Climate change is heating up the globe, causing poverty, destroying livelihoods, and making life unbearable. Addressing this crisis in Africa requires democratizing climate action and simplifying its messaging to make it accessible to everyone.
While the styrofoam ban in Lagos State represents an important step towards reducing plastic waste, its potential for long-term impact is limited without broader, science-based policy reforms.
In 1986, Thomas Sankara delivered his famous speech, Imperialism is The Arsonist of Our Forests and Savannas, in which he denounced imperialism as the main driver of environmental destruction. Today, the climate crisis has become a pretext for imperialist economic expansion, leading to an urgent need to reorient the African climate justice agenda.
While the details of the loss and damage fund are deliberated upon, Africa continues to be battered by the effects of a rapidly warming planet. The aftermath of extreme weather events like Cyclone Freddy of 2023 on African lives and property is a real-time instance of loss and damage.
While we may be accustomed to or overwhelmed by the rapid pace of digital development, recognize that cell phones are often the very first connection pastoral communities have with a modern information and communication tool. The way pastoralists have largely approached the rather belated entry of mobile technology and social media with excitement, grace and inventiveness is another example of their remarkable flexibility and adaptability.
Growing debt burdens hinders the fiscal capabilities of developing countries for whom additional debt often means reduced government spending in the public sector. Read more.
Habiba Daggash argues that climate change is a threat multiplier which could disrupt all sectors of the African economy. Consequently, she says, ‘it is essential for all economic planning to consider climate change impacts so development strategies and infrastructure investment can be designed to be resilient to both climate impacts and socioeconomic consequences of climate action.’
Like all international climate summits, COP27 began with high hopes but will be remembered as the COP of unmet expectations. So, what’s next for the international climate community?
Though both COP26 and COP27 have seen various initiatives—from travel funds to mentorship networks to enhance women’s participation in climate action—overall progress remains inconsistent and slow as richer countries tend to fall short of their financial promises.
In 1972, pan-Africanist and Marxist thinker from Guyana, Walter Rodney, warned of ‘Wildlife Republics’, calling attention to wildlife conservation in Africa as a new form of imperialist and capitalist exploitation. Today, conservation is still a pretext to dispossess local communities for imperialist expansion and capitalist development.
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