AU urges countries end to fragmented response to climate change
Windhoek, Namibia (PANA) – Most African countries have developed early warning systems to climate change-induced disasters, such as floods although the response to epidemics and other health emergencies remains chaotic due to lack of resources, according to African Union Commission (AUC) officials.
“We feel there should be a multi-hazard system for dealing with the effects of climate change which is done under one roof. The AUC is working to cascade its multi-hazard warning system,” Harsen Nyambe, the AUC Director of Sustainable Environment, told PANA in an interview.
Climate scientists provide regular updates, which assist countries to better predict climate disasters and risks, such as potential disease outbreaks as well as climate services for humanitarian action.
Most countries are facing a situation where climate change response strategies are not coordinated from one point, because several aspects of the climate response are domiciled at various ministries.
In some cases, the officers dealing with climate change are domiciled at the Ministry of Transport and infrastructure, and local authorities. Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are dealt with in uncoordinated manner, leading to duplication and at times, lack of state budget support.
“Our focus is on the financing for climate change action,” Nyambe said, referring to need for African countries to properly organise their climate response mechanisms in order to attract funding. “The climate change frameworks are not properly implemented because they are still seen as a budgetary burden and proper resources such as vehicles are not provided.”
The AU insists that for proper response to climate change, countries should be in a position to obtain funding both locally and internationally to finance their climate action.
This, could only happen with proper design of the climate response frameworks, addressing mostly, disaster response and resource allocation towards climate disasters.
Through services funded by the European Union under an Euros 85 million project, the AU-Intra African Caribbean Pacific Climate Services and Related Programme (ClimSA), African countries are able to receive climate impact assessment reports to assist in the decision-making for climate action responses.
AUC Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Development, Moses Vilakati, said climate change response required funding. He said response to climate risks required funding to address re-planting of trees and forestry restoration, agro-forestry, organic farming and preparing farmlands to utilise new farming techniques, which enhance possibility for increased rainfall while helping countries to curb intra-logging and other practices which deplete forests.
Africa is facing a current financing gap of US$250 billion each year and an unconditional financing in order to meet the green house gas emission cuts set under the Paris Climate Agreement. However, the continent currently obtains US$30 billion, which is 12% of its needs annually, to respond to the disaster.
The Niamey-based African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD), an organisation supported by the AU and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), issues regular climate updates for agriculture, humanitarian action and an update to guide infrastructure design.
The monitoring of the agriculture calendar is meant to guide farmers towards better production, which is considered key aspect of ensuring resilience to climate change.
Changes in weather patterns, leading to prolonged droughts, is a threat to a continent still reliant on rain-fed agriculture. The agriculture monitoring supports farmers, who receive the climate advisories at national levels through their national weather monitoring stations linked to ACMAD systems.
The weather monitoring supports response to climate impacts and sustainable development.
ACMAD has developed a comprehensive assessment of climate change detection indices, based on rainfall patterns, which is able to detect particular trends for various African cities, including Mogadishu and Ouagadougou. Its rainfall pattern offers alerts to city populations against future climate disasters.
-0- PANA AO/MA 9July2025
