The room at the Swiss Inn Nexus Hotel in Bole was silent but tense as Sunita Narain, one of the world’s most influential environmental voices, fixed her gaze on rows of African journalists, scientists, and policymakers. Her tone was gentle, but the words cut deep.
“Us, we are–I call us the ants of the world, okay. We are the ants, so we have to keep at it,” said Narain, the Director General of India’s Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). “We have to keep understanding and we have to keep at it and to do that we need to build this conversation, this community and keep it going.”
Her audience had gathered on September 18 for the launch of The State of Africa’s Environment 2025, a sweeping assessment of a continent reeling from floods, heat waves, droughts, and collapsing food systems. The event, organized by CSE in partnership with the Alliance for Science-Ethiopia and Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture (MESHA) of Kenya, became more than a briefing–it was a call to arms.
A Continent on the Frontline
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The report’s numbers were stark. Africa’s warming trend now outpaces the global average. “2024 was the warmest year on record for Africa,” Narain said. “The entire ocean area of Africa was under marine heat wave… and between 2021 and 2025 you had the most devastating five-year stretch in terms of human toll from extreme weather events.”
In just five years, over 200 million Africans have been affected by extreme weather, with nearly 70 percent of recorded deaths from such events occurring in that period.
Yet, Narain noted, “There is no death because of climate change,” quoting the euphemisms and omissions in national databases. “Every year, every month, extreme weather events are breaking new records. Every region is devastated. I call this the revenge of nature.”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has long warned of Africa’s vulnerability, but the report underscored how rapidly the danger is escalating. Seven of the world’s ten most climate-vulnerable nations are African, according to Brookings Institution analysis. The World Meteorological Organization estimates that every third global death from extreme weather in the past 50 years occurred in Africa.
‘This Is a Matter of Existence’
Negus Lemma, Ethiopia’s Deputy Director General of the Environmental Protection Authority, offered a blunt assessment: “Discussing and working on issues of climate and environmental protection is an extravagance, but it is a matter of existence and way of life.”
He cited UNFCCC figures showing 16 of the world’s 19 hunger hotspots this year are in Eastern and Southern Africa and the Sahel, where conflict and climate shocks combine to devastate crops. “Over 115 million people faced acute food insecurity in Eastern and Southern Africa and the Sahel in 2025,” he said. “In Africa, the most vulnerable populations are particularly people living in remote rural areas and informal settlements, as well as women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and those living in poverty.”
Lemma highlighted Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative (GLI) as an African-led solution. Anchored by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the program planted a record-breaking 714.7 million seedlings in a single day this July. “The 2025 planting campaign was part of an annual target to plant 7.5 billion trees,” Lemma said. “This is an African model of climate adaptation.”
Food, Water, and Health on the Edge
Narain warned that Africa’s climate crisis is not just about weather–it is about livelihoods. “Water will be at the center of climate change,” she said. “You will get more water in fewer number of rainy days. The ability of a society to be able to hold the water… is going to be key.”
She painted an unsettling picture of failing crops, declining cocoa yields, and rising plant diseases that will erode farmers’ profits. “That means more and more money being spent by the farmer and less and less money in terms of the ability to be able to save or to make farming profitable.”
Health threats loom equally large.
“Climate change will lead to more temperature spikes, more flooding, more rain, and more heat,” Narain said. “It will have an impact on vectors–on malaria, on dengue, on chikungunya… flooding… cholera has come back as one of the biggest health problems once again.”
Her concern extended even to the concrete towers of Addis Ababa.
“I look at your architecture and I wonder whether this is going to be appropriate for the extreme heat that we are going to have. Architecture for heat is going to require us to have more and more ventilation–the traditional architecture of our region.”
Climate Justice and Reparations
Dr. Rita Bissoonauth, UNESCO‘s Director for the Addis Liaison Office, described the crisis as one of equity and dignity.
“Africa is on the frontline of a climate emergency it did not create,” she said. “Climate hazards are causing significant economic losses… This is not just an environmental crisis; it is a profound inequality. It is also a humanitarian crisis: water scarcity already affects 14 African countries, with a further 11 projected to join them by 2025–putting nearly half of the continent’s 1.45 billion people at risk of severe water stress.”
Bissoonauth called the report “a moral compass,” linking environmental stress to broader issues like food insecurity and migration. She urged journalists to humanize the science: “Reports don’t change the world; people do, especially those who turn complex evidence into public understanding and demand for action.”
She reminded participants of the African Union’s 2025 Theme on Reparations.
“Climate justice is inseparable from historical justice. This is a call to action, through innovative financing and public-private collaboration, to scale investment where it counts.”
Holding the Rich World Accountable
Narain did not spare high-emitting nations. “Africa is not responsible for the stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Let’s be absolutely clear about it,” she said. “The appropriation of the global carbon budget … that’s a finite budget.”
She pointed to the United States taking nearly a quarter of that budget since 1870.
“China became the manufacturing hub for the entire world… and then you have India… the rest of the world, all of you combined, are left with 24 percent of the global budget,” she said. “Now the world is going to go even more backwards. We have the Trump world now, where climate change is being denied. Drill, baby, drill is back on the agenda.”
Migration and Social Fractures
Narain cautioned against oversimplification. “I have a problem with [the term] ‘climate refugees’ because one day it will come back to haunt us,” she said. Extreme weather, she added, is often “the tipping point that forces already vulnerable people to migrate.”
The report shows disaster-related displacements surged from 1.1 million to 6.3 million in 2020, with projections of unprecedented future migration without urgent action. “Africa would have the highest rate of displacement or migration because of this,” Narain warned.
Chroniclers of Today
For Narain, the fight is as much about storytelling as science.
“We are the chroniclers of today… if we don’t have that voice, if we don’t have that reality check, we will forget,” she said. “We will in a generation believe that whatever we are seeing in the name of climate change is just a new normal and that there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Bissoonauth echoed this. “An African proverb reminds us: ‘Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.’ This report provides the evidence. But you–the journalists–are the writers who will ensure the story of Africa’s environment is told by Africans, for Africans, and for the world.”
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Spotlighting African Solutions
Lemma urged the continent to “spotlight African solutions and adaptation mechanisms … including during the upcoming COP30 in Belém, Brazil.” Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy, integrated with its National Adaptation Plan, is an example of embedding adaptation into development. Narain pressed journalists to focus on local innovation.
“Solutions are where our mind is today,” she said. “Highlight water harvesting, sustainable farming, and community resilience alongside the warnings.”
Bissoonauth suggested cross-border collaborations and empowering citizens: “Follow pledges from summit halls to real-world outcomes… amplify innovation from communities, youth, and women–they are not just victims.”
A Call to Keep Going
As applause filled the hall, Narain’s closing words were both a plea and a promise: “It is sometimes heartbreaking to say we have not got where we need to go–but we can’t give up. So, we have to keep at it. What does the continent of Africa do? What does India do?… This is the double whammy that exists–the environmental crisis coming on top of the climate crisis. But we are ants. We keep going.”
The State of Africa’s Environment 2025 may not reverse the climate emergency, but for Narain and her allies, chronicling Africa’s crisis–and its ingenuity–is itself an act of resilience.
“How do you stitch it together and make the big picture come alive? That’s what these reports are able to do,” she said. “Because if we do not tell this story, no one else will.”
IPS UN Bureau Report