Nigeria’s former Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), has said that Africa’s climate change experience is a paradox.
He stated this in Lagos recently at the 23rd S.L. Edu Memorial Lecture, tagged Greening Africa’s Economies: Can Climate Positive Growth Deliver Prosperity? which was organised by the Nigeria Conservation Foundation.
He stated that Africa was the least emitters of dangerous gases yet are the worst affected by its devastating effects.
“Despite our relatively negligible emissions, our continent is warming faster than the continents of the global north whose past and current emissions are largely responsible for the climate crisis”, he said.
Osinbajo stated that climate crisis is not Africa’s only existential challenge, the other is extreme poverty, which include unemployment, food insecurity, severe infrastructure deficits and of particular importance, energy poverty, which essentially means lack of access to energy, especially electricity and clean cooking fuels is crucial in this context because it
further deepens poverty by inhibiting any real growth or job opportunities, he said.
“He stated that Africa’s 1.3 billion people are serviced by an installed capacity of 244 Gigawatts which is less than the 248 Gigawatt available for Germany’s population of 83 million. Over 950 million people have no access to clean cooking fuels and Climate change will push an additional nearly 40 million people in sub-Saharan Africa into chronic hunger by 2050”, he said.
Africa can either be the nemesis of the world or the solution to the climate crisis, depending on how we choose to develop. So, to achieve its net zero ambitions, the world needs Africa to take a carbon negative path to development, or put simply, the world needs Africa to develop without increasing carbon emissions, he stated.
He stated that Africa can help the world meet its net zero targets by developing on a green pathway or what is described as Climate Positive Growth. This will create jobs, and wealth and deal with extreme poverty, he said.
He said a climate growth paradigm for development was essential as Africa has climate competitiveness. Our economies will do better than most if we go green, this is especially so as the world increasingly pays for climate solutions through consumer preferences, a price on carbon, or rules that force a shift to lower-emission solutions, he stated.
“Indeed, being late starters to industrialisation and our low carbon footprint can actually be an advantage, enabling us to develop greenfield clean energy manufacturing, saving us the cost of abandoned legacy carbon intensive manufacturing projects, and by pursuing an industrialisation pathway using renewable energy, of which we have 60% of the world’s potential, we can develop the first green industrial civilization”, he said.
Osibajo stated that massive green opportunity lies in agriculture as Africa holds over 65% of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land, offering immense potential for building food systems and guaranteeing food security.
He mentioned that industrial agriculture contributes to almost one-third of global emissions, and that Africa’s Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly stemming from agricultural activities, are among the fastest growing emissions globally, so there is a need to adopt climate-friendly and sustainable farming methods or climate-resilient agriculture.
The Chairperson of the NCF’s National Executive Council, Justice R.I.B. Adebiyi, expressed the foundation’s commitment to environmental conservation while urging all stakeholders to adopt sustainable practices to combat climate challenges.
