Climate change impacts on Yemen and adaptation strategies

This Yemen Family Care Association (YFCA) report highlight the climate-related hazards and their impacts on different sectors such as water, agriculture, coastal areas, livelihoods, and food security, and their effects on vulnerable groups such as women, girls, children, people with disabilities, and older people.

The report features the most impactful climate change effects on Yemenis, which include:

• Droughts and temperature rise have also increased desertification and deforestation from 90% in 2014 to 97% in 2022. Desertification has reduced 3-5% of its arable land each year.
• Decreasing precipitation and climate change made the country the seventh most water-scarce country in the world, with dwindling groundwater levels ranging between 3 to 8 meters per year in critical basins. Water scarcity could reduce 40% of its agricultural productivity.
• Climate change is increasing the endemic and epidemic diseases in the country, particularly the spread of vector-borne and waterborne diseases.
• Climate change also increases the number of internally displaced people and exacerbates social and political tensions.

The report suggests climate adaptation strategies and emphasises the importance of international cooperation and financial support to effectively help Yemen implement these climate adaptation measures.