Advancing Climate Science for African Resilience

As climate change intensifies weather and climate risks and impacts, especially from extremes like heatwaves, droughts, and floods, African communities, economies, and ecosystems are experiencing some of the harshest impacts. Yet these realities remain underrepresented in the global climate change discourse.

The ACES Lab, led by Dr Romaric C. Odoulami, is closing this gap by generating African-led research to improve understanding of these risks in a changing climate, with a specific focus on the potential of solar radiation modification (SRM) interventions to influence these risks. We do this by collaborating with international modelling groups to simulate the climate system under SRM and to assess the climate response and impacts for Africa.

Visit the labs dedicated website here

Our Approach

The lab envisions an Africa that is more resilient to climate change through the use of climate modelling expertise to understand the characteristics and likelihood of climate extremes, and to support decision-makers to better respond to climate change risks.

The ACES Lab uses a transdisciplinary approach with three priority areas:

  • Research Excellence
    Advancing understanding of climate extremes, attribution, and climate intervention through cutting-edge analysis and modelling.
  • Training and capacity building
    Strengthening the next generation of African scientists through mentorship, research supervision, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
  • Engagement and Collaboration
    Improving societal understanding of climate risk and SRM impacts ensuring that robust climate science informs decisions, policies, and resilience planning.

Our Research

ACES Lab advances understanding of climate extremes, attribution, and intervention across three focus areas:

  • Understanding Climate Extremes
    Analysing the processes that drive weather and climate extremes in Africa, and how these are changing under different global warming scenarios.
  • Attribution and Impacts
    Using climate modelling and event attribution to quantify how human-induced climate change influences the likelihood of extreme events as well as their impacts on people, economies, and ecosystems.
  • Climate Intervention Analysis
    Assessing the potential risks, effectiveness, and implications of emerging climate intervention strategies such as stratospheric aerosol injection and marine cloud brightening.