Africa, at the centre of climate change

 

photo credit: un.org

AFRICA, AT THE CENTRE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

  Climate change is one of the biggest challenges in our global community. Climate crisis is already hitting Africa the hardest, despite the continent contributing the least to cause it. Which is inappropriately experiencing the effects of the climate crisis.

  Although climate change is affecting the whole continent, it’s not affecting all regions in the same way. The most unfair fact about the entire situation is that Africa is responsible for less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. When you consider that the richest 10% of the world’s population are responsible for over half of the carbon emissions. Yet, Africa is the most vulnerable region in the world to the changing climate. According to the (WHO), 1 in 3 people across Africa already face water scarcity. But by 2025 climate change could have made it even worse, with predictions that close to 230 million Africans will be facing water scarcity end up to 460 million will be living in water stressed areas. The number of people living with severe hunger every day in the Horn of Africa is about 13 million, according to the (WFP). Some 86 million Africans may be forced to migrate within their own countries by 2050. The droughts alone have caused conflict and insecurity on the continent, for instance the ongoing cross country violence that erupted central and western Africa as a result of Lake Chad drying up. There is no region in Africa that is not seeing the climate crisis cause mass destruction firsthand.

  There’s also been a disastrous rise in hunger across Africa, and this can be directly linked to climate change’s impact on food security with Madagascar reportedly experiencing the world’s first ‘’ climate induced famine’’. Natural disaster are changing and uprooting the livelihoods of Africa’s people. The most recent examples are the tropical storms Ana Batsirai, Emnati and Cyclone Gombe that wrecked Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar back to back at the beginning of 2022. According to the 2021 Global Climate Risk Index reports stated that the impacts of climate change over the last year and the last 20 years, five of the 10 countries most affected by climate change in 2019 were in Africa. Those countries were: Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Sudan and Niger.

  According to UN reports stated that climate change by 2030 is projected to push 39.7 million Africans into extreme poverty under a baseline scenario of delayed and non-inclusive growth with food prices acting as the dominant channel of impacts. But this number is cut roughly in half under an inclusive economic growth scenario. Climate change is affecting Nigerians in ways that require immediate action. Droughts, famine, displacements and flooding as a result of climate change are all on the rise with extreme weather recorded in 2021. While millions of people are affected by flooding each year in Nigeria, rising temperatures in a North Africa can lead to droughts, which is devas ting for famine in the region.

  Researchers identified formal education as the biggest factor contributing to climate literacy in Africa. Education is generally equal effective in increasing both men’s and women’s climate literacy in Africa. We need to build our energy system, our agriculture system and infrastructure and we have an opportunity to make them compatible to climate change.

Adeleke Adebola is an Edufeminist, climate change and human right activist. She writes from Abuja, Nigeria.

Email: oladosuadebola11@gmail.com