As temperature rise, so does the losses in livelihoods and damages to key infrastructure hampering development and country planning.
However, last year in Glasgow, UK, the issue of loss and damage became highly charged politically. But, as leaders play politics, communities’s hope fades as disaster recovery becomes harder.
In Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia, rains have failed consecutively. By March 2022, more than 13 million people were severely food insecure. The World Food program says this number could grow to 20 million people by the end of this year within the horn of Africa.
Kenya’s National Drought Management Agency says that more than 1.5 million animals have died in Kenya. As a result, Kenya has recorded an 80 percent reduction in milk production.
Intense floods, cyclones, and drought, have devastated many sub-Saharan African countries, this year. Tropical storms and cyclones this year alone that has damaged homes, roads, water, and power infrastructure, schools, and hospitals in Madagascar, Mozambique, and Malawi. Madagascar alone has experienced four major storms since late January.
Historically developed countries are responsible for the current levels of warming. Having developed using dirty fossil fuels leads to high levels of carbon in the atmosphere.
With disasters becoming more intense, African governments are advised to invest in good weather station networks to improve their early warning systems.
The G20 countries alone are responsible for 80 percent of global warming, while Africa is responsible for about 4 percent of warming.
Among the issues, developing countries needed at COP27 is a new financial facility to address loss and damage. They lost the battle as the United States strongly opposed it. The push continues at COP27 later this year in Egypt