The unprecedented and lengthy droughts in East Africa, the torrential rains in West Africa, the intensity of floods in Southern Africa and the progression of food insecurity on the continent remind us that climate change is an immediate reality in Africa.
The risks are not for tomorrow but for now.
A few months ago, the IPCC warned that the Paris Agreement target of limiting the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius would probably be exceeded in the coming years, as reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are unfortunately not as fast and sustained as needed.
However, each additional fraction of a degree will bring more damage and suffering to our Continent.
Everything must be done to minimize the scale and duration of an overshoot of climate objectives and to reduce its consequences. We have to get ready.
Reducing emissions, especially by the most industrialized and biggest polluter countries remains the priority and for those countries that are historically the highest emitters, a moral obligation.
As the earth reaches eight billion inhabitants, we have no other choice, in a tense economic, political and social context, but to work together to find common solutions to the climate crisis that threatens the planet and the living.
In Africa, where we only emit 4 per cent of greenhouse gases and where we face devastating consequences, from droughts to food insecurity, this should happen first and foremost through adaptation, and in particular the adaptation of our agricultural systems.
Strengthening the resilience of food systems through better access to drought-tolerant seeds, extension, good quality fertilizers and conservation of water and soil carbon is increasingly becoming critical.
No amount of adaptation or resilience building will replace the need to cut back on emissions. The food systems in industrialized countries are contributing 30 per cent to emissions.
Globally, farmers and laypeople are most impacted by climate change.
They should be considerate and remember that what they are doing in their parts of the world is impacting farmers in Malawi, Kenya, Burkina Faso and across Africa.
In addition to the need to reduce emissions central and unquestionable step and the need to do much more on adaptation, we are analyzing additional approaches such as removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and possibly cooling the planet by reflecting incoming solar radiation, their technological and governance challenges, opportunities and risks.
We will also have to analyze with caution the existing technological approaches, including the most innovative and daring ones, to understand their impacts on our populations, their risks and their possible contributions, and to determine those which will help in reaching prosperity and which will reduce the effects of the global climate crisis.
In the current difficult multilateral framework, marked by an unprecedented combination of crises, the climate crisis must remain at the top of the political agenda.
Scientific research should be valued and supported, and the public debate reinvigorated. No miracle solution exists.
The writer is the President of AGRA and a member of the Climate Overshoot Commission
