Africa bears brunt of climate change, says AU official
Africa, responsible for only 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, bears the brunt of climate change, Thomas Kwesi Quartey, AU Commission Deputy Chairperson, said on Sunday.
Speaking at a press briefing on disaster risk financing in Africa, Quartey told reporters that the most vulnerable populations on the African continent, with the most limited capabilities to cope, shoulder the burden of climate risk.
The increased frequency of extreme weather events driven by climate change has increased the risk of hunger and malnutrition in Africa's most vulnerable populations, Quartey said at the briefing during the ongoing 29th AU summit in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Referring to Africa's agricultural sector, which employs about 90 percent of the continent's rural population, the deputy chairperson affirmed that approximately two-thirds of the populations of the sub-Saharan Africa are subject to the effects of climate change as they are dependent on subsistence farming.
CIFOR