Explore Challenges
- 13 OCTOBER 2010: Plastic pollution in the oceans
- 1 DECEMBER 2010: Can the UK ever be sustainable?
- Natural disasters: how can we improve?
- Not In My Back Yard
- Digital Divide in the UK?
- Importing goods, exporting drought?
- The challenges and opportunities of an ageing society
- Engineering our climate
- The future shape of Capitalism
- Migration: skills and the job market
- Razing the Rainforest
- London under water
- Concreting the countryside
- Future of low carbon energy
- Africa in the 21st Century
Climate change impacts in Africa
75 and 250 million
Estimated to be exposed to water stress by 2020
25%
the proportion of Africa that is under water stress
The IPCC report on Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability identified Africa as one of the most vulnerable continents to climate variability and change
Current agricultural growth is not keeping up with population growth. A decrease in length of growing season, and areas suitable for rain-fed agriculture which could lead to losses of up to 4% of GDP in Central and West Africa
350-600 million
Estimated to be exposed to water stress by 2050
Assessments of health in Africa show that many communities are already impacted by health stresses that are coupled to several causes, including poor nutrition. These assessments repeatedly pinpoint the implications of the poor health status of many Africans for future development.
80 million
Number of people by 2080 that could be at risk from malaria
Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
The impact of climate change to ecosystems includes impact on 5,000 African plant species, loss of between 51 and 61% of Fynbos and Succulent Karoo biomes, a potential loss of 6 bird species, enhanced sand-dune mobilisation and an estimated loss of 66% of nyala and zebra in the Kruger Park
2020
Estimated year of complete disappearance of Mount Kilimanjaro’s glaciers
2 to 4 million
Additional people that will be flooded by 2080
Low-lying coastal zones and mountain regions could place tourism at risk
30%
Coastal infrastructure that could be inundated by Sea Level Rise by 2080
Increased extreme events such as storms, floods and sustained droughts will impact on settlements creating new refugees seeking livelihoods
Adaptive capacity and adaptation will be the key to limiting the impact of climate change