Southern Africa’s climate: Current state and recent historical changes

Abstract

Southern Africa is a predominantly semi-arid region with high rainfall variability, characterised by frequent droughts and floods. It is also widely recognised as one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change because of low levels of adaptive capacity (particularly among rural communities), combined with a high dependence on rain-fed agriculture (IPCC, 2007). As stated earlier, the purpose of this handbook is to provide decision-makers with up-to-date information, appropriate for country planning, on the impact and risks of climate change in the southern Africa region. In this chapter, the authors provide an introduction to the concepts of climate, climate variability, and climate change. They also describe the current climate and variability of the southern Africa region and examine evidence for recent changes in climate, both globally and for the region, in order to provide a context for the projections of future regional climate change provided in Chapter 3. All of this information can then be integrated as they assess the impacts and risks of climate change and attempt to respond to these changes by both mitigating and adapting to climate change in the region.