UK funds £20 million climate research programme in Africa

A new UK government-funded initiative will put £20 million behind leading-edge research to better understand Africa’s changing climate and the use of climate change information in decision-making across the continent.

Africa’s climate is one of the least-researched and poorly understood in the world, but looks set to change significantly in the decades ahead.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that temperatures could warm up to 6^oC on the continent this century, and vast areas could experience more intense drought or rainfall than known before.

Governments and the private sector currently plough US$70 billion into infrastructure investments in Africa each year.

There are major questions over whether these investments will be resilient to the climate of the future.

Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) is supporting five major research projects to develop better climate information for Africa and to test how the new information could be used in decision-making.

FCFA is a joint programme of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Natural Environment Research Council.

Dr Tim Wheeler, DFID’s Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, said: “FCFA will not only improve the climate information available to African decision-makers, but it also aims to work with both scientists and stakeholders across the continent to ensure that information is better tailored to users’ needs and to strengthen the skills of users in the interpretation and use of climate information”.

“African societies are already affected by climate change including sustained droughts, deadly floods and rising sea levels, which entrench poverty and undermine economic growth,” said Stefan Raubenheimer, Director of FCFA’s Coordination, Capacity Development and Knowledge Exchange unit. “The Future Climate for Africa programme will provide high quality climate information to help governments and businesses make more climate-resilient investments. The programme will safeguard economic development and contribute to the fight against poverty in the long term.”

For full descriptions of the research awards, visit: www.futureclimateafrica.org