Is climate change to blame?

What the experts say

QWas Cyclone Idai caused by climate change?

AIt’s impossible to say, but experts believe its impact was made worse by the gradual global temperature rise.

QHow could climate change have made it worse?

AExperts point to three factors. First, warmer air temperatures mean more rain is held and then released. Idai produced nearly a year’s worth of rain in just a few days, more than 2ft in some parts.

Second, the region has been suffering from sustained drought in recent years, itself a problem associated with climate change. The hard, parched earth was unable to absorb water quickly, leading to flash flooding.

Third, rising sea levels mean storm surges are much more powerful, increasing the risk of the sort of inland flooding seen in the city of Beira. Sea levels are about a foot higher than a century ago, fed by melting ice at the poles.

QAWhat do the experts say?

“Cyclone Idai is a clear demonstration of the exposure and vulnerability of many low-lying cities and towns to a rise in sea level as the impact of climate change continues to influence and disrupt normal weather patterns,” said Mami Mizutori, the UN’S special representative for disaster risk reduction.

QWhat does the future look like for the region?

ARebuilding with climate change in mind will be essential. This was not done after the last major cyclone 19 years ago. Roads, housing, utilities should all be built with future storms and flooding in mind.

QThis sounds expensive. Can it be done?

AClimate change makes it more difficult as the region’s economy, and therefore its capacity to rebuild, has already been depleted by rising temperatures and drought. At the Paris climate summit in 2015, Carlos Agostinho do Rosario, then prime minister of Mozambique, said: “These weather phenomena affect the government’s efforts to meet national priorities, especially food security, critical to poverty reduction.”

QAre developed nations helping?

ACountries including the UK are scrambling to send aid and disaster relief teams to the area. Rich nations also pledged in Paris in 2015 to ramp up aid to £75billion per year to cover restorative climate funding by 2020. Industrialisation in the West is thought to have caused most of the current rise in temperatures. So far, less than 10 per cent of this funding has been secured.