Climate change means Africa needs to spend more on science training, researchers say

JOHANNESBURG - A new paper says that, if Africa is to appropriately deal with the effects of climate change, its adaptation strategy should focus on fostering science professions.

The paper, published last week in the Nature Communications journal, argues that sustainability is related to innovation and employment creation.

Science “that supports a good provision of weather, water and climate services is urgently needed for an adaptation strategy and will contribute towards resilience,” argue the authors.

In March, the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, rallied world leaders to work towards policies that allow every person on earth to be protected by early warning systems within five years by 2027.

He said this was important because “advances in early warning systems and preparedness have saved tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.”

The new paper observes that Africa has a skills deficiency.

“Currently, we are being held back by a key problem; the massive improvement in global weather and climate science and services, and their role in environmental and socio-economic welfare benefits, has not been reflected in Africa as it has in other parts of the globe,” reads the paper.

The challenges in Africa are mainly gaps in scientific research, data gaps and data access, modelling and forecasting, capacity building, knowledge management and communication, the paper states.

With most researchers and research drawn from the developed world, “it will not be sufficient to simply impose solutions which work in the Global North.”

African climate change advocates complain that funders, not communities, set the agenda for programmes to strengthen resilience to increasingly harsh weather in poor nations.

They say communities should plan and manage climate adaptation projects to increase its effectiveness.

The paper posits that overcoming these challenges, “will allow African agencies and communities to properly benefit, and contribute to, the advancement in global weather and climate science and services, and their role in environmental and socio-economic welfare.”

A man walks past a large set of solar panels that provide over 600 people with electricity in Ibel, Senegal. Solar panels in various shapes and sizes offer cheap, consistent electricity to many communities with little or no access to mains power where the sun shines most days of the year. - Guy Peterson/AFP.