POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE: WHY SHOULD AFRICA MITIGATE?

Year 2016, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 91 - 105, 01.12.2016

T. S. Madzivhandila F. Niyimbanira

Abstract

In pursuit for sustainable economic growth, developed countries have constantly
rejected proposals to reduce gas emissions from their economic dependent
industries. For those countries who accepted or seem willing to mitigate, progress
has been somewhat snail paced. On the other hand, developing countries have
also raised concerns for the need to accelerate economic development of their
societies faced with high rate of poverty, unemployment and many other social
ills. Furthermore, because of weak infrastructural and socio-economic base,
developing countries argue that they are already faced and forced to deal with the
burden of responding and adapting to somewhat visible impacts, consequences
and aftermaths of climate change related events and disasters. The complexities
surrounding this reasoning, has hampered progress towards successful climate
change mitigation. For developing countries, particularly those in Africa, the
challenge is to comprehend the notion that putting efforts to control human
induced climate change may impact and limit socio-economic transformation of
the society. Even though these countries experience direct impact of climate
change induced heat waves, floods and drought which are forcing them to
inevitably improvise adaptation strategies. On the other hand, developed countries
have continued emitting according to unchanged patterns of their unfettered
consumerism and production while imposing limitations on developing countries’
access to environmental resources and pushing them to adopt mitigation
processes. The paper argues that the responsibility to curb gas emission and
ultimately mitigate climate change should be vested to developed countries,
whose economies are dependent on industrialisation, which is a worse emitter of
gasses thought to be causing climate change. Developing countries should be given space to develop their economies and accelerate socio-economic change without any limitation and derailing tactics towards climate change mitigation. Furthermore, the latter need to be given support to activate strategies and practical activities to respond and adapt to the consequences of climate change. The paper concludes that acceleration of economic growth and ultimately economic development in Africa will not only have positive effects on people’s wellbeing but will contribute positively to the efforts towards current climate change adaptation needs and those that will emerge in the future

Keywords

Climate change, politics, mitigation, adaptation, economic development, Africa