The climate change cost is weighing heavily on African economies, with extreme weather events absorbing a growing share of public budgets and slowing development across the continent.
Climate change cost and Africa’s growing economic burden
Africa is already paying, and will continue to pay, a disproportionate price for the climate crisis. Extreme events such as floods and droughts, combined with the need to adapt to changing climate conditions in the coming decades, are placing heavy pressure on national budgets that are often already limited. For African countries, the climate change cost therefore has a far greater impact in relative terms than elsewhere.
How much does the climate change cost weigh on Africa?
Today, the African continent loses on average between 2% and 5% of GDP every year due to extreme weather events. Many countries are spending up to 9% of their annual budgets simply to respond to these shocks.
On the adaptation front, without which the climate change cost is set to rise further, the minimum funding required for sub-Saharan Africa alone is estimated at USD 30–50 billion per year over the next decade. This is equivalent to 2–3% of the region’s GDP. These figures come from the latest report by the World Meteorological Organization on the state of the climate in Africa in 2023.
“Over the past 60 years, Africa has observed a warming trend that has become faster than the global average. In 2023, the continent experienced deadly heatwaves, heavy rainfall, floods, tropical cyclones and prolonged droughts,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.
Rising temperatures and regional impacts
The year 2023 was among the three hottest years on record for Africa since systematic observations began 124 years ago. Over the past 30 years, the pace of warming across the continent has been slightly faster than the global average, with a mean increase of 0.3°C per decade.
North Africa has been particularly affected. The rate of warming there doubled from +0.2°C per decade in the period 1961–1990 to +0.4°C per decade between 1991 and 2023.
Early warning systems as a priority response
To contain the effects of the climate crisis and reduce the climate change cost, the WMO identifies the development of a continent-wide early warning system as the top priority, alongside increased investment in national meteorological and forecasting services.
According to the report, strengthening these systems would help reduce risks, build adaptive capacity, enhance resilience at local, national and regional levels, and guide more sustainable development strategies across Africa, including vulnerable areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
