Overview of the project

YESS climate-related activity in Africa

The African continent is much vulnerable to natural and human induced climate change. The fifth assessment report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) shows that climate change is expected to have widespread impacts on the African continent societies and interaction with natural environment. These impacts as the result of climate change constrain economic development thereby contributing to the classification of most African continent as “least developing countries”. The impacts of climate change are already being felt not only in terms of increases in temperature but also in agriculture and availability of water resources. There is also a strong link between climate change and the incidence of diseases like malaria (WHO, 2018). A great percentage of disasters caused by natural phenomena in Africa are mostly weather and climate related, and they haves negative impacts on the gross domestic products (GDP) of the affected countries, slowing down their economic growths and developments. Adequate knowledge on climate change is one of the keys to sustainable development for Africa. Therefore, education and training on climate change on the African continent mostly from government, organizations, NGO’s and African researchers should be accelerated. This will highlight the engagement and more broadly the implementation and feasibility knowledge on climate change. The YESS community in using the 2019 Climate Chance Summit to make concrete contributions to strengthening the mobilization of governments and other relevant stakeholders on the need for adequate education on climate change in Africa.

YESS-Africa innovations
The Young Earth System Scientists (YESS) community was founded in Hamburg in October 2010 by PhD students from Earth system research centers across Germany. The network was established to be a bottom-up network serving to enhance communication and collaborations between different graduate schools and now is represented in five (5) continents having more than 1400 members as of May, 2019 statistics with a solid structure of diverse research institutes that define the Earth system science landscape.
YESS initiate and strengthen collaborations across different graduate schools and institutes internationally. Serve as a powerful partner with prominent international organizations to give young scientists a collective voice and also enhance interactions between early-career researchers in order to facilitate exchange of scientific ideas and experiences, online, and by organizing events and activities at conferences and workshops. A practical example is Dike et al 2018 thematic on African young climate scientists’ obstacles. YESS activities are developed by the Working Groups, Regional Representatives, the Council and an Executive Committee and are assisted by the YESS office with an official contact of Valentina Rabanal via valentine.rabanal@yess-community.org

YESS activities/objectives
YESS activate and foster the exchange of information, ideas and experiences acquired in respective research expertise, mostly in climate education and will organise a session during the Summit. YESS has experience in organizing such education and training sessions on climate change. Some of our recent activities are YESS-PAUWES webinars, the YESS-Africa contribution to TROP-ICSU workshops and the YESS-SWIFT summer school that will be held in Ghana.