Skip to content
Key findings
  • About three-quarters of Basotho (73%) say floods have become more severe over the past 10 years, while nearly half (45%) say the same about droughts.
  • Fewer than four in 10 Basotho (36%) say they have heard of climate change.
  • Almost nine in 10 (88%) say climate change is making life in Lesotho worse

According to its National Climate Change Policy, Lesotho is already experiencing the impacts of climate change. These include increased frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, less farming and more food insecurity, land degradation, and depletion of the country’s natural resources, including loss of biodiversity (Kingdom of Lesotho, 2017).

The Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative Country Index 2021, which summarises countries’ vulnerability and resilience to climate change, ranks Lesotho No. 124 out of 182 countries, meaning high vulnerability and low readiness for adaptation (ND-GAIN 2021).

This dispatch reports on a special survey module included in the Afrobarometer Round 9 questionnaire to explore Africans’ experiences and perceptions of climate change.

In Lesotho, findings show that while climate change is still an unknown concept to nearly two-thirds of Basotho, those who are aware of it expect far more action from the government to fight it.

Libuseng Malephane

Libuseng Malephane is the national investigator for Lesotho.