Climate Change to Remain; Adaptive measures Need to be Taken Seriously.

Climate change is an ongoing hot topic in the world right now and Africa is not excluded from
this. With majority of the continent lying within the tropics, Africa is majorly affected by the
generally rising temperatures across the world. However, increased temperatures isn’t the only
thing affecting Africa as a result of climate change.
Africa is considered very vulnerable when it comes to climate change because of its multiple
existing stresses as well as a weak adaptive capacity. The existing stresses include some very
widespread phenomenon in Africa like poverty and political instability. There is also the
degradation of the ecosystem, which is a huge problem considering a large amount of Africans
depend on the ecosystem for their livelihood.
Many countries in Africa have agriculture as their main economic activity. Unfortunately, this
agriculture is done majorly in small scale by small holder farmers who don’t have access to
progressive technological means of production. As such, they depend almost entirely on rainfall
and the natural ecosystem.
Unfortunately, with the climate change, this has been highly unreliable in recent years with
fluctuating rainfall patterns and corrosion of the natural systems. Many parts of the continent
have experienced late onset of rainfall and early cessation. This has ensured low agricultural
production and hence led to food insecurity in many regions of the continent.
Another issue that climate change has affected in Africa is energy sector .With the ever rising
population on the continent, the demand for energy continues to rise every day. However,
climate change has led to several water sources either drying up or having a reduced water level.
This has in turn led to the dams used for hydropower generation not producing enough energy
due to the decreased water levels.
With most of Africa reliant on hydropower, most parts end up experiencing unreliable power
generation, which in turn affects various aspects of people’s livelihoods.
The African continent is home to many climate related diseases, most notably; malaria, bilharzia
and dengue fever. Climate change and the rising temperature have influenced the incidence and
the spread of these diseases to different capacities. This change impact health to a great extent,
especially considering most nations on the continent don’t have the best health systems. With
many projections still showing an expected increase in temperature rise, cases of infections could
keep on rising.
Unfortunately, despite facing some of the harshest outcomes of this phenomena, Africa is
responsible for a negligible amount of the total global greenhouse gas emissions. This is mainly
due to the fact that most nations in Africa are still developing and the level of industrialization is
low. Most greenhouse emissions come from the top most industrialized countries like China,
Japan and USA.

While advocating for the use of clean renewable energy is key to combating the threat of climate
change, improving the level of adaptive capacity should also be considered. Climate change is
likely to go on for decades to come and being able to adjust to the conditions is very important.