While the details of the loss and damage fund are deliberated upon, Africa continues to be battered by the effects of a rapidly warming planet. The aftermath of extreme weather events like Cyclone Freddy of 2023 on African lives and property is a real-time instance of loss and damage.
Last year (2022) was the Earth’s fifth-warmest year out of the last eight years recorded, as global temperatures continue to soar, seeing record-breaking heatwaves in Europe, and deadly floods in Pakistan, Nigeria and Australia. The Antarctic Sea also reached its lowest minimum extent on record. In January 2023, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that the annual average temperature hit 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, marking the eighth year within review that temperatures were at least 1 degree above the 1850 to 1900 reference period.
In March, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—of which Nigeria is a signatory—released a synthesis report, underscoring that unless immediate and radical action is taken, global climate goals could be out of reach. Climate scientists have found that the world could surpass its climate target—1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures—by the early 2030s.
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