Climate experts want African islands to be protected from worst impact of extreme weather

The small island states in Africa are suffering the impact of climate change albeit technology exists to prevent the worst impacts of extreme weather.

The renowned climate expert John Harding cited fewer lives were being lost as a result of natural disasters, because of advanced early warning systems. However, many cash-strapped African countries are not benefiting from new technologies to develop early warning systems.

"There are many reports that say in Africa…the coverage of climate and weather observing stations is eight times lower than recommended by WMO for optimal weather observation systems…Less than 50 percent of them provide the type of information required," said Harding, who heads the secretariat of the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems at the COP25 climate conference in Madrid.

The session was hosted by the African Development Bank, a significant investor in efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The Bank-funded severe weather observation project, SAWIDRA, had enabled the use of data to generate forecasts and early warning systems in Africa, Andre Kamga, director general of the ACMAD Center in Niger opined.

Linus Mofor, senior environmental affairs officer at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, said governments should invest in their climate response as they do in other economic sectors. James Kinyangi, head of the African Development Bank's Climate and Development Special Fund, said small island states were a key constituency.

"The bank supports investments to modernize hydro-meteorological systems in Africa and manages partner efforts to address the weak observational capacity and lack of severe weather early warning systems for small island developing states in Africa," he said.