Zimbabwe: Amid Worsening Drought and Crop Failure, Zimbabweans Support Government Investment in Climate-Resilient Infrastructure, Green Energy

3 February 2026
Afrobarometer (Accra)
By Stephen Ndoma

Most citizens say rich countries should help Zimbabwe respond to climate crisis.

Key findings

  • Vast majorities of Zimbabweans say that crop failure (95%) and droughts (94%) have become "somewhat more severe" or "much more severe" in their region over the past decade, while 61% say floods have become less intense.
  • Asked whether they have had to adapt to changing weather patterns, more than one-third of respondents say they reduced their water consumption or altered their water source (45%), adjusted their outdoor work patterns (41%), reduced their livestock holdings or changed grazing patterns (37% of those who have livestock), and changed the types of crops they plant or foods they eat (35%).
  • More than half (56%) of Zimbabweans say they have heard of climate change.
  • Awareness rises with higher educational attainment, from 31% among adults with primary schooling or less to 87% among those with tertiary education, and with greater news consumption via social media, the Internet, television, and radio.
  • Among those who are aware of climate change: o A huge majority (93%) say it is making life in Zimbabwe worse, up from 62% in 2021.
  • Almost half (48%) identify human activity as the main cause of climate change; a further 18% blame a combination of human activity and natural processes.
  • Six in 10 (60%) say it is important for the Zimbabwean government to take urgent action to limit climate change, even if it is expensive or causes some job losses.
  • Nearly three-fourths say that rich countries should take immediate steps to limit climate change (72%) and that they have an obligation to help Zimbabwe cover the costs of adapting and responding to the negative impacts of climate change (73%).
  • Among all respondents, large majorities express support for possible policy responses to changes in climate, including investing in climate-resilient infrastructure (80%), investing in renewable energy technologies (76%), and putting pressure on developed countries for aid (69%). More than half also favour requiring cookstoves that use cleaner fuels (60%) and banning tree cutting for firewood or charcoal (54%).

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Zimbabwe is highly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. The Global Climate Risk Index ranks it 34th on a list of 174 countries most affected by extreme weather events between 1995 and 2024 (Germanwatch, 2025). And the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (2026) places Zimbabwe 171st out of 187 countries, combining high vulnerability to climate change with low readiness to deal with climate-change impacts.

The country's major challenges include reduced and erratic rainfall (Government of Zimbabwe & UNDP, 2017). Whereas droughts occurred in one in 10 growing seasons between 1902 and 1979, their frequency increased to one in four between 1980 and 2011. Climate change has also been associated with increases in average temperatures, numerous mid season dry spells, and a shortening of the rainy season since 1960 (World Bank, 2024).

In 2024, President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared a state of national disaster in response to the impact of an El Niño-induced drought (Guardian, 2024). This followed a declaration of a state of national disaster in 2019 after Cyclone Idai ravaged the eastern part of Zimbabwe, particularly the Chimanimani and Chipinge districts of Manicaland, leaving 31 dead and more than 100 missing (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2019). In January it was reported that heavy rains during the summer had already left 70 people dead and 51 injured, and destroyed at least 1,000 houses (Shamu, 2026).

The government's response to climate change is anchored in the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (2024-2030). The document serves as a roadmap toward a climate-resilient, low-carbon economy, which it seeks to achieve by mobilising climate finance and fostering

climate-change-adaptation research, innovation, and technology development and transfer. The plan lays out how the government will plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate climate-adaptation initiatives, as well as how these will be integrated into sectoral development programmes. Other strategic priorities include strengthening institutional capacity for climate-change management, enhancing climate-information systems, and improving disaster preparedness (Government of Zimbabwe, 2024).

In September 2025, Zimbabwe gazetted the Climate Change Management Bill, a legal framework designed to bolster the country's response to climate change. If passed by Parliament and signed into law by the president, the legislation will establish a national climate fund that will draw on taxes and proceeds from the trading of carbon credits to fund adaptation, mitigation, and capacity building. Among other things, the bill provides for the obligations of sub-national governments, establishes units to monitor and regulate environmental and meteorological outcomes, and allows for "green" financial incentives (Chishuvo, 2025).

This dispatch reports on a special survey module in the Afrobarometer Round 10 questionnaire that explores Zimbabweans' experiences and perceptions of climate change and changing weather patterns.

Findings show that overwhelming majorities of citizens report worsening drought and crop failure over the past decade. More than one-third report having adapted to changing weather patterns by adjusting water consumption, reducing or rescheduling outdoor work, modifying the crops they plant or foods they eat, and, among those who have livestock, altering livestock management.

A slim majority of citizens have heard of climate change. Among them, more than nine in 10 say it is making life worse, and two-thirds say human activity is to blame for the changing climate, either on its own or in conjunction with natural processes. Majorities say that the Zimbabwean government must take urgent action to limit climate change and that rich countries should help fund the country's response.

Among all citizens, majorities support a range of potential policy responses to changing weather conditions, including greater pressure on developed countries to provide climate aid, investment in climate-resilient infrastructure and renewable technologies, use of cleaner burning cookstoves, and a ban on cutting trees for firewood or charcoal.

Stephen Ndoma Stephen is the assistant project manager for Southern Africa

Read the original article on Afrobarometer.

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