Climate Risk Country Profile: Congo, Democratic Republic
Publisher: World Bank
Date: 2021
Topics: Climate Change, Public Health, Renewable Resources
Countries: Congo (DRC)
This climate risk profile is intended to serve as a public good to facilitate upstream country diagnostics, policy dialogue, and strategic planning by providing comprehensive overviews of trends and projected changes in key climate parameters, sector-specific implications, relevant policies and programs, adaptation priorities and opportunities for further actions. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, herein referred to as the DRC, is located in central sub-Saharan Africa, within the Congo Basin. The DRC is endowed with exceptional natural resources, including minerals such as cobalt and copper, hydropower potential, significant arable land, and immense biodiversity. The DRC submitted its Nationally-Determined Contribution to the UNFCCC in 2016, which outlines the country’s environmental goals and its sustainable development agenda. It published its Third National Communication to the UNFCCC in 2015. Annual temperatures in DRC are projected to increase, between +1.7°C to +4.5°C by end of the century. Heat waves are projected to become more common and longer-lasting. Across all emission scenarios, temperatures will continue to rise across the DRC through the end of the century. The meteorological network and record of observations across DRC is scarce, posing a challenge for projections of future rainfall. While projections point to no significant changes in annual precipitation rainfall is projected to become substantially more variable, with a likely increase in frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events. This is expected to have a negative impact on agriculture, water, energy, forestry, and health, as well as on available agricultural land, freshwater resources and ecosystems.