Global Issues Insight

Climate & Community Blog – Post #3
Published: November 20, 2025 – Africa Industrialization Day

Today is Africa Industrialization Day, marked under the theme:

“Transforming Africa’s Economy through Sustainable Industrialization, Regional Integration and Innovation.”

It’s a perfect moment to talk about climate change, energy, and justice across Africa’s 54 UN member states—from Northern Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan and others) to Sub‑Saharan Africa: Western, Middle, Eastern, and Southern Africa.

Africa straddles the Equator and both the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, stretching from the Sahara and Sahel in the north to the rainforests of the Congo Basin and the savannas and coasts of Southern Africa. Yet across this whole geography, one pattern stands out:

Africa is warming faster than the global average, despite contributing only a tiny share of global emissions.

1. A Continent Warming Faster Than the World

The latest IPCC and WMO assessments show that:

• Surface temperatures in all African regions have risen above natural variability, and the rate of warming is generally higher than the global average.
• Human‑caused climate change is now the main driver of these changes, layering onto existing challenges like poverty, conflict, and inequality.
• Extreme weather and climate impacts are now touching “every single aspect of socio‑economic development” on the continent—agriculture, water, health, education, infrastructure, and more.

In 2024 alone, 18 African countries faced acute food crises, with millions pushed toward hunger by droughts, floods, and other climate extremes.

And yet, Africa has historically produced around 3–4% of global CO₂ emissions, far less than regions like North America, Europe, or East Asia.

This is climate injustice in real time.

2. Different Regions, Different Climate Risks

Africa is not one story—it’s many. Here’s a quick tour through the main subregions you listed, and how climate change is hitting them.

Northern Africa: Heat, Water Stress, and a Hotter MENA

Northern African countries like Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia are part of the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) climate region.

A recent WMO report finds that MENA temperatures are rising at about twice the global average, and 2024 was the hottest year on record for the region.

Key impacts:

• Prolonged and intense heatwaves, with temperatures over 50°C in some areas, threatening health and productivity.
• Multi‑year droughts in countries like Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia after repeated failed rainy seasons, hitting farmers and water supplies.
• At the same time, extreme rainfall and flash floods in some years, a “climate whiplash” pattern of swinging between drought and deluge.

Western & Middle Africa: Sahel Droughts and Deadly Floods

In Western Africa (countries such as Senegal, Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, etc.) and Middle Africa (including Chad, Cameroon, DRC, Central African Republic and others), climate change is driving:

• More frequent and intense droughts in the Sahel, threatening rain‑fed agriculture and pastoralist communities.
• Increasing extreme rainfall and flooding, like the deadly floods in and around the African Great Lakes and the Sahel during 2020–2023.

These events repeatedly destroy farms, roads, and homes, pushing millions into food insecurity and displacement.

Eastern Africa: From Drought to Flood – the Horn of Africa

In Eastern Africa (including Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan, etc.), climate extremes have been brutal.

Between 2020 and early 2023, the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and neighbors) endured the worst drought in at least 40 years, after five failed rainy seasons.

Attribution studies show:

• Human‑caused climate change made this drought at least 100 times more likely than it would have been in a pre‑industrial climate.
• Tens of millions were affected, livestock died on a massive scale, and hunger soared.

Then, when the rains finally returned, extreme floods hit parts of East Africa, killing hundreds and wiping out homes and crops—another example of climate “whiplash.”

Southern Africa: Drought, Crop Failure, and Climate “Whiplash”

In Southern Africa (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and neighbors), WMO’s 2024 climate report highlights:

• Prolonged droughts in countries like Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, leading to crop failures, low river and reservoir levels, and power shortages in hydropower‑dependent areas.
• Episodes of intense flooding, like the Eastern Cape floods in South Africa in 2022, which scientists link to the changing climate along the east coast.

Across all these regions, climate extremes are hitting food, water, and livelihoods at the same time.

3. Energy Poverty Meets Climate Ambition

Here’s the paradox at the center of Africa’s climate story:

• The continent contributes only around 3–4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is among the most vulnerable to climate impacts.
• At the same time, around 600 million people in Africa still live without access to electricity, most of them in Sub‑Saharan Africa.

Energy poverty means:

• Clinics can’t refrigerate vaccines or power medical equipment.
• Students study by candle or kerosene lamp, if at all.
• Women and girls spend hours gathering firewood for cooking and lighting, breathing unhealthy smoke every day.

According to the International Energy Agency and the World Bank, Sub‑Saharan Africa is home to 8 out of 10 people globally who lack electricity access, and progress since the pandemic has been painfully slow.

So Africa faces a double challenge:

How to expand energy access and industrialization for development—without locking in new fossil fuel pollution that worsens climate change.

4. Africa’s Renewable Power Potential (and the Funding Gap)

The good news: Africa has some of the best solar and wind resources on Earth.

• Africa holds roughly 60% of the world’s best solar resources, yet it currently has only about 1.5–2% of global renewable power capacity, and received just around 2% of global clean energy investment in 2024.
• In 2023, renewable capacity grew faster than fossil capacity on the continent, and solar imports to African countries hit record highs—20 countries broke previous records.

Still, the International Energy Agency estimates that energy investment in Africa (about USD 110 billion in 2024) is not nearly enough, and a big share still goes to fossil fuel projects.

We also know that:

• Nearly two in five Africans lack electricity, and reaching universal access will require billions more in public and private finance every year, directed toward clean energy and grid expansion.

Despite these barriers, inspiring examples are everywhere:

• In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a solar mini‑grid in Goma is replacing diesel generators, cutting costs, improving safety, and helping small businesses thrive—even in a conflict‑affected area.
• Community solar and clean‑cookstove initiatives are spreading in Kenya, Rwanda, and other countries, mixing climate solutions with health and gender justice.

These are the seeds of sustainable industrialization—industry powered by clean, reliable energy instead of fossil fuels.

5. Youth, Cities, and Movements for Climate Justice

African youth are not passive victims in this story. They’re leading.

Across cities like Cape Town, Nairobi, Lagos, Accra and beyond, young people have organized school strikes, marches, and campaigns demanding climate justice and a just energy transition.

Organizations and networks of African youth climate activists are:

• Calling on wealthy countries and corporations to pay up for loss & damage and adaptation finance.
• Pushing back against new coal, oil, and gas projects that threaten local communities and ecosystems.
• Promoting community‑based solutions like tree‑planting, regenerative agriculture, and solar cooperatives.

In many ways, Africa’s cities—Lagos, Nairobi, Cairo, Johannesburg, Dakar, Accra, Addis Ababa—are becoming testing grounds for how to combine climate resilience, energy access, and economic opportunity.

6. What Can We Do From Outside Africa?

If you’re reading this from another continent, you might be wondering: What does this have to do with me?

Quite a lot, actually. Here are practical ways to connect:

a) Learn from and amplify African voices

• Follow African climate scientists, journalists, and activists on social media.
• Share articles, podcasts, or videos produced by Africans about their own climate and energy stories.

When we talk about “saving the planet” without listening to those on the front lines, we repeat old patterns of colonial thinking—the very patterns that shaped today’s inequalities in the first place.

b) Support a just energy transition, not just “green tech”

• When donating, look for organizations that combine clean energy, access, and justice—for example, projects that bring solar mini‑grids to rural communities or refugee camps, not just big export‑oriented projects.
• If you’re able to vote or lobby, support policies that increase climate finance and debt relief for vulnerable countries, including African states.

c) Clean up your own energy footprint

Africa’s climate impacts are in part driven by emissions from elsewhere.

• Push your school, city, or workplace to adopt renewable energy and energy efficiency.
• Avoid banks, pension funds, or companies that are still pouring money into new fossil fuel projects when alternatives exist.

d) Bring Africa into your local climate conversations

For a campus or community project, you could:

• Host a panel or film screening for Africa Industrialization Day or another UN day, focusing on climate and energy in one African subregion (e.g., the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, or Southern Africa).
• Partner with African student associations or diaspora communities to co‑organize events or fundraisers for specific on‑the‑ground projects.

7. Questions to Reflect On

To wrap up, here are some questions you (or your class) could discuss:

1. Africa is warming faster than the global average but has contributed comparatively little to climate change. What does climate justice look like in this context?
2. How can African countries expand electricity access and industrialize without repeating the fossil‑fuel‑heavy path taken by other regions?
3. What specific actions can people in high‑emitting countries take to support a just energy transition in Africa—beyond simply “going green” in their own lives?

Africa is often portrayed as a victim of climate change. But it’s also a place of innovation, leadership, and possibility, from solar mini‑grids in the Congo to youth climate marches in South Africa. How the world responds to Africa’s climate and energy challenges will say a lot about whether we’re serious about a fair and livable future—for everyone.