State and Trends in Adaptation Report 2021

The average global temperature is on track to rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels within the next decade or so and 2°C or more by mid-century. These warmer temperatures are already transforming the planet, causing more extreme storms and floods,rising sea levels, more intense heatwaves, and longer and more severe droughts. As global temperatures continue to climb, those impacts will inevitably intensify.Africa is particularly vulnerable to these extreme impacts of climate change. It faces exponential collateral damage, posing systemic risks to its economies, infrastructure investments, water and food systems, public health, agriculture, and livelihoods, threatening to undo its hard-fought development and reverse decades of economic progress. Rates of poverty are high, both among the millions of smallholder farmers and the large numbers of people who live in informal settlements with low access to basic services in cities. In addition, large portions of Africa—in particular, the drylands areas that cover three-fifths of the continent—are warming at a rate twice the global average, putting half a billion people at risk.

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