Climate Change Poses Growing Threats to Vulnerable Africa, UN Says

Ethiopia struggles to suppress desert locust infestation | Photo: REUTERS
Ethiopia struggles to suppress desert locust infestation | Photo: REUTERS
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Climate Change Poses Growing Threats to Vulnerable Africa, UN Says

Ethiopia struggles to suppress desert locust infestation | Photo: REUTERS
Ethiopia struggles to suppress desert locust infestation | Photo: REUTERS

Floods, droughts, hotter weather, and a desert locust invasion - the impacts of climate change are hitting Africa hard, and worse is ahead for the region´s food supplies, economy, and health, the UN climate agency said on Monday.

Temperatures have been rising on the continent of 1.2 billion at a comparable rate to other regions, but Africa is exceptionally vulnerable to the shock, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Warming temperatures are slashing crop yields. Agriculture is the backbone of Africa's economy.

"By the middle of this century, major cereal crops grown across Africa will be adversely impacted," the WMO said in a report.

It projected a reduction in yields of 13% in West and Central Africa, 11% in North Africa, and 8% in East and Southern Africa.

African countries are generally low-income and ill-equipped to respond to this and other consequences of climate change, the WMO said.

Natural disasters such as Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which struck three countries in southern Africa in 2019, underscored the region´s exposure, it said.

The cyclones forced more than two million people from their homes, killed many hundreds, and destroyed a half million hectares of crops in Mozambique.

Meanwhile, in drought-prone areas including West Africa´s Sahel, the number of undernourished people has jumped by 45% since 2012, the organization said. Climate change is compounding problems such as conflict to drive growing hunger.

In the Horn of Africa, below-average rainfall in 2018 and 2019 led to the worst cereal harvest in Somalia since records began in 1995 and to crop failures in neighboring Kenya.

Floods followed. Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania recorded at least double their average seasonal rainfall in late 2019.

The rain helped crops grow but also fuelled the locusts that have devoured hundreds of thousands of hectares of land in those countries since January.

For now, the poorest are most affected.

Africa´s overall gross domestic product will fall by between 2.25% and 12.12% as temperatures rise, according to a "long-term impact" study cited in the report. It did not specify a time period for the forecast.

Warmer and wetter weather is also more suitable for insects that transmit dengue fever, malaria, and yellow fever.



Trump Says he Will Buy a 'New Tesla' to Show Support for Musk

(FILES) Leader of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk wears a shirt that says "Tech Support" as he speaks during a cabinet meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
(FILES) Leader of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk wears a shirt that says "Tech Support" as he speaks during a cabinet meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
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Trump Says he Will Buy a 'New Tesla' to Show Support for Musk

(FILES) Leader of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk wears a shirt that says "Tech Support" as he speaks during a cabinet meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
(FILES) Leader of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk wears a shirt that says "Tech Support" as he speaks during a cabinet meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he will buy a new Tesla car to show support for the electric carmaker's chief and his ally Elon Musk amid recent "Tesla Takedown" protests and the slump in the company's stock price.
Musk's role in sweeping cuts to the federal workforce at the behest of Trump has led to protests in the US against Tesla.
About 350 demonstrators protested outside a Tesla electric vehicle dealership in Portland, Oregon, last week, while nine people were arrested during a raucous demonstration outside a New York City Tesla dealership earlier in March.
Musk is spearheading the Trump administration's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump defended Musk by saying he was "putting it on the line” to help the country and was doing a "fantastic" job, Reuters reported.
"I'm going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American," Trump said.
Musk thanked the president for his support on his own social media platform X.
Tesla's market capitalization has more than halved since hitting an all-time high of $1.5 trillion on December 17, erasing most of the gains the stock made after Musk helped finance the election victory of Trump.
The stock's decline since December stems from falling vehicle sales and profits, protests of Musk's political activity and investor worries that politics are distracting the world’s richest man from tending to his cash cow.