Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Africa Adaptation Gap Technical Report :Climate-change impacts, adaptation challenges and costs for Africa

Africa Adaptation Gap Technical Report :Climate-change impacts, adaptation challenges and costs for Africa
November 2013. UNEP, 43 pages

Africa’s Adaptation Gap Report is a stark analysis of where Africa stands in relation to its adaptation goals and is a cautionary indicator of what may happen should the emissions gap remain - necessitating additional adaptation.

The Africa Adaptation Gap Report was accomplished to inform policymakers of the shortcomings and opportunities for adaptation to Climate Change in Africa. The results demonstrate how delaying action now will assuredly result in exponential costs down the road. Adaptation costs due to past emissions are revealed to be between USD 7-15 billion annually by 2020. 

The report’s conclusions demonstrate that - even where the emissions gap is closed and we get onto a pathway to hold warming below 2°C - by 2050 adaptation costs could hover around USD 35 billion per year. Analyses of present policies put the world on track to 3.5-4°C warming by 2100 are even more dispiriting and reveal that the cost of adaptation for Africa could reach USD 50 billion per year by 2050, still only halfway to the warming by 2100. This is hardly encouraging news for some of the world’s least developed countries.

Related:
DW Akademie invited to partake in an exclusive online, in-depth briefing with Mr Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on October 30, 2013. The interactive online conference was part of a five-week online training for journalists on issues regarding "Reporting Climate Change" held by DW Akademie. Workshop participants as well as other expert journalists with a focus on environmental issues had the chance to interview Achim Steiner on issues regarding the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP19/ CMP9 in Warsaw (11-22 November 2013).

Web session with Achim Steiner (UNEP) from DW Akademie on Vimeo.

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