New Data for Africa’s Changing Climate : Mapping Risks, Readiness and Policy Action

Overview & Synopsis

The African continent is highly vulnerable to climate‑related risks. At the same time, Africa contributes only 4% of global energy‑related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This report contributes toward addressing the gap in foundational data. First, it shows how African countries and cities are exposed to major climate-related hazards, such as extreme heat, while assessing adaptation readiness of countries. Second, it describes the climate mitigation policy landscape in African countries along with key policy trends. In so doing, it breaks new ground by building on novel datasets that use robust methodologies developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the OECD Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC) and the World Bank, covering 28 African countries that jointly account for around 73% of Africa’s GHG emissions. It is important to note that a comprehensive cross-country adaptation policy comparison of the kind available for mitigation is not yet feasible given the absence of a harmonized global methodology for cataloguing national adaptation policies. This remains an important limitation in the field, and an area this report flags as a priority of future work.