FIGHTING CHANCE

Confronted with the twin pressures of climate change and economic malaise, African countries are taking matters into their own hands. By blending traditional practices with modern innovation, they are crafting homegrown solutions. Their pragmatic resilience offers a blueprint the rest of the Global South would do well to follow.

- Charles Mangwiro, Mozambique Mekonnen Teshome, Ethiopia Cyril Zenda, Zimbabwe Maina Waruru, Kenya Amindeh Blaise Atabong, Cameroon Kizito Makoye,Tanzania Rivonala Razafison, Madagascar Gankama Durly Emilia, Congo Absalom Shigwedha, Namibia with Kiran Pandey and Richard Mahapatra in Delhi

THE IRONY is hard to miss.

Going by each country's share of cumulative historical emissions from fossil fuels, sub-Saharan Africa has contributed just 1.9 per cent of global emissions. And most of that came from South Africa (1.3 per cent), while the remaining 48 countries together contributed just 0.6 per cent. Yet, the region is a hotspot of the planetary climate emergency.

According to an analysis by Washington DC-based Brookings Institution, seven of the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries in the world are in Africa. As the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released in August 2021, poignantly put it: "Over the past 60 years, Africa has recorded a warming trend that has generally been more rapid than the global average...the climate has changed at rates unprecedented in at least 2,000 years." In fact, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), one in every three deaths from extreme weather, climate or water-related stress in the past 50 years occurred in Africa.

The year 2024 was either the warmest or second-warmest on record for Africa, accompanied by devastating floods, droughts and marine heatwaves, states wmo's "State of Climate in Africa 2024" report, released in May 2025. Estimates suggest that the continent is highly likely to cross the 1.5°C warming threshold by 2040, accelerating devastating impacts on Africa's agriculture-dependent populations, who are already experiencing significant losses due to climate change.