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Centre for assessing Africa climate to increase resilience to disaster inaugurated

…as stakeholders assess trends, impacts and responses to disaster in 2021 across Africa

The African Union Commission, AUC, and Partners, with the support of the Italian Development Cooperation have established the African Multi-Hazard Early Warning and Early Action System (AU MHEWAS), given the urgency and importance of climate impact reduction.

The system is for assessing the State of Climate for Africa, analysing Predictions data, and providing Early Warnings for Early Action as a first line of defence to adapt to climate threats and increase resilience to disasters.

In a keynote address at the Climate Policy Dialogue and inauguration of the centre in Niamey, Niger Republic Monday, at the headquarters of the African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development, ACMAD, the Director General, Nigeria Meteorological Agency, NiMet, Prof. Mansur Matazu said, the newly inaugurated system will be coordinated through the Continental Multi-Hazard Advisory Centre to provide a few days, weeks, and months lead-time ahead, advisories and watches on heavy rains and floods.

Others are high temperatures and heat waves, droughts, cyclones, and significant storms to the AUC Situation Room to guide Disaster Risk Coordination and Management.

Prof. Matazu who the Chairperson of ACMAD Board of Governors emphasized that, promoting and supporting Early Actions against vagaries of weather and changing climate, providing hydrometeorological predictions and advisories with sufficient lead times ahead of these events was of strategic importance.

According to him, the impacts of Climate Change across the globe in recent decades have been a serious wake up call for Climate Actions across major sectors of the societies and economies as developing countries, most of which are in Africa, have found it difficult to respond adequately to weather and climate induced disasters.

These disasters he listed to include floods, drought, desertification, heat waves, squally winds, tropical cyclones, adding that, GDP, inflation, interest rates, diseases, epidemics, and pandemics are exacerbated or even driven by hydrometeorological events.

Prof. Matazu noted that, the essence of the event is to highlight climate variability and trends, summarize main impacts, and assess responses to disasters in 2021 across Africa.

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