Climate change in Africa: Impacts, adaptation, and policy responses

Abstract

African countries have been among the least historic producers of global carbon emissions, yet they are among the most vulnerable to and impacted by global climate change. Climate change is profoundly impacting African countries in a multitude of ways including exacerbating water stress, damaging agricultural harvests, affecting lifestyles, and amplifying gender and other dimensions of inequality. Beyond such direct impacts, socio-economic consequences of climate change are impacting governance on the continent, as well. With current levels of external debt, rapid urbanization, social inequality, and pressures on agricultural land, the number of people living in rural poverty and informal urban settlements continues to rise. Many of the latter, in turn, are in constant danger of floods, and lack access to sustainable livelihoods, potable water, adequate food, health care, electricity, sanitary and solid waste disposal, and other fundamental services. Climate change exacerbates internal and external human mobility across the continent; endangers families and communities; and threatens African ecologies, economies, and political stability. How are policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders responding and adapting to climate-related threats in Africa today? This Special Issue highlights the work of African scholars and others in examining and interrogating current trends, dynamics, policies, and developments in response to climate change in Africa. The seven papers utilize multiple levels of analysis, draw from various disciplinary perspectives, and examine climate change related accomplishments and challenges of diverse countries across the continent. While these contributions generally interrogate the policy response to the climate crisis, most are specific in their framing and analysis. This introduction characterizes the impact of climate change on Africa; highlights each article’s key contributions and discusses implications of their findings in the context of electoral dynamics and climate policy discourse in Africa; and discusses some possible future directions for scholarship and policymaking on climate change in Africa.