Africa also faces major observation and data-system gaps. WMO’s State of the Climate in Africa 2024 emphasizes the need for urgent investment in climate infrastructure, data sharing, early warning systems, and inclusive climate services, while GCOS regularly assesses the adequacy of global climate observations and provides guidance for improving climate monitoring systems. These gaps affect the reliability of hazard monitoring, attribution studies, impact assessment, and climate service delivery. 

For ACS, research and evidence generation directly responds to this continental gap. It enables systematic production of climate indicators, risk profiles, attribution evidence, sectoral impact assessments, and policy-relevant reports that can feed into IPCC assessments, WMO climate reports, WCRP regional information initiatives, national communications, NDCs, NAPs, disaster risk strategies, and Loss and Damage policy processes.

Research is also needed because African climate impacts are highly sector-specific and context-dependent. Drought risk in rainfed agriculture, flood risk in urban infrastructure, heat stress in health systems, hydrological variability in water and energy systems, and ecosystem degradation each require different datasets, models, indicators, and decision frameworks. Generic climate narratives are not sufficient for investment planning. Sector-specific evidence helps governments and partners identify where risks are highest, which communities are most exposed, what adaptation options are feasible, and how finance should be prioritized.

Evidence also strengthens Africa’s position in global climate governance. Robust analysis of observed hazards, impacts, adaptation limits, and Loss and Damage can support stronger engagement under UNFCCC processes, including climate finance negotiations and reporting. Attribution science is especially important because it helps assess how human-induced climate change has altered the probability or intensity of extreme events, thereby strengthening the scientific basis for climate justice, accountability, and targeted support.

ACS can also contribute to the global climate science ecosystem. WCRP’s Regional Information for Society initiative emphasizes actionable climate information that is aligned with societal decision contexts and developed through co-production. This is directly aligned with ACS’s role as a science-policy interface institution: generating evidence, translating it into usable information, and ensuring that decision-makers, communities, and development partners can apply it in practice. 

Finally, research and evidence are essential for climate finance readiness. Institutions such as GCF, the World Bank, AfDB, and UN agencies increasingly require climate rationale, risk screening, vulnerability analysis, cost-benefit evidence, monitoring indicators, and measurable adaptation outcomes. ACS’s evidence-generation work can therefore help transform climate priorities into bankable, technically credible, and investment-ready interventions.