How lived poverty blocks climate action in Africa
No. 13 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. It aims to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters across all countries. Additionally, it calls upon governments to integrate climate-change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning, as well as to enhance education, raise awareness, and build both human and institutional capacity for climate-change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning by 2030 (United Nations, 2015).
Among Africa’s complex array of development challenges, the looming threat of climate change is particularly significant. Climate change is already having a profound impact on African nations (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2022). The continent is especially vulnerable to the detrimental effects of climate change, despite its small contribution to global greenhouse-gas emissions. As the impacts of a warming planet intensify, African nations are confronting a range of serious challenges, including increased frequency and intensity of droughts and floods, rising sea levels threatening coastal communities, desertification and land degradation, loss of critical biodiversity and ecosystems, and heightened health risks associated with extreme weather events.
For instance, the Horn of Africa has been enduring a prolonged drought, with Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia facing severe food insecurity and water scarcity (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2023). In West Africa, coastal communities in Senegal and Nigeria are struggling with rising sea levels that are eroding shorelines and displacing populations (Niang, 2014). Meanwhile, Southern Africa is experiencing increasingly severe cyclones, like those that caused widespread destruction and disruptions to essential services in Mozambique and Malawi (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2022).
These climate-related impacts disproportionately affect the continent’s most vulnerable populations, particularly those living in poverty (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2022). Poorer individuals are more susceptible to extreme events, disruptions, and shocks, such as health hazards, epidemics, natural disasters, conflicts, and economic downturns, and they possess fewer resources to cope and recover.
Action on climate change presents significant benefits and opportunities in the fight against poverty. However, it paradoxically tends to leave the poor behind. While the poor are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on the continent, they also contribute significantly to environmental degradation: Their heavy reliance on subsistence agriculture, charcoal production, and unsustainable fuelwood harvesting exacerbates environmental deterioration.
Additionally, many individuals in poverty may be unaware of climate change and its effects due to a lack of access to news or information. This lack of awareness is problematic, as it inhibits the initial steps needed to implement climate-change mitigation measures. Individuals who do not understand climate change and its impacts are unlikely to adopt environmentally friendly behaviours, engage in efforts to mitigate the threat, or demand urgent climate action. They may also fail to understand how their actions contribute to the problem, continuing with environmentally harmful practices. This lack of collective acknowledgment regarding their role in either contributing to or mitigating climate change results in fragmented efforts to limit its impact. The poor may also lack climate efficacy, or the belief in their ability to contribute to climate-change mitigation. Numerous studies have consistently shown a positive correlation between perceived efficacy and climate-friendly behaviours (Angill-Williams & Davis, 2022; Heath & Gifford, 2006; van Vugt & Samuelson, 1999).
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
This analysis of Afrobarometer survey data examines the relationship between poverty and climate action. The findings reveal that only about half of Africans are aware of climate change. Awareness varies widely across countries and is particularly low among poorer individuals. Despite experiencing the harmful effects of climate shocks most acutely, the poorest citizens are less likely to believe that ordinary people can play a significant role in addressing climate change. This highlights a critical paradox: Those most affected by climate change are often the least equipped or inclined to take action.
Edson Ntodwa Edson Ntodwa is a senior research associate.