and green and blue bonds.
The State of the Climate in Africa Report 2023 is expected to serve as a vital tool for policymakers, providing the observational basis needed to drive action and support decision-making in the face of an increasingly challenging climate future.
The ECA, AU and the World Meteorological Organization jointly launched the document.
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