ABSTRACT
This chapter explores potential impacts of climate change, human vulnerability and potential adaptations and adaptation challenges in African countries. Human vulnerability is typically described as a function of three factors: exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Social, political and economic factors and processes, such as economic development, institutional structures, and land-use and land tenure systems, are likely to be determinant factors of human vulnerability and adaptations to the impacts of climate change. The climate also varies cyclically over periods of decades, centuries and millennia, as well as from year to year. Palaeoclimatic and archaeological data indicate that the African continent has experienced many natural climatic fluctuations and abrupt changes in the past which might be comparable with future climate change scenarios. Agriculture constitutes approximately 30% of Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) and contributes about 50% of the total export value, with more than 70% of the continent's population depending on this sector for their livelihood.
