Africa - Climate Change and Africa

KEY Points

Climate change will have serious and adverse consequences for many development sectors in Africa, and threatens the economies and livelihoods of many African countries.
Future World Bank operations in West, East, and Southern Africa will increase their focus on assessing long-term water supply and reliability.
Analytical work — focused on analyzing adaptation options through local institutions, and conducting vulnerability assessments with particular attention to migration, youth issues, and indigenous peoples — is already underway in some parts of West and East Africa.
African countries should focus on investing in research and advisory services to develop and disseminate adaptation options, and scaling-up investments that build resiliency.
Because of pervasive and widespread use, solid biomass (wood fuel, charcoal, and crop residue) will continue to be an important source of energy in Africa over the next 30 years, while biofuels will see some moderate increase.
While promoting low carbon growth in middle income countries (e.g., South Africa and Botswana), the World Bank’s focus in other countries will be on expanding generation capacity and regional trade (through the East, West, and Southern Africa Power Pools), investing in geothermal (in East Africa), promoting gas flaring reduction (in West Africa), and supporting off-grid renewable energy in several other countries.