Is climate change a problem for Africa?

Mathew Otieno

November 07, 2023 2 Reactions

Not even on the environmental front is climate change our biggest challenge. No sane person who walks through a typical African city – especially in the places where most of the people live – hops across open sewers and squeezes past mounds of trash so toxic even flies fear them, can come out thinking that climate change is the biggest threat facing Africans.

Though catastrophic weather-related events like flooding in cities can be blamed on climate change, in Africa, such floods will most likely happen because drainage infrastructure is blocked by trash or doesn’t exist in the first place.

The challenge of keeping our land, water and air clean is much worthier of our leaders’ attention than climate change. Solving it will reap much greater dividends for the quality and dignity of African lives than anything any country on the continent can do to combat climate change.

And it is something that African governments can do on the cheap, without having to wrangle US$100 billion from rich world taxpayers. Unlike fixing the climate, which has never been done before (so that no one can say with certainty that they can do it), dirt has been handled all over the world. The blueprints exist.

Corruption

This is not to say that climate change shouldn’t receive attention. Rather, I mean to point out that the rich world created this problem – and defined it as an existential one – and must now solve it. This poor continent is already absorbing all your carbon dioxide; we are already doing our part. You’re welcome.

And, of course, it should go without saying that, to the extent that it is possible, African countries should not pursue development paths that exacerbate the climate crisis. But this is hardly a priority for the continent and shouldn’t be thought of as one, not even if a bunch of African leaders gather to try and make it seem like one.

Don’t fall for it. They are just looking for more money to steal.

There is no better argument for this than the leaders’ own lifestyles. Consider Mr William Ruto, the President of Kenya, who hosted the event. To demonstrate to the world how serious he was about climate change, the good man drove himself to the venue in a tiny electric car, leading a convoy of electric cars, with outriders on electric motorcycles.

By that afternoon, however, he was back to his usual train-long convoy of imported air-conditioned gas-guzzling SUVs and big-engine BMW outriders. Since the summit closed, he has been gallivanting endlessly around the planet in a presidential jet. He was last spotted at another climate summit, this time in Brazzaville, in the Republic of Congo, from which we can expect a similar declaration to be issued.

If we are going to fight the climate, maybe Mr Ruto should start cycling to his office (or drive that tiny car every day). It’s only three kilometres from his house. Actually, he should do it even without thinking about the climate. The money he would save us would be worth a lot more than the forfeited emissions.

The same goes for his fellow African leaders.

Mathew Otieno is a Kenyan writer, blogger and a dilettante farmer. Until 2022, he was a research communications coordinator at a university in Nairobi, Kenya. He now lives in rural western Kenya, near the shores of Lake Victoria, from where he's pursuing a career as a full-time writer while concluding his dissertation for a master's degree. His first novel is due out this year.

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