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African Climate Extremes
and Systems Lab
The African Climate Extremes & Systems (ACES) Lab, based at the African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town, advances climate science to strengthen Africa’s resilience to climate change. Led by Dr Romaric C. Odoulami, the Lab focuses on weather and climate risks and impacts in a changing climate, and how to better manage these risks to better inform adaptation and decision-making across Africa.
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 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.
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:
Advancing understanding of climate extremes, attribution, and climate intervention through cutting-edge analysis and modelling.
Research Excellence
Training and capacity building
Strengthening the next generation of African scientists through mentorship, research supervision, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Improving societal understanding of climate risk and SRM impacts ensuring that robust climate science informs decisions, policies, and resilience planning.
Engagement and Collaboration
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.
Leadership Spotlight
Advancing African Leadership in Climate Intervention Research
Dr Romaric C. Odoulami
African Climate Extremes and Systems Laboratory
African Climate Development Initiative
University of Cape Town
Dr Romaric C. Odoulami has been named one of the 2025 Forbes Sustainability Leaders, a recognition that celebrates global innovators shaping practical responses to the climate crisis.
Geoengineering remains a complex and debated field, but Dr Odoulami is contributing vital African research to understand its potential implications. Through the ACES Lab, he leads an Africa-wide collaboration of scientists studying how proposed climate-intervention techniques could influence the climate across Africa.
His research examines both the potential benefits and risks of climate geoengineering to drought and food security, ensuring that global discussions on climate intervention reflect African realities and priorities.
He also co-launched the African Climate Intervention Research (ACIR) Hub, a platform uniting scientists across Africa to strengthen research, capacity, and leadership in climate intervention research.
Together, these efforts reflect the ACES Lab’s commitment to advancing African-led climate science that informs responsible innovation and resilience on the continent.
“Africa faces some of the harshest consequences of global warming despite contributing the least to it. It is, therefore, essential for Africa to lead global discussions on climate intervention, grounded in a strong scientific foundation.”
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