Africa plays a minor role in the causes of climate change, but carries the burden of the consequences of a warming planet. More than 400 million people across the continent live in poverty. For Africans, the outcome of COP26 is vital.
According to a recently published World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report on the state of Africa’s climate, drought has killed more than 700,000 people across Africa since 1970.
Today, more than 400 million people across the continent live in poverty, and with accelerating climate change, the study states, “this number is likely to increase.”
Since 2000, the costs of extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, storms and fires, have been at least $38 billion, impacting individuals, communities and entire economies.
Impoverishment
Predictions are that if nothing changes, the world is heading for a temperature increase of about three degrees by the end of the century. Based on this estimate, scientists at the University of Melbourne, Australia, suggest that many African countries may witness a long-term decline in their GDP, which is an indicator of a country’s standard of living, after 2067. Up to 17% a year in Ivory Coast, for example, almost 9% in Mozambique or 7% in Kenya. Average losses across the continent are projected to be between 2% and 5%.
Per capita, a person living in Africa contributes 12 times less to climate change than an American citizen, seven times less than a European, and four times less than someone in Asia. Because most African countries’ greenhouse gas emissions are marginal compared to those of industrialized nations, their focus is on adapting to climate change.
Per capita, a person living in Africa contributes 12 times less to climate change than an American citizen, seven times less than a European, and four times less than someone in Asia
Reforestation, water saving, and agricultural initiatives have been launched across the continent, but according to the UN, many projects are progressing slowly. In part, this is due to lack of funding.
Kwame Ababio of the African Union Development Program (NEPAD) says that African countries are already investing at least 2% of their GDP to address climate change. “It’s not like we’re not doing anything on the continent,” he comments.
Waiting for external help
Developed nations also have an obligation to contribute. As part of the Paris Agreement, they have committed to pay $100 billion into the Green Climate Fund annually until 2020 to help developing countries adapt to climate change.
However, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as of 2019, the latest year for which data is available, contributing countries had given less than $80 billion.
Developed economies have a responsibility to finance the just transition to a low-carbon economy and a climate-resilient society – says Albi Modise, spokesperson for South Africa’s environmental department.
The three biggest polluters, China, the US, and the European Union, are responsible for more than 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is 16 times the volume of at least 100 smallest emitters, a list that in turn includes many African countries.
According to the WMO, at least $30 billion annually is needed to effectively reduce future damage from extreme weather events in sub-Saharan Africa.
In a 2019 report, the African Development Bank noted that in all regions of Africa, the cost resulting from climate change-related damages often exceeds the costs of adaptation.
Adaptation measures include installing flood barriers, implementing water-efficient agriculture, growing more heat-resistant crops to avoid greater crop losses in times of drought.
And the transition to an African green economy could create up to 60 million jobs on the continent by 2030, according to the International Labor Organization.
The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference began this Saturday in Glasgow: the first after a two-year break due to the pandemic. Experts, negotiators and activists are pushing for countries to announce bolder targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions at this edition.
The current target, set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, is a non-binding commitment reached among countries so that by the end of this century, the planet’s average temperature will not increase by more than 1.5 ºC over pre-industrial levels.
