Africa is a ‘vulnerability hot spot’ for the impacts of climate change – with adaptation challenges growing substantially even if emissions are reduced drastically.

This was one of the findings in a report, which has been launched in Gaborone, Botswana, in the occasion of the Fifth session of the African ministerial conference states that Africa faces a significant challenge in adapting to climate change with costs and damages rising rapidly with warming.

The Africa’s Adaptation Gap report painting a bleak climatic picture for the continent of Africa was launched at an African Ministerial Conference on Environment together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Responding to the report, ACT General Secretary John Nduna decried the many years of climate negotiations at international level and the little they have delivered in terms of supporting community resilience.

‘Adaptation to climate change is the primary objective for communities who are already affected by climate change in Africa and in many other developing countries. The gap that this reports shows that much more needs to be done, and urgently,’ says Nduna.

Gaps in climate change adaptation are closely linked with gaps in emissions reduction. The more emissions are released into the atmosphere, the more the need for adaptation.

ACT Alliance is supports Africa’s position to emphasise the adaptation and resilience of communities in the forthcoming climate change conference, COP 19, in Warsaw, Poland.