Despite its low contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, Africa faces the brunt of climate change. Photo: Patrick Meinhardt/AFP
South Africa is the current president of the G20, a first for the African continent. The government has chosen Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability as its theme. Given the climate-related crises being experienced on the continent, there hasn’t been a better or more urgent opportunity to emphasise how fundamental these concepts are for the development and resilience of Africa.
As we set up the Lancet Countdown Africa to systematically track the health impacts of climate change across the continent, and the health benefits of climate action, we note the unique experiences of this continent. Despite its low contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, Africa faces the brunt of climate change, home to seven out of 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change. Our region is the one most affected by droughts, we face the highest relative potential heat-related income loss, and we continue to experience an exponential increase in severe climate change impacts.
In 2024, in the Sahel, extreme temperatures triggered heatwaves while heavy rains caused flooding, with more than 2000 people losing their lives and millions left displaced. Extreme droughts gripped parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In the midst of these droughts, the impacts of cyclones Chido and Freddy in 2023, caused widespread devastation, destruction of homes and infrastructure, and displacement of millions. In 2025, Southern Africa, including South Africa and Botswana, was hit by heavy rainfall, which resulted in deadly floods and landslides, claiming 31 lives.
Most of these disasters were anticipated and highlighted as potential risks as far back as 2011. But, more than a decade later, faced with huge underinvestment in climate adaptation, Africa is facing the worsening realities of climate change. The most vulnerable lack adaptive capacity, a concept alluded to by the late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in 2007 as “Adaptation Apartheid”.
Access to food is a human right that is continuously unrealised in most of Africa. The statistics for the continent are sobering:
Famine and acute food insecurity continue to cast long shadows over large swathes of Africa, and countries such as Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen and Ethiopia are facing shocking levels of food insecurity. Women and children suffer the most in such contexts. In children, malnutrition stunts their growth, impairs cognitive development, and the long-term consequences of acute food insecurity are devastating, creating cycles of poverty, malnutrition and economic instability that persist for generations. People in such settings are confronted with impossible choices to survive, yet more than enough food is produced in the world to feed its inhabitants.
Climate change implications for agriculture, the backbone of many African economies, livelihoods and food and nutrition security are profound. Crop yields are declining, water sources are drying up, and livestock herds are dying. In this context, climate change is not just an environmental crisis but a socio-economic and humanitarian crisis that exacerbates poverty and undermines human rights.
Despite the extreme vulnerability, adaptation to climate change has so far been too slow and insufficient. African leaders have not been silent, actively calling for increased climate finance to adapt to climate change.
These calls have been mostly ignored, as exemplified by COP29’s disappointing outcome, where the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance of prioritising and mobilising less than 50% of the estimated target for developing countries a year by the year 2025 was proposed and agreed on. The solution to this shortfall, so far, is an aspirational “Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T” target, rather than a binding commitment, towards scaling up the necessary finance for developing countries.
As the G20 Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction meets this week, the need for risk reduction and resilience in the form of climate adaptation must be high on their agenda.
If we are to see the chosen values of Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainability applied, the global community needs to commit to and support an African-led just transition that reflects the will and aspirations of Africa and secures its future as an equal global partner. Similarly, local governments need to be intentional and innovative about climate action. Changes in how things are “normally done” are urgent, and a recognition that there will be no future growth possible without paying for climate risks today.
Key actions that could be advanced in 2025 include:
- Strategic and meaningful climate action in Africa. The international community needs to support Africa in bridging the existing climate adaptation funding gap.
- African countries must develop inclusive, sustainable and equitable National Adaptation Plans and Climate Resilience indicators to attract funding.
- Support and strengthen community-led climate adaptation programmes to empower local communities to take climate action.
- Strategic and contextualised post-disaster humanitarian aid that does not reinforce, redistribute or create new vulnerabilities.
- Advances in the evidence base to improve understanding of the connections between health and climate change in Africa, to inform effective adaptation action which protects health.
While Africa faces daunting problems, which are being exacerbated by climate change, there is always hope. With the right support, robust evidence, and strategic collaboration, Africa can achieve a future where its environment and people thrive.
Professor Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi is the director of the Lancet Countdown Africa, and holds positions on various advisory committees and panels and is an editor for several journals. The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change was established in partnership with the Wellcome Trust, which continues to provide core financial support. Mendy-Lisa Ndlovu is the project coordinator for the Wellcome Trust-funded Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems for Southern Africa Project.