A report by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has shown that extreme weather and climate change impacts are hitting every single aspect of socio-economic development in Nigeria and other parts of Africa hard, exacerbating hunger, insecurity and displacement.
According to the United Nations System’s authoritative voice on Weather, Climate and Water, in its new ‘State of the climate in Africa 2024 report,’ the continent recorded the warmest in decades on sea surface temperature in the period under review, while droughts and floods destroyed lives and livelihoods, with natural climate drivers, like El-Niño, playing a role.
Among other things, the report noted that year 2024 was the warmest or second-warmest year, depending on the dataset, and the past decade has been the warmest on record, adding that sea-surface temperatures around the continent were at record levels, with particularly rapid warming in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, while marine heat-waves impacted the biggest area since measurements started in 1993.
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However, the report highlighted that digital transformation offers major potential, while early warnings and climate adaptation must be scaled up towards mitigating the impacts of fatal climate. The State of the Climate in Africa report reflects the urgent and escalating realities of global warming across the continent.
The report observed that West and Central Africa suffered devastating floods that affected over four million people, resulting in several hundreds of casualties and hundreds of thousands of displacements as Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and the Central African Republic were among the hardest hit.
WMO’s Secretary-General, WMO, Celeste Saulo, said: “It also reveals a stark pattern of extreme weather events, with some countries grappling with exceptional flooding caused by excessive rainfall and others enduring persistent droughts and water scarcity.
WMO and its partners are committed to working with members to build resilience and strengthen adaptation efforts in Africa through initiatives like early warnings for all. I hope that this report will inspire collective action to address increasingly complex challenges and cascading impacts.”
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
