In a new climate report from World Meteorological Organization (WMO), published on Tuesday, warns that Africa’s rare glaciers will disappear over the next two decades. Despite the fact that the continent is the one that contributes the least to global warming, it is they who go the most beyond, according to AP News.
“The rapid shrinkage of the last remaining glaciers in East Africa, which is expected to melt in the near future, signals the threat of acute and irreversible changes on Earth,” said WMO Secretary General and Professor Petteri Taalas.
The report shows that Africa’s population, which consists of almost 1.2 billion people, is in an extremely vulnerable situation because the continent is heating up faster than the global average. Africa, with its 54 countries, is only responsible for less than four percent of global climate emissions.
Climate change threatens beautiful natural pearls
Hunger, drought and floods
The climate report from the World Meteorological Organization was published just before the UN climate conference, which kicks off on 31 October in Scotland.
The report covers, among other things, the shrinking glaciers on Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, which is the second largest mountain in Africa, and the Rwenzori mountain range in Uganda. The mountains are used in the report because they symbolize the rapid and widespread changes that are about to take place.
The current retreat of the glaciers is higher than the global average. If this continues, it will lead to total degradation by 2040, according to the report.
Mount Kenya Glacier is expected to shrink a decade earlier, which will make it one of the first mountain ranges to lose glaciers due to man-made climate change.
– Mass displacement, hunger, drought and floods are in the future, says Taalas.
The UN warns
– By 2030, up to 118 million extremely poor people, or those living on less than $ 1.9 a day, will be exposed to drought, floods and extreme heat in Africa. Unless adequate response measures are taken, says Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, commissioner of the African Union Commission.
Swallows: – Extreme scenario
The UN has already warned that the island nation of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean is in famine-like conditions due to climate change.
The economic effects of climate change vary across the African continent.
– In sub-Saharan Africa, climate change could lower gross domestic product further, by up to three percent by 2050, says Sacko.
According to the report, it is not only the physical and economic conditions that are getting worse in Africa, but also the number of people who are affected will increase.
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