Helping African communities adapt to climate change

A recent report by the Global Center on Adaptation shows that financing adaptation to climate change will be more cost-effective than paying for increasingly frequent and severe crises response.

Interest in the global response to climate change tends to focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to minimise the rise in average global temperatures. Until recently, however, far less attention has been paid to adaptation, which is the other main strand of the international community’s efforts to tackle the impacts of a warming climate. The two processes are closely linked, as minimising temperature rises will reduce the amount of adaptation that is required, but there is little doubt that the latter is central to Africa’s survival in the growing climate emergency.

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The recent State and Trends in Adaptation in Africa report from the Global Center on Adaptation shows that financing adaptation to climate change will be more cost-effective than paying for increasingly frequent and severe crises response, disaster relief and recovery pathways. “For Sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of action on climate adaptation of agriculture and food systems is less than a tenth of the cost of inaction: $15bn compared to $201bn per annum”, said GCA CEO Patrick Verkooijen.