Research by Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute reported that from 1990 to 2015 the contribution of cumulative carbon emissions by the richest 10% of the world’s population (63 million people) was around 50%, while the poorest 50% (3.1 billion people) were responsible for 7% of cumulative emissions.
With regard to this carbon inequality, it is important to note that the effect of a supposed 1.5 degree increase in temperature makes things highly uncertain in Africa, and this is due to unreliable data and inadequate monitoring systems.
It is therefore essential for Africa (an extremely vulnerable continent, with some of the most vulnerable communities) to focus less on decarbonization and concentrate more on adaptation and resilience, to reduce exposure to risks that are mostly unknown.
In fact, reducing carbon emissions in Africa might not make much of a difference on the global share of emissions. On the other hand, focusing on prevention and adaptation would yield savings due to less loss and damages from climate risk.
This is important because funds are already limited in Africa. In the Paris Agreement, people pointed out the need to support the global South financially in order to fund adaptation. However, this is not happening at a rate that would allow African countries to be better placed to navigate climate change.
Therefore, we believe that it is important to use the resources that are most accessible to. This includes learning from women, the youth and indigenous communities and sharing human and knowledge resources. This way, we could find African solutions to this very African problem, while providing new jobs (which is another major problem here).
If we managed to reduce Africa’s vulnerability, this would have a very positive impact on a large portion of the world’s vulnerable population.
Moreover, most African livelihoods are dependent on agriculture. Climate change (through floods, drought and increased temperatures) affects dramatically food production, often leading to food insecurity. Therefore, relying on and developing further climate "smart" agriculture would increase the resilience of farmers and safeguard their livelihoods.
Stella Nyambura Mbau