{"id":236626,"date":"2022-09-09T10:37:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T08:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/world-meteorological-organization-wmo-climate-change-in-africa-can-destabilize-countries-and-entire-regions?lang=en"},"modified":"2022-09-09T10:37:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T08:37:26","slug":"world-meteorological-organization-wmo-climate-change-in-africa-can-destabilize-countries-and-entire-regions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/world-meteorological-organization-wmo-climate-change-in-africa-can-destabilize-countries-and-entire-regions\/","title":{"rendered":"World Meteorological Organization (WMO): Climate Change in Africa Can Destabilize \u2018Countries and Entire Regions\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"image_wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/thumb\/eeccde773eecdf0\/600\/418\" alt=\"UN News\" \/><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/africarc\/loganalytics?press_id=215878&amp;press_source=UN News\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Water stress and hazards like withering droughts and devastating floods are hitting African communities, economies and ecosystems hard, according to a new report launched on Thursday by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><em>The State of the Climate in Africa 2021&nbsp;<\/em>reveals that rainfall patterns are disrupted, glaciers are disappearing and key lakes are shrinking.<\/p>\n<p>And rising water demand, combined with limited and unpredictable supplies, threatens to aggravate conflict and displacement.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The worsening crisis and looming famine in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa shows how climate change can exacerbate water shocks, threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and destabiliizing communities, countries and entire regions,&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/public.wmo.int\/en\/media\/press-release\/state-of-climate-africa-highlights-water-stress-and-hazards\">said<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/public.wmo.int\/en\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"WMO\" rel=\"noopener\">WMO<\/a>&nbsp;Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Temperature trends<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The report shows how extreme weather and climate change are undermining human health and safety, food and water security, and socio-economic development.<\/p>\n<p>While Africa accounts for only about two to three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, it suffers disproportionately from it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With a special focus on water,&nbsp;<em>The State of the Climate<\/em>&nbsp;reveals that high water stress is estimated to affect about 250 million people on the continent and displace up to 700 million individuals by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>Four out of five African countries are unlikely to have sustainably managed water resources by 2030.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Africa&rsquo;s climate has warmed more than the global average since pre-industrial time,&rdquo; warned Mr. Taalas, noting that the sea level rise along African coastlines is faster than the global mean.<\/p>\n<p>He observed that that this is contributing to increases in the frequency and severity of coastal flooding and erosion, and salinity in low-lying cities.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Changes in continental water bodies have major impacts on the agriculture sector, ecosystems, biodiversity,&rdquo; said the WMO chief.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Making changes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Currently only 40 per cent of the African population has access to early warning systems against extreme weather and climate change impacts.<\/p>\n<p>At the request of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sg\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations\" rel=\"noopener\">Secretary-General Ant&oacute;nio Guterres<\/a>, WMO is spearheading a campaign to ensure universal access to early warnings in the next five years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, climate action is gaining momentum.<\/p>\n<p>More than 40 African States have revised their national climate plans to make them more ambitious and add greater commitments to climate adaptation and mitigation.<\/p>\n<p><em>The State of the Climate<\/em>&nbsp;report makes a number of recommendations, including to strengthen early warning systems, increase transboundary cooperation, data exchange and knowledge sharing.<\/p>\n<p>It underscores that the need for more investment in adaptation is crucial, as is a concerted drive towards more integrated water resource management.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The report was launched with an accompanying&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/storymaps.arcgis.com\/stories\/fdc160b9b4bc4052a01a84b37266dc3b\">digital story map<\/a>&nbsp;at a Ministerial Meeting on Integrated Early Warning and Early Action System initiative in Maputo, Mozambique.<\/p>\n<p><i>Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN News.<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"well well-sm\"><b>Media files<\/b><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/ffe41a2e362442b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/ffe41a2e362442b\" alt=\"UN News\" style=\"max-width:500px\" \/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/download\/ffe41a2e362442b\">Download logo<\/a><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/\">Source: Africa Newsroom &#8211; APO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Water stress and hazards like withering droughts and devastating floods are hitting African communities, economies and ecosystems hard, according to a new report launched on Thursday by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The State of the Climate in Africa 2021&nbsp;reveals that rainfall patterns are disrupted, glaciers are disappearing and key lakes are shrinking. And rising [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":236627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-236626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-apo","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/world-meteorological-organization-wmo-climate-change-in-africa-can-destabilize-countries-and-entire-regions.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}