Manya Rathore
Research expert covering India
Climate change in Africa - statistics & facts
Africa is paying the price for a crisis it did little to create. The continent has contributed roughly four percent to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide – far less than countries like China and the United States. Yet, African nations rank among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Africa’s already unstable weather is likely to become even more erratic due to human-induced global warming. Floods, storms, and droughts have been more frequent in the region, jumping from 85 recorded events in the 1970s to over 540 between 2010 and 2019. From 1970 onwards, climate hazards in Africa caused the death of over 730,000 people and had an economic cost of 38.5 billion U.S. dollars.
