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Symposium CC Afrique : Climate variability and change in Africa: impact,

adaptation and resilience

Conference Paper · April 2024

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Hanchane Mohamed
Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University
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Moroccan Association of Climatology

In collaboration with
Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences - Mohammadia
Hassan II University Casablanca
Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University-FLSH Dahr El Mehraz-Fez
Ibn Zohr University - FLASH, Aït Melloul- Agadir

Organizes an international symposium under the theme

"Climate variability and change in Africa: impact,

adaptation and resilience"

Avril 2024
Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences - Mohammadia
Morocco

First circular

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The African continent, spread across two hemispheres, serves as a significant climate
laboratory due to its geographical diversity. In the past, the climate on the continent has
experienced vastly different periods. Prior to the end of the ice age (-18,000), the region was
mostly arid, followed by a humid period between -12,000 and -5,000. The existence of Lake
Chad, a massive lake in the middle of the Holocene over 6,000 years ago, serves as evidence
of these historical fluctuations.

Presently, the climate in Africa is nearly identical to that which prevailed 2,000 years ago,
with wetter or drier phases. The period from the 10th to the 14th century was characterized by
a rainy season when the climatic conditions were more favorable to human life compared to
the present day. Conversely, an arid period affected the continent for a few decades at the
beginning of the 19th century. This led to a sharp decline in the Nile's flow and the drying up
of Lake Chad. A humid phase persisted in the middle of the century until the 1960s. However,
the 1970-1980 decade marked a significant aridification of the climate, which severely
impacted the populations.

Currently, most of the African continent lies within a tropical climate regime, with the
exception of the Mediterranean region and South Africa. Africa has a diverse range of
climatic conditions, including equatorial pluvial, monsoon, desert, and Mediterranean
climates. As a result, the continent faces various impacts of climate variability and change,
including hazards and extreme weather events. This is especially true given that the Sahelian
drought, which began in the 1970s, was one of the first climatic phenomena that drew
attention to the risks posed by climate change.

Assessing current climatic trends in Africa is crucial to detect possible changes in climate
elements and atmospheric circulation patterns. Today, it is necessary to provide rigorous
scientific explanations to accompany the accumulation of results on trends in rainfall, thermal
regimes, and other climatic variables. These explanations can be based on our understanding
of atmospheric and ocean dynamics, changes in energy balance, variations in Earth's albedo,
and impacts related to increased greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

However, trends observed in current African climate data are difficult to generalize to the
entire continent, particularly for precipitation due to the lack of sufficient spatial coverage of
in situ observations. Moreover, it is challenging to attribute the warming of Africa solely to
the increase in GHGs, as uncertainties persist about their level of involvement. Several factors
such as GHG and aerosol concentrations in the atmosphere, energy balance, oceanic and
atmospheric circulations, and geographical positions of continents all influence climate at
different time scales. Therefore, more research is needed to arrive at satisfactory explanations
of these factors' roles in shaping African climate.

Global climate models attempt to predict the future climate by integrating all the knowledge
about the climate system based on our understanding of the past and present climate. The
reliability of these models' predictions is relatively satisfactory for temperatures in Africa.
The IPCC confirms in its latest report that global warming in Africa during the 21st century
will be greater than the global average. However, uncertainties remain regarding precipitation
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projections, particularly in North Africa, Southern Africa, and East Africa. Today, it is more
important than ever to quantify future climate projections in Africa through a regional
approach known as "downscaling."

In addition to climatic fragility, which is not yet sufficiently understood scientifically, Africa
also faces political instability, demographic explosion, and exploitation of its abundant natural
resources by former colonizing countries. The African population, which recently exceeded
one billion and is expected to double by 2050, suffers from underdevelopment and poverty
due to several socio-economic, political, and environmental factors. One of the most
determining factors is the inability to adapt to the extreme climatic conditions prevalent across
the continent, making any search for resilience complex and challenging. With projections
indicating that the continent is most likely heading towards a drier climate and more frequent
extremes, the situation is expected to worsen. Thus, the scientific community must focus not
only on the impacts of climate variability and change on available natural resources but also
on operational means of adaptation and resilience in the face of ever-increasing climate risks.

Moreover, in the global context of climate change where Africa is responsible for less than
4% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, our continent must make its voice heard as
the primary victim and focus its efforts on adapting and building resilience in its territories to
mitigate the effects of climate change. Furthermore, beyond the uncertainties regarding its
vulnerability to climate change, Africa must capitalize on its geographic location,
hydroelectric, solar, and wind potential, as well as its natural resources to ensure
diversification and/or a transition to cleaner energy. In the future, environmental concerns,
and the climate challenge, in particular, will increasingly influence energy supply choices.

On the other hand, African forest ecosystems, especially in Central Africa, make the region an
essential global "climate protector" by serving as carbon sinks. Thus, our continent needs to
strike a balance between land resources, food security, and developing new partnerships and
external markets. It must also devise political and socio-economic mechanisms to manage
climate crises and limit the flow of sub-Saharan climate refugees. These diverse and
multifaceted issues require research that not only focuses on the climate but also engages
multidisciplinary academic efforts bringing together economists, political scientists,
sociologists, geographers, biologists, chemists, and other fields. This is why we expect
speakers from diverse scientific backgrounds to participate in this international symposium on
Africa and enrich the discussion on the continent's future.

This symposium presents an opportunity to convene a multidisciplinary scientific community

from April 25 to 27, 2024, to discuss scientific research on climatology and climate change in
Africa, and its relationship with social, economic, and political emergencies. The AMC
intends to use this symposium to increase awareness among decision-makers about the
expected impacts of climate change. This will help in anticipating the consequences of
climate change by integrating them into all public policies, local or regional, in the most
efficient way possible. The symposium also aims to provide a reliable and exhaustive
scientific diagnosis with an analysis of the interdependencies between phenomena and issues.

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 Therefore, we are seeking researchers from both African and non-African academic spheres,
with diverse backgrounds and expertise, to participate in this event. Our call is open to all
researchers who specialize in the main theme of the conference, such as climatologists,
meteorologists, hydrologists, agronomists, economists, sociologists, urban planners, lawyers,
political scientists, and more.

Themes of the symposium

The communications / Posters proposed for this conference must address one of the following
axes:
 Challenges for Climate Data Analysis in Africa
 Past climate in Africa: reconstitution methods and analysis
 Contemporary climate variability and atmospheric dynamics in Africa
 Impacts of climate variability/change and anthropogenic actions on resources and
vulnerable environments in Africa: adaptation and resilience (innovative processes)
 Future Climate in Africa : Refine the uncertainty, regional approaches and adaptation
strategies
 Climate and migration in Africa: political and socio-economic solutions
 Energetic shift, green economy and environmental inequalities
 Climate and urban development in African cities
 Climate finance in Africa
 African cooperation in the face of climate change

Dates to remember
 First announcement: March 20, 2023
 Second announcement: April 20, 2023
 Last date for sending abstracts: May 20, 2023
 Announcement of acceptance of abstracts (one article maximum per author): June 30,
2023
 Deadline for receipt of articles (16 pages maximum): September 15, 2023
 Announcement of articles accepted by the Scientific Committee: February 15, 2024
 Sending of the final program to participants: March 20, 2024
 The date of the conference: April 25, 2024

Conference languages:
Articles can be submitted in Arabic, French or English

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